A third of the way there – progress so far

In coming up with Lucy’s training plan, we settled on a 29-week plan, which was essentially “I’ll start once holiday is over”. Almost 7 months is a long time, and longer than any plan I’ve previously seen, and one could argue it wasn’t essential to start quite so soon, but conversely Lucy had only been comfortable running 5km, and slowly at that, so the progression required is substantial though Lucy’s focus remains on getting round the marathon safely, rather than on any attempt to run it quickly.

So we’re at the end of week 9 – not quite mathematically a third of the way, but jolly close and with the end of the second month as well it’s a good time to review progress.

Purely numerically it’s been a success: Lucy has moved to four-times-a-week running for the first time, and done that for each of the nine weeks. Just getting four runs in every week is a success – it sometimes requires careful planning either of the run or of other elements of life, but planning is key, followed by determination to do it even when the desire flags a little.

Distance run has been increased: the length of the longest run of the week was increased from her normal 5km up to 10km (a slow one beforehand, and then a 10km race), and cumulative distance/time on her legs has increased – October was her furthest run in a month, and was then beaten by November. December is a little bit of consolidation before we up things again into January.

Pace remains very satisfactory – most of the distance remains deliberately very slow and easy, which is absolutely the right strategy and will enable distance to be further increased when we get to January. But there have been faster bursts in other runs, and some of the intervals in track sessions have been very brisk. Lucy’s deliberately very slow pace for the moment remains faster than her target marathon pace, which is slightly unusual, and in a faster runner might be a sign that the “long slow runs” were too fast, but for the moment I’m comfortable that it’s right – when we get to very long runs in the Spring then even slower might be appropriate, but we’ll see how the extension of distance goes along with growing fitness.

Average effort, if we use the proxy of heart-rate, is in a good place, down 10 beats per minute compared to 2022, which is what we want – most of the time it shouldn’t be anything like all-out effort, but something rather more sustainable.

The table below shows the four runs for the first 9 weeks, with the top (bold) row being the provisional plan, and the underneath what Lucy did – there were a couple of substitutions, but generally the plan was met or exceeded – especially with the Wednesday evening track sessions which I didn’t make enough allowance for in trying not to be too bold for Lucy, and I’ve learnt from that in planning the next third.

2-8 Oct	30 mins 30 mins	20 mins 5km (track)	20 mins 31 mins	5km 20 mins
9-15 Oct	30 mins 30 mins	20 mins 45 mins	20 mins 20 mins	6km 1.3km then Thornham Walks parkrun
16-22 Oct	30 mins 30 mins	30 mins 7km	20 mins 20 mins	7km Chalkwell Beach parkrun
23-29 Oct	30 mins 30 mins	30 mins 50 mins (track)	20 mins 30 mins	8km 3.5km then Kettering parkrun
30 Oct to 5 Nov	30 mins 30 mins	30 mins 55 mins (track)	20 mins 25 mins	10km slow 5km then Clacton parkrun
6-12 Nov	30 mins 30 mins	20 mins 40 mins (track)	10 mins 15 mins	10km race 10km Victoria Park – Personal Best
13-19 Nov	10 mins 20 mins	30 mins 60 mins (track)	30 mins 30 mins	6km 1.3km then Wisbech parkrun
20-26 Nov	30 mins 30 mins	30 mins 50 mins (track)	20 mins 30 mins	8km 3.5km then Markshall Estate parkrun
27 Nov to 3 Dec	30 mins 30 mins	6km (track plus) 5.5km (icy)	20 mins 20 mins	6km 1km then Felixstowe parkun

We’ve fleshed out the second “third” of the training plan, through to the end of week 21 (ending 25th February) – Lucy’s running club’s Tarpley 10-mile race on 25 February has been an important milepost from the start. We’ve decided to have another 10km “race” on 6th January as a virtual race, since 25 February is a long way off.

Looking further ahead, we’ve got Lucy in for a half-marathon on 17 March in Milton Keynes, with me doing the 20-mile version on the same course – a bit less personal crowd support for Lucy but a good mental test, and a check regarding carrying her nutrition which will be necessary in London as we can’t rely on always seeing her crowd support there (me).

It was frustratingly difficult to find a half-marathon on the right weekend where the cut-off time wasn’t too quick for Lucy (or which didn’t put undue pressure on her) and we ended up cheating the system (with the encouragement of the organisers) – the Milton Keynes 20-mile starts at 0950 and the Half Marathon at 1045, both being an initial section, then either one or two laps as appropriate, followed by a final section – but those running the 20-mile who don’t reach the start of the second lap by a cut-off time are not allowed to do a second lap and are turned towards the finish instead, with the result that they run a half-marathon distance.

Although I don’t think they particularly envisaged people entering the 20-mile with the deliberate intention of not getting to the cut-off point in time, in practice it seems an eminently sensible approach, and the organisers were very happy with it. I should pass Lucy a little before the end of her first lap as I near the end of my second (with my 55-minute head-start), to give her a good cheer and maybe run with her for a few metres – not quite the mobile rent-a-crowd as at Victoria Park (and hopefully London) but a little uplift at a challenging point of the race, I hope.

So, progress so far is excellent – distances extended, pace good, effort just right, no signs of injury, enthusiasm and confidence quietly and subtly growing. Game on!