I thought a few of you might be interested to hear some background and a report from the London Marathon this year:
Since my first marathon in 2012 I've knocked a reasonable chunk of time off year on year. Since returning to the UK and running Edinburgh in 2015 in a time of 2:52, I've averaged a drop of around 8 minutes per year for London. The most significant being 2018 going from 2:35 to 2:27 - was this 3% improvement purely down to buying into the Nike VaporFly hype?
While I'm sure that the magic shoes certainly helped, increasing my training from an average of 40 miles per week to 50 probably played a part too. I was pretty sure I still had a quicker time in me so doubling my training volume seemed like a pretty sure-fire way of achieving that. That or horribly injuring myself in the process....
After loosely following the Advanced Marathoning plan by Pfitzinger and Douglas previously, I decided that I would be pretty disciplined in sticking to the 18 week +85 programme. This involved double running days for around half the period, and zero planned rest days for the entire duration. The programme started conveniently with 2 runs on Christmas Eve. I may have been a little over-enthusiastic with 43km on New Year’s Day including 2 parkruns, but everything else was pretty close. Fitting 100 miles a week around work and normal family life did require a bit of planning and discipline. I'm fortunate with having a nice route to work so can incorporate all of my week-day miles into commuting. Weekend runs were generally 5am affairs, often in the dark, to get them done and dusted without affecting normal family activities.
There were a few races scheduled in the programme, and incorporated the 2nd half of the winter cross-country season fairly successfully into the plan, helping my club to win the Surrey League. Also a half marathon at Hampton Court 6 weeks before the big day and the Orion 15 mile cross-country 2 weeks prior. Both of those races went well indicating that I had increased my fitness and was racing well despite a much higher fatigue level than previously. About a month before London, while some athletes were wearing extra layers while training to try and get some heat/sweat adaptation, I conveniently had a few weeks in India with work. There certainly wasn't any need for additional clothing when temperature was reaching 38C!
My goal for race day was to try and finish in around 2:22, and also given that I had just had a major birthday, potentially feature on the V40 podium. This meant running at an average of 3:22/km which was a fairly daunting prospect, but I was going to give it a shot and see what happened. While I had fared pretty well in the warm temperatures of the previous edition, the lovely weather around Easter weekend didn't stay, and race morning dawned with predictions of around 10C. This was pretty much ideal for most, but of slight concern was the 12mph headwind which we would have to contend with for the majority of the course. My previous marathons have all been run as a time-trial, solo running at my own pace, but I suspected that getting into a group would be highly beneficial with the wind, sharing the workload with others. The challenge was then finding the right group to work with - if it was too fast then my legs would be fried and I'd hobble home much slower than planned.
After what I considered to be a sensible start right behind the elites, a small pack of around 6 formed, running at exactly 2:20 pace. While this was slightly quicker than ideal, I thought that it would probably be a similar level of exertion to run protected with this pack than slower solo. There was a bit of turnover in the group, one or 2 dropped back from a faster pack, and a couple dropped off the back, plus an elite joined us having stopped for a portaloo break!
A major highlight for me is always seeing my family during the race. My 3 year old son was sat on his grandfather’s shoulders furiously shaking a cowbell and waving as I passed around Surrey Quays. He was with my 37-week pregnant wife, battling valiantly through the crowds like a trooper! Also my running club had members popping up everywhere cheering. Personally I find the general crowd noise in London rather oppressive after a while, but when someone specifically shouts your name it certainly helps. Apologies to those who cheered and I didn't fully acknowledge, after a while I had retreated into my little bubble to try and focus on the job in hand and block out the pain!
I think there were still 5 of us together at half-way, coming through in 70:03, knocking 5 seconds off my half-marathon PB in the process.... This was not going to make for a particularly pleasant 2nd half, and at 25km I intentionally drifted back from the pack to try and avoid complete premature detonation. I started passing solo runners around docklands shortly after - some very classy runners who on most days I should have been well behind! Kevin Quinn of SLH, Russell Bentley of Kent AC, and around 32km a familiar sight in a Serpentine vest of Andy Greenleaf.
By this time the legs were certainly complaining, and I had slowed considerably from 2:20 pace, but had taken some caffeine and was mentally on the home straight. As soon as I can see the Gherkin I know it's pretty much a straight line to Big Ben and then the finish is just around the corner. According to the statistics, 2 runners passed me in the 2nd half of the race, the 2nd being another SLH runner Dan Gaffney. He caught me with around 500m to go and I had absolutely nothing to respond with as he passed. He had run a spectacular race, and what I probably should have done in hindsight, running my own race at my own pace, and the reality was the wind wasn't much of a factor.
I crossed the line for a chip time of 2:23:08, finishing 10th in the mass start and 1st V40. After spending some time on my hands and knees puking up the gels I had consumed, I felt comparatively alive and nothing was hurting particularly. I had avoided any cramping or GI issues during the race, so perhaps I hadn't fully ploughed the depths of what my body could manage!
