Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) If, like me, you made a decision last year to run a Spring marathon, right about now you’re probably winding down and dreaming about all that free time you’ll have when the real taper starts. As every good piece of marathon literature tells you, it’s not a great time to start cross training or redecorating the house but it’s hard not to fill your hours with some kind of exertion ;-)

With three weeks to go to the Rotterdam Marathon I’ve reached the stage where I only have one more lonely, long run to do. While the training itself has been lonely (running with a heart monitor for the long runs has meant that it’s necessary to run alone) the preparation hasn’t been entirely solo. After posting about the physiological tests I had done back in February, I got a very kind offer of help from sports scientist Nige from Irish Climbing Coaching.

Nige interpreted the results and from that we tailored my training to suit the marathon I was training for. There was only a short amount of time between the tests and the marathon so I couldn’t afford to do anything crazy or drastic in case it didn’t work but so far all appears to be great!! My enthusiasm for the task meant that I overdid it a little with the gym work (and cycling and swimming!!) and showed tiny signs of overtraining, but under advisement from Nige after a couple of rest days I was right back on track.

One thing I was really chuffed about was that he encouraged me to try the long runs at a much higher heart rate than I’d ever attempted before. I’d always taken long runs really, really easy but this new regime dragged me up to a whole new level. Huge confidence boost that was, to know that I could put myself under some pressure and actually keep it going for 3 hours. Another way in which Nige helped is that I got a chance to voice how I felt about certain training sessions and wasn’t just plodding along to a training schedule regardless of how it was affecting me. Cheers Nige for listening to all that whining….. ;-)

There’s no point pretending I won’t be happy with a fast time. This isn’t a “get me round” marathon for me. I’ve jogged around too many to know that I can’t let it happen again. I’ve entered a fast, flat course so I’ll be happy with nothing less than a Personal Best!! I feel like I’ve done enough it’s just a case of how much I’m willing to suffer on the day……

If you’re doing the Wicklow Way runs, Connemara, London or Paris do let us know how you’re training went and what your hopes for a time are!

-Aisling-

Photo is from my flickr set of the Tibradden IMRA race last year.