It is Official

After a lot of soul searching I decided to back away from London (unless I get a lottery place). Instead, I stayed up late to get the early bird pricing for Brighton 2021!!! https://www.brightonmarathonweekend.co.uk/enter-brighton-marathon/ This will be my first time running in Brighton and I am very excited. Now I have purpose in my training. 

Weekends sometimes Get away from you

So, I was supposed to run 1.5 miles this weekend for my long run. So, how did it go? Well, Saturday was a rest day. Did I rest? Not quite. I demolished a 60 foot fence then built a new one. Finished it on Sunday. Needless to say it was a really good full body workout. I did feel a little guilty about missing my run. I plan to make up for it today (a rest day).

My younger brother Mike, a serious runner, well Iron Man, suggested I use MFA 180-age. I took a look at it and for my age I should be training at 129BPM. Certainly will mean I need to slow down my runs since on the last one I was at 156. Should be interesting to see what a difference it makes. I will need to retrain my body to run a bit slower, but if I can achieve it, it could make a lot of difference to my long races. What it means is that as an example if I can achieve 10 minute miles at 129BPM, then eventually it could drop to 8 minute miles (something I did last time I trained for a marathon, the difference being my BPM was low 160s). If I can get my body to do this, race pace could be as low as 6 - 6.5 miles per minute!!! I don't expect to get there but it is certainly an interesting way of running. What it means is this long run takes on more importance. Instead of concentrating on pace I will be concentrating on BPM.

I'll update this post after the run, to let y'all know how well I did.

Ok, so back from a 1.5 mile run. I did manage to control my pace and apart from a 30 second downhill part where my BPM went to 143, the rest of the time it hovered around 129 and 130. It meant I wasn't out of breath, and I feel really strong. Overall a 9:47 pace.

As you can see, I had to slow myself down over the last half mile to keep around 129bpm. It will be interesting to see if I get faster over the coming weeks. Overall, I feel so much better than on other training runs. 

Couch to Marathon

Ok, so I completed a marathon in 2017 so why am I starting right from scratch? In 2017 I don't think I was truly prepared for the marathon. For a few days after I had incredible trouble going up and down stairs. For the next few years I really didn't do much running and when I started this year my legs were too out of shape. So this time around I decided to act like I was a total beginner and start right at the beginning. This was after signing up for the Alzheimer's Research UK's Triple Challenge. Still, the swimming and cycling part of that will be my cross fit days:).

So, Couch to Marathon. What is it? It is a 24 week program that takes you from 0 to marathon in a controlled manner. The program started as Couch to 5K, then 10K, 1/2 marathon and marathon. Needless to say the marathon follows the 5K, 10K, 1/2 etc..

So, this is week 1. So glad we are still allowed to run outside, otherwise laps of the back yard would not be fun.

Monday... Rest Day (nailed it!!!)
Tuesday the fun began. 2 minutes walking and 1 minute running. Repeat 10 times. Cool, I took a half mile walk to a nice rubber track. Then I power walked 2 minutes, ran a pretty quick 1 minutes and repeated. I did a very slow 2 minute walk towards the end when I got a phone call, but finished in 30 minutes and covered 2.9 miles. I was out of breath, sweating and by Wednesday was sore. This was not what it was supposed to be like. I had flash backs to 2016 when I pushed too hard to soon and got injured. I am determined to not let that happen again. I need to slow down, build up the miles, then when I am stronger I can add a little pace.
Wednesday... Rest Day (nailed it again!!!)
Thursday (Today) Back to 2 minutes walking and 1 minute running. Repeat 10 times. It was perfect weather, 68F. A slight breeze. I walked to the same track, then consciously made sure I didn't push myself too hard. It felt so much better. Hardly broke a sweat. 2.7 miles in 30 minutes. My maximum heart rate was 12 beats lower than on Monday. Tomorrow brings the first Cross Training session which will be on the stationary bike. Then on Sunday my first long run, a whopping 1.5 miles. This is going to take a lot of patience and determination, but this program will get me ready to do a few marathons before England 2022.

Sign me up, I must be mad

Never say never, just one of my misguided beliefs. So, shortly after the London Marathon in 2017, actually the day after I was in a pub with a group of high school friends (I left high school in 1985) drinking more than a few beers when one of them (Sian) told me that she wanted to run the marathon in 2021. Why so far away? Well, Sian had to have an operation on her leg. Then she had to recover from the op, then she, like me in 2016, had to become a runner. I don't think I have quite managed to get her to understand the enormity of the task in hand. In about 15 months we have to go from 0 to 26 and a bit miles. I still live in Texas and she lives in England. Maybe a movie would help... Brittany Runs a Marathon. If you haven't seen this movie it is well worth a watch. Maybe writing up a training schedule. Maybe if I started running again it could encourage her to start. After all I know that starting is the hardest thing and until you have several good runs under your belt you don't get hooked.
So, now onto my race. Like normal I've had several ailments that have stopped me running but I am back to almost full health so this weekend I will start my training. Where I went wrong last time was only getting to 18 miles in training. So when I stepped on a bottle at 18 on the day, I went down, spraining my knee. That cost me over an hour and I finished in 5 hours and 2 minutes, full of so many emotions. So this time I plan on doing at least 26 miles (in one run, not over the whole training). I've also learnt that core strength is important so I'll add swimming to the mix (have to anyway as I'm going sailing this summer). I'm 51 now, so don't expect too much from this sad old dad, but I'll give it my best shot and hopefully raise a lot of money for my Children's Charity Phab Kids. That's right, I'm running for the same charity as last time. So please put your hand in your pocket and donate.

So, let's make this year a great year for the amazing kids and donate at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AndyTateLondon2021