Marathon Monday’s week 5 in Review
After last week’s nightmare of near zero runs, I needed to get my preverable into gear and make a real start on building up the base miles as its turns out that the 26th of April really isn’t that far away !
So this Journey to the London Marathon stalled a little last week, but were back, maybe not at full speed, but enough to hopefully make a differnce.
Travel and Training might be a little toughter than I had first thought !
here is my week in review To help keep me keep on track :-
Monday| Week 5 | Rest Day
Distance: Plan – 0 | Actual – Nil – Nada – Nothing
Steps Walked: 20478
Our first day in Madrid, thankfully i’d planned in no running as we spend about 12 hours just walking around the sites and smell of this amazing city
if you fancy a read the full blog post is here
P.S. – it contains lots of food !
Tuesday| Week 5| Rest Day
Distance: Plan – 0 | Actual 4.30 miles at 9:43 per mile
Steps Walked: 24,177
Another day of Madrid’s sights, but I was deterimed to get a run in, in my head I wanted to swap todays rest day, for tommorows run…..
So as soon as we returned to the van, I donned my traniers and headed off up a spainish dirt track.
This was also the first outing of another new pair of trainer’s, god this marathon running is getting expensive !
Either way, I managed to follow the track, hit the paved roads and loop around for an easy paced 4 miles.
Wednesday| Week 5 |5 mile Easy Paced Run
Distance: Plan – 5 miles easy | Actual – Zero
Steps Walked: 12,850
Having swapped over the rest days to allow for the fact we planned travel today.
Thursday| Week 5| 4 Miles Easy pace
Distance: Plan – 4 | Actual – 6.01 miles at 9:11 per mile
Steps Walked: 29,590
A great run, i’d looked on Google maps and sort of worked out that if I just kept turning left that i would somehow manage to wizz around the outer edge of Toledeo’s old city walls.
What I failed to take into account was the fact that there was a stunning river and large cliff like drop, meaning only one thing for the route, the first half was up and, up and up a little more up…….
This run really highligted the joy of it all, the air was cool and crisp, but once moving it just felt right.
and the views !
Friday| Week 5 | 6 Miles Easy pace
Distance: Plan – 6 | Actual – Failed
Steps Walked: 13,840
Another day of Travel, we left Toledo early ish ( well before 11am) and set off for the 500 km drive down to the coast, add in a few road works and the fact that we are driving a campervan, meant that the jounery didn’t end until late afternoon.
The prospect of a cold beer, sat by the sea won out, so I can offically chalk up today as a fail on the running front, but a win when it comes to a cold beer and a few Tapa.
Saturday| Week 5| 6 Miles Easy pace
Distance: Plan – 6 | Actual – 8 miles at 9:20 per mile
Steps Walked: 30,409
Well we have offically stopped !
One of the things we have learnt about travel a while ago is that occasionaly its nice to stop ! – yes its great vooming around sight seeing all day everyday, but there is more to life.
At the end of the day were on Holiday and for me at least this London 2020 Marathon Project is reasonably important and needs a little dedication.
The site we have stopped on is a few hundred meters from the Mediterranean Ocaean, so i would almost be rude, not to drop down on to the sea front and soak up in the beautiful vistas as I clock up the miles.
The Plan sits to run 6 easy miles, but I was in the perfect frame of mind, so the 6 turned into 8 and if Michele hadn’t called to say that she’d just bought Fresh Crossaints from the local baker it would of happily become 10….
Sunday| Week 5 | 3 Miles easy
Distance: Plan – 3 miles | Actual – 3.04 @ 12:32
Steps Walked: 20,467
Michele woke up and actually said she’d like to go for a run !
Its her first in a long while, so the fact she succesfully covered 5k made up of a bit of run/walking was a massive start- hopefully she will want to come out again very soon !
It might have been a little slower than my easy pace, but at least it was another 3 miles in the legs and more importanly we shared some of my run time toghther.
Fundraising
Donations for the Orchard Vale Trust are coming along nicely, I know its not a good time of the year to be asking for your pounds and pennies, but its just ture that ‘every little helps’ – even if can only spare 50p each time someone donates it helps change peoples lives.
Paul.