Half Training for Stratford

I am currently (April 2016) "in training" for the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon. April 24th, I will be in the marathon. My training... is for the first half.

I will be in the marathon. My wife will be in the half marathon. My wife follows a training plan. I follow my wife's training plan. So I am following a training plan to run a half marathon.

Oh dear.

Still... There is a cut-off for the marathon. I must finish a loop -- the half marathon loop -- within two and a half hours, or be sent off. That is, if I am too slow, I will be sent to the half marathon finish rather than on to a second loop.

On the bright side: I am training for that first half of the marathon! If I can do the half within the allowed time, then I will be allowed to complete the full marathon. There's a cut-off for the complete marathon, of six hours. My slowest ever marathon was just under six hours. I should be okay.

So I'm only half trained. Why?! And, what do I do towards a full marathon training plan??

I do try to do more than my wife. I run faster and harder, on most training runs. About 10% faster and harder. I look for hills, where my wife avoids them. It's not much.

Marathon training should involve twice as much training as half marathon training! Perhaps not that much more. A lot more, at least. I should be running -- a few weeks before the event -- thirty or more kilometres on my long runs. I run less than twenty.

Here's the problem: I do not go training.

Rather, I do not have the drive, the self-motivation, to go training by myself. My wife goes for a run, I go for a run, with my wife. My wife goes for a two hour run. I go out with her, for a two hour run. On the days when my wife does not go for a run... I do not go for a run.

I tried! For a couple of weeks I went out by myself, running fifteen kilometres each time. Before I could build up the distance -- I stopped.

When we go for a fun run, I do enter the longer courses. The last few months, we have entered the Perth Trail Series runs. Five runs, I entered all five, in the long course. My wife does the short course -- or just the regular runs of her training plan. I get the extra distance. With the extra hills.

Those hills are essential to my excuse for a marathon training plan. Hills add stress to legs, this equates to extra exercise for the same horizontal distance. Extra effort, almost as good as extra distance. So I claim :-)

I also -- for a few weeks -- ran the "half" training runs with a backpack. I carried a 12kg backpack as I ran, running for the same time as my wife. Same logic as for hills training: extra weight, extra effort, builds extra running strength in my legs.

The Trail Series runs are also part of my marathon training. As I see it.

This is the third year that we have entered Perth Trail Series events. The first two years, each event was treated as a targeted fun run, with extra training, peaking, tapering, then the run. This year, each run is just a part of my programme. Just a regular Sunday run. A bit longer than usual, a bit tougher than usual... It's almost the equivalent of the longer runs that I should be doing for the marathon!

Okay, the Trail Series runs are no longer than my runs on the half marathon training plan. They are a lot harder: hill climbs and gravel tracks. And I run harder than on a normal training run. (Though all the people who beat me may find that hard to believe.)

On the trail runs, I try to keep myself going. To do more than just jog along. I try to keep up a faster jog. To not slow down when I feel tired... because I know that I can keep going.

The trail runs are tougher. More exercise for the legs and heart and lungs. They are also exercise for the mind. I'm not a fast runner. Even at my slow pace -- my mind wants to go slower.

On April 24th I will be in the Shakespeare Marathon. I am following a training plan for a half marathon -- with some, minor, extras. Physically, I believe that I can finish.

I'm training for a half marathon. Running further and faster than my wife (usually). Where possible, I add a few hills. Gentle hills, where I live. I have also added a few trail runs, with more and steeper hills. Is this enough for the full marathon?

I have also added some mental effort. An attempt to shift my attitude, from "taking it easy" to "this is easy, I can keep going". Will it work?

I have several targets for this marathon. They are, in order of importance: To finish; To finish within the six hour limit; To get a PB (several minutes under five hours). And -- my long term target -- to run a marathon in four hours 30 or less... All without any injury.

I'm confident that I will finish. I believe that I will be "well within" the six hours. I will be surprised if I beat five hours. I think that four hours 30 is still beyond me.

I will see how I go. See how I run a marathon after a half marathon training plan. And -- perhaps! -- adjust future training plans accordingly :-)