32 weeks to go ...

Overall it's been a good week of training.
Managed to do some training most days and at times managed to double up sessions.
Week one looks like ...

20^th November  2011 Sunday. Target - Coniston Marathon 26.2 miles,  42.2 kms. Targets 9 ish min miles. Time total about 4 hours. Weight 11 stone 7lbs.
32 WEEKS OF TRAINING TO GO
1 week of training      Weight 11stone 7lbs                                           G, A, B – Good, Average, Bad

SUNDAY	Run - Hambleden hill	6 x 1000	G	Ran with Nick – Steady run after a 21st
MONDAY	Exercise bike 45 mins + weights, arms and shoulders + 250 body weight squats		G	Tension on bike at 30 out of 50. Revs at 80 1st 10 mins, then upped the tension and revs to 90+ continued 45 mins. Weights, concentrating on arms and shoulders. 250 body weight squats in sets of 50.
TUESDAY	Badminton + 250 body weight squats	1hour	G	1 hour of badminton – speed session. Weights, concentrating on arms and shoulders. 250 body weight squats in sets of 50.
WEDNESDAY	Exercise bike 45 mins			Tension on bike at 30 out of 50. Revs at 80 1st 10 mins, then upped the tension and revs to 90+ continued 45 mins
THURSDAY	Badminton + 250 body weight squats	1hour	G	1 hour of badminton – speed session. Weights, concentrating on arms and shoulders. 250 body weight squats in sets of 50.
FRIDAY	Weights, arms and shoulders + 250 body weight squats		G	Weights, concentrating on arms and shoulders. 250 body weight squats in sets of 50.
SATURDAY	250 body weight squats		G	Weights, concentrating on arms and shoulders. 250 body weight squats in sets of 50.
20th – 26th				A good week, capped off with a good 7.5 mile run – felt strong

Overall an OK week – need to get another run in midweek – Thinking of a hill session on Wednesdays or a long ish run with hills involved. That will give me 4 runs a week, 2 to 3 bike sessions, need to use the stepper more, squats every day, try to add a set of 50 every 2^nd week. Weights, arms, shoulders, back and used for squatting.

Nick, the person running the marathon with me has also filled in a training diary, see below.

 20^th November  2011 Sunday. Target from today Coniston Marathon 26.2 miles  42.2 klms. Targets 10min. Miles total 4hrs,24min. Weight 13stone 6lbs.
32 WEEKS OF TRAINING
1 week of training      Weight 14stone 7lbs 2 ozs  

SUNDAY	Hambleden hill	6 x 1000	ND	Ran with Mark
MONDAY	No Run		D
TUESDAY	Liver hill	5 x 800	ND	First 4 laps 7min 47sec./ ran with Dave
WEDNESDAY	Marl Pits	1 x 1	D	4 laps of marl pits Gail 11min 6sec / joined gym / started diet  = G good  - A average  - B over eat
THURSDAY	Liver hill	5 x 800	ND	Slow run with Dave / diet G
FRIDAY	No Run		ND	Rest day G diet
SATURDAY	No Run		D	Rest for long run Sunday – Party night G diet
20th – 26th		17 miles

Weeks training-  Weight 14stone 6lbs 2 ozs  I have eaten like a sparrow all week to lose 1lb. Great first week with running  eating and yes less drink.. Will take four weeks to get fit for running

Setting a goal

Setting goals is vital to good running, or so I believe and I've wanted to run some serious miles for a while, but not on roads! - We've run the 3 Peaks in Yorkshire a few times, but never a race.

Recently received some terrible news regarding a pupil at school.
Due to confidentiality, can't say much at the moment, but the news isn't good.

Anyway, the plan is to raise some money, so Nick and myself have decided to run the Lakeland Trail Marathon on the 1st of July next year.
The idea is to get a number of sponsors, who we will display on our running tops as we run / attempt to run the Marathon.
I've been looking to run an organised Marathon for a while now, in particular one that is off road and when we found out the news, we put one and one together and hence - The Lakeland Trail Marathon.
Next year will only be the second running of the LTM, so it is very difficult to find out reports, thoughts, details of the course, heights etc. What I have been able to find is a few reports, most state it is one of the hardest runs people have done! - Time will tell.
Apparently the first 13 Km are all uphill.

So that's the goal - Run just over 26 miles, who knows how many feet of climbing, over trails and fells and raise a fair amount of money for such a good cause on the way.
I would think that most of the next crop of write ups will be based towards and on the Marathon training schedule.
My main concern is over training. At the moment I feel like I might be doing too much but we'll see.
Both Nick and I will diary our weekly sessions to see who, how much, diet, cross training etc.

Should be an interesting few months!

The winners time for last years LTM was over 3 hours, so must be pretty tough!!

One of the only images I can find of the race is below -

In the background is 'The Old Man of Coniston'

Link to the Marathon website is HERE

Training so far ...

Training has been ticking steadily over.
Most days have involved training of one form or another.
At times I have doubled up sessions given the opportunity.
At weekends I've tried to get a good run in with Nick in the morning and then at night, spend anything between 40 minutes and 60 minutes doing turbo training on the exercise bike.
In between these sessions I've done quite a bit of body weight and dumb bell weights.
I've also tried to do squats on a daily basis - These are in minimum sets of 30, maximum sets of 50, completing anything between 200 and 500 a night. I was reading an article from one of the older body builders who said he did squats daily and found it had a big impact, not just on leg strength as you would expect, but core strength and running up hill.
Having done these higher impact sessions now for a couple of weeks, I am definitely stronger running up hills. I feel that I can run a lot further at the moment with less effort - a good feeling!
However, I do feel more tired than usual.
This is probably due to three weeks of more intense training without really having a day off.
I think I'll continue training this way until after the weekend, then look to take a few days off, the body needs time to recover before I get some form of injury.
It has been a good few weeks of intense training and the results in improved performance and feeling generally stronger in all areas are great.
A few days off and back to it again.
Looking forward to a good run this weekend.