Marathon update- recent challenges of running in the heat, racing and illness

Update on London Marathon 2022-

Recent Challenges of Racing, beating the hot weather and illness

 

Ok so over the past few weeks, I have been thoroughly enjoying my training and it has been going very well, however there is something which always gets in the way as I will explain later!! I have really enjoyed the structure of the training programme set by sister and coach Abbey, who is also a Physio at Physio Form. The training programme more recently has had more focus on building up the miles, incorporating a longer run day at the weekend of long pace, a tempo style session mid week which is one of the most important sessions in building up speed and pacing, a fast or hill session and another 1-2 recovery heart rate (<130bpm) sessions. The sessions have been hugely varied and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. 
 

In the last month I have attempted a couple of local races to get that racing spirit back again. The recent events have included the fractured marathon which was a team event- covering a marathon distance between 4 of us from 7pm to midnight at the lovely grounds of Calke Abbey on a hot night!!!  Also, I recently enjoyed the Brooksies Bash 10 mile trail race which also happened to be on a very hot day through the beautiful countryside of Derbyshire. I managed to come 4th lady which gave me some confidence and I was very chuffed about.  I felt that my pacing has been going well and overall feeling strong

 

Running and racing in the heat (30-40 degrees C) has been a recent challenge so I have had to adapt my training slightly by swapping the day of training, choosing a time in the day to train- either early in the morning or later at night and taking on board lots of hydration and electrolytes. I have a fab flip-belt which I now use which carries a bottle to keep me hydrated when out running. Also the children enjoyed attending a local training session and came down with water pistols to squirt the runners which was much needed and fun for all!!!

My most recent challenge that has hit me has been a recent sickness bug which meant I could not do my longest run so far. I was really excited and had built myself up to run 15 miles with a friend and my sister but, unfortunately I had to take the wise decision to cancel and rest up!! Over the next few days, I felt very tired and still not 100% therefore having to take more time to rest and recover. I was starting to get concerned that I have lost a good few quality run sessions and that my training will be behind my training schedule. However, luckily with encouragement of my husband, it was explained that this is such a small part of the long process of the marathon build up and it is nothing in the grand scheme of things. It is so much better for the body to rest and recover rather than try to continue to train and lower the immune system further.  Since my sickness bug I have managed to return again to the training schedule focusing on easy recovery HR sessions keeping <130bpm. 

 

Tune in for my next update which will be when I'm away on holiday, finding new paths/runs and attempting the longer runs 17 and 18 miles.