July Marathon Training

Still managing to keep up with the marathon training. Karen and I were away on vacation and I was a little concerned that it may set us back a little in our training. Fortunately, we were able to fit in some decent runs during our European vacation. Started with a 5km road race in Hyde Park in London. The Serpentine Running Club in London was hosting their "Last Friday of the Month Run" and Karen and I were able to register before we left. Very nice group of people. Their club has well over 1000 members. The next stop in our vacation was Barcelona, where we were able to run along the sea wall next to the beach. Beautiful weather and gorgeous beaches made it easy to combine some training with sight seeing. Finally, we jetted off to Paris where we were able to fit in a 20km run through one of their parks.

Upon arriving home, our next big adventure was a hike in Grande Cache with our Rotary exchange student. We decided to hike leg 2 of the Death Race which entails 27km up and down 2 mountain peaks. Although it was only a hike, the strength training was great for the legs.

Following the hike, we were able to get some shorter runs into the week. Near the end of July, I experienced a bit of set back. Everyone was planning on getting a 30km run in on a Saturday morning. Within minutes, I realized that something was wrong with my stomach. I was able to muscle out 16km before I had to give up. A little food poisoning the night before took me out of commission for the next day, curled up in bed waiting for it to pass. It took another 3 days to start eating normally again and definitely no training or any exercise that week.

The following weekend, I tried again. Since everyone had done their long run the week prior, it was up to me to catch up on my own. The group ran 16km and I continued on to reach the 30km goal. If I couldn't do this, I would be behind Karen and the other marathon runners. I felt a little nervous when we started, but soon fell into my zone. I was able to pace myself and reached 30km in just over 3 hours. At the end of the run, I still felt like I had it in me to continue my run. So I decided to take my neices out for a short 2km run. They have been wanting to join me, but weren't sure whether or not they could keep up. With 30km behind me, this leveled the playing field a bit. Especially since I had just dropped in on them unexpectedly and they weren't ready to go. The legs tightened up a bit while I was waiting, but in the end, I managed to pull of an additional slow paced 2km. Not wanting to risk injury, I decided to stick with the program and finish on a high note.

So that's where I am as of today. I'm actually feeling like this marathon is definitely achievable. This coming weekend, I'll attempt another long 30km+ run in order to get back in sync with Karen. From this point on, our training will be more focused on the 2 of us. We plan to stick together during the race and it's time to see if this is going to be possible. In order to stick together, our paces will have to be in sync as well as our eating, drinking and resting patterns. With only 6 good weeks of training left, it's time to kick it into high gear.