Project Good For Age Week 23 of 30
Goal : Automatic Entry Into the London Marathon
How? : Run a 3:15 Mara @ Manchester Mara in April (Current PB 4:45)
First Step : Run a 45 Minute 10k @ Windmill 10k race on 12th November (achieved) (10k time at start of project : 58 mins) www.fyldecoastrunners.com/uploads/5/2/4/9/52490083/w10k3_overallresults_classic.pdf
Second Step : Blackpool half mara on 18th Feb – PB 1:58 Target 1:37 – Actual 1:43 www.fyldecoastrunners.com/uploads/5/2/4/9/52490083/gnw_overall_2018_2.pdf
So on the back of blackpool I took an entire week off training last week to recharge.
I have eaten, drunk and done literally whatever the hell I wanted and I have to tell you, it felt fukin amazing to be able to do that.
I am starting to feel like my old self again.
Now that the dust has settled and I have had the time to reflect on what happened last week, I have to admit, I am annoyed at what I wrote directly after the race.
Yes my target was 1:37 and I came in at 1:43, but I can’t help thinking that I missed the point.
The whole point of the post should have been ‘what happens if you train on a treadmill for 10 weeks and then enter a road race in an attempt to smash your PB?’
The answer was that I reduced my PB for the half mara from 1:58 down to 1:43.
That is an awesome achievement.
It’s even more awesome when you consider that everyone said the treadmill is a waste of time and that it would take me at least a year in order to get anywhere near that.
But what lessons do we draw from Blackpool?
For me, there are 4 key points.
First, the treadmill can help with your speed, there is absolutely no question about that, the proof is right there above, despite what anyone will tell you.
Second, the race course, and in particular, the conditions, have a dramatic effect on your performance.
Dramatic..
There is no doubt in my mind that if we would have kept running down on the sheltered walkway at blackpool instead of turning back on ourselves and running up hills into a ridiculous headwind, the result would have been very different.
It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact.
Thrid, You need to learn how to pace yourself in ‘real life’ on the actual course.
My plan was to get Deca Dave to be my ‘personal treadmill’ but it didn’t work.
If you look at the early kilometres, (first 6) the pace was slightly quicker than my target of 4:40, not a million miles quicker, but quicker all the same.
When you factor in maintaining that pace up hills (even little ones) and into a headwind, which we had to do early doors, that s where I came unstuck.
So it’s blatantly obvious to me that whilst speed work on the mill will serve you extremely well, learning how to run nice smooth 4:40 kilometres on my own in ‘real life’ on the ‘actual course’ is absolutely fundamental to my success.
Fourth – And this is the one that makes me laugh more than anything.
This blog has a hardcore readership with a certain number of loyal followers each week.
They read, but they don’t say anything, they are silent observers.
I adore their loyalty.
Yet whenever it’s race day, my readership goes through the roof.
Thousands flock to the site to see ‘what happened’
They cant be arsed reading the ‘how’ (training each week) they just want to cut straight to the chase, discover the result and then read the magic sentence that will transform their performance overnight.
Here’s the thing that I have learnt….
Everyone is looking for the magic pill.
Everyone wants to discover the ‘great secret’.
But the fact is, there is no magic pill.
There is no ‘great secret’ to speed.
Yes, I have found that there are certain simple things you can do in order to increase your speed.
But the truth is…
You need to work at it.
You need to dedicate yourself to it.
The question is, am I prepared to dedicate the next 7 weeks of my life chasing this impossible dream?
In my opinion, if I’m going to run 3:14 at Manchester, the half needed to be 1:37 really as a bare minimum and it needed to be a nice smooth 1:37 at that.
The fact is, it came in at 1:43 and it was anything but a nice smooth 1:43.
What will I decide to do?
I’ll let you know next week.
To Your amazing journey…
Like this article? then you will love this book!, it’s all about how I went from zero fitness to completing an Ironman triathlon, it’s only just come out but it has got some fantastic reviews already!- you can check them out here: (also available on Amazon in the US but please read the UK reviews first!)
