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I started my training for the 2015 London Marathon in late November 2014. I was training with club mate, Spencer Mogridge and with both of us targeting 'Sub 3' we had decided to team up on our training when and where possible.
This meant most of my long runs were with Spencer and mainly early Sunday mornings from his farm. Long runs started with steady 12/13 miles and over the weeks built up to 16/18 miles slowly building speed, with the last couple of runs increasing to 20/22 miles.
Midweek training would consist of 6-mile recovery run on the Monday after the weekend long runs. Tuesdays, I would train on my road bike in the garage on rollers - I found this really worked for me as it kept my fitness very strong with less pounding on my knees.
MY LITTLE SECRET.
Wednesday and Thursday's saw speed work or hill sessions.
On a Friday, I would generally do a gentle run with rest on Saturdays.
Then the week would start again.
During build up to London I had planned a number of keys build up races, these were planned training races at marathon pace. Below are the highlights.
Got my first Sub 1:20 HM at Bath with a 1:19 - which felt great.
Also in November 2014, I carried out my dream marathon - the NYC MARATHON, which so far is my best running experience. Bloody amazing!
All this whilst juggling family life and full-time job.
NOT EASY.
I had great support from my wife Paula and my two boys Callum and Reece, not forgetting my running club Dorset Doddlers, with great advice from our coach Ian Pollard who also gave me a sports massage when needed.
This was my second attempt at a sub 3, for London in 2014 couldn't quite manage it with a painfully frustrating time of 3 hours and some stupid seconds - I think they got the times wrong…
My nutrition during training was based on mainly eating healthy with no alcohol. I aimed to drink plenty of water at work and would leave water out on route for those long training runs.
During the last week of training/taper, I used Beet-it shots, which I think taste like crap but would highly recommend.
The morning of marathon just had my normal breakfast porridge and a banana, which worked for me but might not for everyone else.
During the race I didn't use gels, this was mainly due to that they didn't agree with me in 2014, so instead I used Clif Shot Bloks. I found these a lot easier on the stomach and easier to take than the gels and I also had a pocket of jelly babies and drank water through the marathon BUT I made sure not to drink too much!
Marathon day weather was perfect, not too hot or cold, no wind - perfect sub 3 weather and I'm happy to report, it all went to plan with a time of 2:59:07.
