Further thoughts...

Having reviewed some of the suggested training schedules and advice offered from various sources on the Internet, the verdict on what went wrong with me not finishing my 20-mile run this morning seems to be...

• Don't do 3 runs of over 10 miles at near your intended marathon pace within 8 days.
  
  
• A training run that is both very long and near marathon pace isn't something you should do. Save it for race day.

I think that with only 4 or 5 weeks to go until I'm meant to ease off, I was trying to fit too much training into that time. The 12 and 15 mile runs last week were confidence boosting because they showed me I can run those distances at around the pace I aim to do the marathon at; I ought to have left it there instead of trying to push that same pace up to 20 miles - because failing to do so ruins the confidence boosting effect! The general guidance seems to be that runs of 12 miles or more should only be attempted once a fortnight and you should spend the rest of the time working on other things. My problem is that as this is my first marathon I don't have the confidence to trust the advice knowing that I won't be under-trained when the big day comes... but today I'm learning why I ought to!

Lovely Liz (the wifey) has bought be some new running shoes, having done about 300 miles in the existing pair, so I'll try those out on the next run.

David
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That didn't go too well

Today I set out for my 20-mile run. Having done a 15-mile run last week with the second half faster than the first, I thought I'd set out at the same pace I set out at then.

It all felt fine... for about 4 miles. After that, my legs started feeling like they'd done 4 miles or so more than they had. By 7 miles instead of feeling relaxed and in control I was really feeling it and running with a one-speed gearbox. I was passing my front door after 15 miles and decided that was enough.

The first 5 miles was about 40 minutes and so was the second; the third was 43 minutes. 2:03:04 in all. If I'd had to stagger through the last 5 miles (i.e. it was race day itself) I could probably have done so, but not today. Hmmm.

So what went wrong? Last week I did the same course in 4 minutes less, only 2 days after running 12 miles. Maybe I'm still recovering from that. It was quite humid in the first hour today; maybe I should have slowed a little to allow for that. I've not had great sleep the last 3 nights, and eaten too much fatty food. Maybe I shouldn't be trying to do 20 mile runs at this pace anyway during training - the main aim of a 20 mile run is just to build up endurance. I think overall I was just a bit too ambitious, and hopefully will learn to be a bit more cautious. Ah well. Press on!

David
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15 clockwork miles

I was hoping to run 15 miles on Saturday, but the other events of the week don't make that very convenient. So it was today, or not at all.

I decided to see if I could run 15 miles at 8 minutes per mile - the pace at which I did 12.1 on Tuesday. This would be a good test to see if I could maintain the same pace at a slightly increased distance, and to see if my legs had the endurance to do so only 2 days later. This may be about the pace I aim for on the marathon itself so it would help me know how feasible that was. Plus it would take about 2 hours, which is the minimum you need to run if having a training run to increase endurance (or so saith the Internet, anyway).

I've only run a distance of exactly 15 miles once before, 6 weeks ago today. That was the first time I'd ever run further than 12.1 miles. Then, I did 3 laps of the hilly circuit, but I'd like to be able to move my knee joints again before mid-September - so that didn't seem like a good option. Instead, I ran 5 miles up the A6, then back, and then did a lap of the hills. Happily someone's removed the rotting adult badger from the back road - the stink was getting so bad it was getting difficult to avoid heaving!

As far as the timings went, it was almost clockwork. I was within a few seconds of the overall pace throughout the first 11 miles, and then there was a very slight acceleration to get home in 1:58:58. The first 5 miles were done in 39:38, the second in 40:21, and the third in 38:59. This time was 13 and a half minutes faster than when I did this distance 6 weeks ago - over 50 seconds per mile. From about half way, I could feel in my legs those 12.1 miles I did on Tuesday, and the last 4 miles felt very tough; I got a stitch, my hips started whinging, and the big hills called me nasty names as I ran up them (I think). My knees felt pretty good though, and the watch kept telling me that the pace was being maintained. All in all, today's run was a real confidence booster. 9 and a half weeks to go!

David
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