Marathon Monday’s- Week 2 of my Journey to The London Marathon
So something amazing happened this week, someone actually asked if I was going to blog my week of marathon training.
Wow !
This week Michele has been busy in the background securing us a hotel for the London Marathon Weekend and at a decent price.
So we will be spending a few days in the big smoke and staying in the heart of Westminster, near enough at the end of the marathon
So this Journey to the London Marathon is a real team effort
here is my week in review To help keep me on track :-
Monday| Week 2 | Rest Day
Distance: Plan – 0 | Actual – Nil – Nada – Nothing
Steps Walked: 11,000
Our final full Monday shift done, hopefully next year normal service will resume and we will be back to our semi retired lifestyle
The negativity of low season at a campsite is that the amount of comings and going drop off, so this weeks steps are massively down
Tuesday| Week 2 | Rest Day
Distance: Plan – 0 | Actual – Nil – Nada – Nothing
Steps Walked: 13,264
Another 10.5 hour shift,So no running but I am fairly happy that given another week, our winter break starts and I can really start to smash out the easy miles
Wednesday| Week 2 | Speed Workout
Distance: Plan – Speed Work out | Actual – 2.56 miles at 8:49 per mile
Steps Walked: 12,686
The headline number don’t tell the whole story This run was a 400m at pace followed by 2 minutes rest, repeated 5 times – umm
The Hanson plan is based around two weekly Runs(during full training) which are Something of Substance (sos)- but the first few weeks of my extended plan allow me to get used to this type of workout
Thankfully as it’s Marathon training the SOS are to be run at betweeen 5k and 10k pace

My problem is that all this structured running is new to me, so I went out far far to fast hitting the first 400 in 6:05 mile pace – about a minute faster than my normal 5k pace – oops!
Thursday| Week 2| 4 Miles Easy pace
Distance: Plan – 4 | Actual – 5 miles at 8:48 per mile
Steps Walked: 20,671
A very cold and very dark club run around the lanes of Street and Walton.
I really wanted to get some amazing action shots to put in this blog, but it was dark as a dark thing and took all of our efforts to dodge the puddles.
It is thanks to the people that make clubs like this up and down the country tick over, planning routes and bringing people together.

I’m not sure that I would be anywhere near motivated to go out on a dark freezing cold evening all by myself……
Friday| Week 2 | 6 Miles Easy pace
Distance: Plan – 6 | Actual – 5.04 at 12:08 per mile
Steps Walked: 23,602
So this sone is becoming a weekly stable in my running schedule as Michele almost badger me into running a 5 miler with her.
Two weeks ago she had never been passed 5k and we started off increasing the distance by running for 10 minutes and walking for 2.
This time around I almost had to reminder her to stop !
So this week she ran for 20 minutes and then had a 2 minute walking rest

Deep down she is actually enjoying it or was it the new ‘Matchie Matchie’ bargain from ASCI outlet shop in Street ?
Friday Night also saw us taking part in a sponsored 5k night walk in aid of Shelter – who do some amazing work with the homeless
And a few more steps in the bag for me

Saturday| Week 2| 3 Miles Easy pace
Distance: Plan – 3 | Actual – 3 at 10:14 per mile
Steps Walked: 19,347
Way back at the beginning of the week, when the volunteer emails arrived from ParkRun, Michele had decided that she was happy once again marshalling the event, however I had always planned that this Saturday I would run at ParkRun.
Somehow this was lost in translation and I was down to volunteer, so I got up extra early and took beloved Fred dog out for a gentle 5k.
When you look at our dog, you’d think he would make a great running partner, but being a typical male dog he needs a wee on every post,gateway and hedge along the route

But at least it was another 3 miles in the legs
Sunday| Week 2 |Rest Day
Distance: Plan – 0 | Actual – Nil – Nada – Nothing
Steps Walked: 16,373
So Sunday from now on should be a long run day, but as is always the case, sometimes life gets in the way and we had a full day of work planned in, so after 11 hours of emptying Glamping units of pots and pans etc.
We took the rest day to another level and opted for Indian takeaway and a bottle of Pinot!
Fundraising
Donations for the Orchard Vale Trust are coming along nicely and this week over at the Old Oaks Touring Park ww have been holding a aliitle Hamper Raffle – thanks to The generosity of the weekends carnival going guest we scooped a whopping £158 to add to the funds