I spend a lot of my time running alone, and whist it would be nice to have company these lone times are an important  part of my training process. I spend these times having chats to myself whist I am running.

Now I don’t mean that I am running around town talking out loud looking like a crazy person!!! Just silently having a little convo in my head.

The all consuming topic at the moment is of course my marathon training, all runs are leading to Boston and then of course London just a short six days later. Can I really do this? As I am in my third week of training I can say that at the moment I am feeling confident that I can 🙂 I am really starting to believe in myself and what I am capable of.

Today I had a very up lifting run, 6 miles of intervals 200m sprint x6 one for every mile. Sessions like this are a very important part of the weekly training. It’s not just a case of going out and trudging through 35+ miles a week, the sessions need structure and it’s important that in my mind I have an objective about what each of my runs are bringing to my training.

Speed work to bring my overall race pace quicker, recovery runs to learn to run on tired legs.

Slower paced long runs to teach my body to burn fat as an energy supply.

Hills to build strength in my legs and core.

This weeks schedule is looking like this……

Monday – REST

Tuesday – 6 mile race pace run 8min/mile

Wednesday – Intervals 6 mile with 6 x 200m sprints (1per mile)

Thursday – 8 miles steady (recovery)

Friday – REST

Saturday – Hills 4 miles

Sunday – 12 miles 8.5-9 min/mile fat burn with a1mile fast finish

Total planned 36 miles 🙂

I know once Sunday is in the bag I will be feeling elated and my self belief will be another notch stronger.

It’s not just the body that needs training for such an undertaking, the mind needs fine tuning too. Some of the most prepared athletes can fail at the task that they have set themselves because their mind has let them down. I am totally committed to having my mind as ready if not more than my body at that start line in Boston 🙂

So todays run gave me a little look at my capability at the moment, I felt strong and at times during my sprints I was dipping down under a 7 min mile. Now I am not planning to run my marathon at 7 min/mile pace, I can only dream of this!! But putting my body through bursts of this fast pace will adapt my overall race pace to hopefully lead me to an amazing PB!!

This is my plan.

Of course there is a long way to go and if I can stay injury free then I know it is potentially achievable. I believe that I am capable of beating my 3.30.12 time from Edinburgh 2013.

Importantly, It isn’t just about that, I am so excited about the experience of running Boston, such an epic race. The fact that I was able to qualify makes me proud and I know that this is an achievement in itself. But the PB would just be the icing on an already delicious cake, so we shall see…….