Putting the miles in for April...

January had been poor in terms of training due to illness, so I really felt like I had to do some catching up in February to get anywhere near some sort of shape for Brighton on 12th April.

My 2015 stats as at 09/03/2015...

As you can see from the table above, up to the 31st January, the longest run I'd managed to get under my belt was only around 8 miles.  Not exactly ideal preparation for a marathon.

So, very much against the rule book of increasing distance up to a max of 10% on a weekly basis, on 1st February I made the decision to run half-marathon distance, just to get the legs feeling a little more tested again.

The target beforehand was to run around 9:30 min/mile pace so was relieved if anything to run the distance a little quicker in 9:25 pace. I stopped for around 60 seconds after before mile 9 as I was suffering from a little discomfort in my left quad, which I managed to relieve a little from stretching. Thankfully the niggle has worn off in due course with no long lasting damage.

Since that run, I havent looked back...

Since 16th Feb, I've managed at least one longish run a week.  So far I've managed 14 miles, 17.25 miles and a not-so-fun 16 miles on the commute home from Whitechapel to Petts Wood.  Although the pace was relatively good considering I'd spent 8 hours in the office beforehand, it was mentally exhausting despite the legs feeling ok apart from the usual little niggles during and after.

Between the long runs, I've been doing some tempo work, trying to build in a little speed over the shorter 7-10 mile distances.

A good example was my regular 7 mile lunchtime loop from work.  Whitechapel, out to Victoria Park in Hackney and back via Bethnal Green.

Its not very often I run 7 miles in under an hour but this was by far the quickest I'd run my lunchtime loop in the best part of a year, as you can see below...

I'm around 12lbs heavier than I was at this point last year but I'm feeling a lot stronger.  Chandra did say back then that I my performances may suffer because I was under a weight that my body could cope with.  Perhaps he was right.  He's usually 99.9% correct about everything else!

For the last 6-8 weeks, I've felt the strongest I've felt in a long time.  Long may the good form continue.

My last run was the Kent AC Sidcup 10 mile road race, my first non-marathon race since the East London Half Marathon in 2013, so that deserves a post all of its own.