THE LOCKDOWN MARATHON. The Preview – 07/06/2020

“Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.”

Eliud Kipchoge

Well I must be a slave to my mood going by that. My discipline for these blog posts hasn’t been bad… it’s been non-existent. Anyways, everything I wanted to achieve in running this year is going to be a no go (if you’ll pardon the pun) so let’s do something else. Let’s do something to make me a ‘proper runner’.

The Why

Honestly, I am struggling for a proper why. I feel like I’ve had far too much spare time during this lockdown and with spare time I do one thing… run. I was just coming back from injury when a bat decided to cause some fun. I was slowly building my mileage. 20 miles, 30, 40 it’s been creeping up all the way to 80 but it’s all been steady/easy (steasy 🤔?) Meaning the pace work has been… sleazy.

I was getting fed up of running without a purpose, I needed an aim. I’d struggle to get quicker training on my own, so I chose to push myself in a different way. If you’re not on the edge you’re taking up too much room. I thought I’d never break any of my current PB’s (spoiler I have) so why not set a new one? Like a fresher Will Bryan trying to pull on a night out… let’s attempt the impossible.

The Who

It’s a me, William! But what shape is a me in? My mileage has been consistently high now for the past 11 weeks. I have run more back-to-back 70 milers than I ever have in my life. I am trying to make myself 100% lung. I want my resting heart rate to be so low it is slower than that kid who used to lick the windows at school.

Fitness Indicator: 6:41AM Sunday, 31st May 2020, I stood at the Sandbanks end of the Bournemouth sea front. A slight breeze blew into my face, it ran up my short split shorts; my testicles were tickled. Stocksy sat on a bike behind me ready to dictate a pace that had quite frankly been alien to me in preceding months. I drew a breath and we went. Hammering down the promenade I went, focused on meeting the first 16:35 checkpoint at 5K and 16:33 we hit. Utter perfection from the pacer 🔥

Sand lightly dusted parts of the pavement causing some slippage. 16:28 for the next 5K I was feeling good and was speeding up. 10mph is the speed limit down there and like a badass I was breaking it. 16:20 for the next checkpoint and 6K stood in my way. I changed up a gear and let the legs lengthen my gait. I pushed through the finish clocking 1:09:22 for the half and 16:17 for the last 5K smashing my previous PB by over 3 mins. Not to blow my own trumpet (I’ve tried and I can’t reach) but I’m happy with that! Just doing running without focused training has kept me in half decent knick and gives me confidence for tackling the beast.

Oh and now I’ve added some speed work in

The When

The plan is 2 weeks from today. I have many miles in my legs and several 20+ long runs in the last couple of months. I think with a decent taper I can be ready and can run well. This wouldn’t technically be my first full marathon and I have practiced taking on nutrition but you never know until you do it properly. Anything can and will happen. My predicted time is… actually let me know in the comments 👀

Cheers as ever for reading. Lockdown has sucked the motivation out of me and the first thing that went was this page But the last thing will be running.

Lots of love,
Will xx