Cheers, Rich
Since my first marathon in 2012 I've knocked a reasonable chunk of time off year on year. Since returning to the UK and running Edinburgh in 2015 in a time of 2:52, I've averaged a drop of around 8 minutes per year for London. The most significant being 2018 going from 2:35 to 2:27 - was this 3% improvement purely down to buying into the Nike VaporFly hype?
While I'm sure that the magic shoes certainly helped, increasing my training from an average of 40 miles per week to 50 probably played a part too. I was pretty sure I still had a quicker time in me so doubling my training volume seemed like a pretty sure-fire way of achieving that. That or horribly injuring myself in the process....
After loosely following the Advanced Marathoning plan by Pfitzinger and Douglas previously, I decided that I would be pretty disciplined in sticking to the 18 week +85 programme. This involved double running days for around half the period, and zero planned rest days for the entire duration. The programme started conveniently with 2 runs on Christmas Eve. I may have been a little over-enthusiastic with 43km on New Year’s Day including 2 parkruns, but everything else was pretty close. Fitting 100 miles a week around work and normal family life did require a bit of planning and discipline. I'm fortunate with having a nice route to work so can incorporate all of my week-day miles into commuting. Weekend runs were generally 5am affairs, often in the dark, to get them done and dusted without affecting normal family activities.
There were a few races scheduled in the programme, and incorporated the 2nd half of the winter cross-country season fairly successfully into the plan, helping my club to win the Surrey League. Also a half marathon at Hampton Court 6 weeks before the big day and the Orion 15 mile cross-country 2 weeks prior. Both of those races went well indicating that I had increased my fitness and was racing well despite a much higher fatigue level than previously. About a month before London, while some athletes were wearing extra layers while training to try and get some heat/sweat adaptation, I conveniently had a few weeks in India with work. There certainly wasn't any need for additional clothing when temperature was reaching 38C!
My goal for race day was to try and finish in around 2:22, and also given that I had just had a major birthday, potentially feature on the V40 podium. This meant running at an average of 3:22/km which was a fairly daunting prospect, but I was going to give it a shot and see what happened. While I had fared pretty well in the warm temperatures of the previous edition, the lovely weather around Easter weekend didn't stay, and race morning dawned with predictions of around 10C. This was pretty much ideal for most, but of slight concern was the 12mph headwind which we would have to contend with for the majority of the course. My previous marathons have all been run as a time-trial, solo running at my own pace, but I suspected that getting into a group would be highly beneficial with the wind, sharing the workload with others. The challenge was then finding the right group to work with - if it was too fast then my legs would be fried and I'd hobble home much slower than planned.
After what I considered to be a sensible start right behind the elites, a small pack of around 6 formed, running at exactly 2:20 pace. While this was slightly quicker than ideal, I thought that it would probably be a similar level of exertion to run protected with this pack than slower solo. There was a bit of turnover in the group, one or 2 dropped back from a faster pack, and a couple dropped off the back, plus an elite joined us having stopped for a portaloo break!
A major highlight for me is always seeing my family during the race. My 3 year old son was sat on his grandfather’s shoulders furiously shaking a cowbell and waving as I passed around Surrey Quays. He was with my 37-week pregnant wife, battling valiantly through the crowds like a trooper! Also my running club had members popping up everywhere cheering. Personally I find the general crowd noise in London rather oppressive after a while, but when someone specifically shouts your name it certainly helps. Apologies to those who cheered and I didn't fully acknowledge, after a while I had retreated into my little bubble to try and focus on the job in hand and block out the pain!
I think there were still 5 of us together at half-way, coming through in 70:03, knocking 5 seconds off my half-marathon PB in the process.... This was not going to make for a particularly pleasant 2nd half, and at 25km I intentionally drifted back from the pack to try and avoid complete premature detonation. I started passing solo runners around docklands shortly after - some very classy runners who on most days I should have been well behind! Kevin Quinn of SLH, Russell Bentley of Kent AC, and around 32km a familiar sight in a Serpentine vest of Andy Greenleaf.
By this time the legs were certainly complaining, and I had slowed considerably from 2:20 pace, but had taken some caffeine and was mentally on the home straight. As soon as I can see the Gherkin I know it's pretty much a straight line to Big Ben and then the finish is just around the corner. According to the statistics, 2 runners passed me in the 2nd half of the race, the 2nd being another SLH runner Dan Gaffney. He caught me with around 500m to go and I had absolutely nothing to respond with as he passed. He had run a spectacular race, and what I probably should have done in hindsight, running my own race at my own pace, and the reality was the wind wasn't much of a factor.
I crossed the line for a chip time of 2:23:08, finishing 10th in the mass start and 1st V40. After spending some time on my hands and knees puking up the gels I had consumed, I felt comparatively alive and nothing was hurting particularly. I had avoided any cramping or GI issues during the race, so perhaps I hadn't fully ploughed the depths of what my body could manage!
Cheers, Rich