Countdown to South Downs Marathon

The big news this week relates to the arrival of race day information for the South Downs Marathon on June 11th.  I always knew that this was likely to be a tough marathon, but an inspection of the course profile, along with prospect of the race being on a very warm day, left me feeling a little apprehensive.

The marathon has been divided into four sections.  There is a checkpoint at the end of each section, which coincides with a road crossing.  I'm not too concerned about the first two sections.  The first section steadily climbs from 200 feet to about 700 feet over the first 4 miles, but you then run along a ridge along the South Downs Way before descending back down to 400 feet at the first checkpoint.  The second section also climbs quickly to about 700 feet followed by roughly 4 miles of fairly level running along the top of a ridge line before another quick descent to the second checkpoint.  It's the next two sections I'm concerned about.  Section 3 has another quick ascent, followed by 5 miles of undulating running.  Then the final section seems to be the most undulating section of the lot, and it finishes 200 feet higher than the start.  I think I'll be taking this one nice and steady from the start and opting to walk up several of the hills.

This week has been fairly busy training wise.  You might remember that I injured my right shoulder in the week before London Marathon, back in mid April.  It was only this week that I've felt that I could start doing some serious kettlebell training with it again.  So on Tuesday I set aside some time to have a good kettlebell workout.  I did lots of two hand and one arm swings at first just to check how my shoulder felt, then I started some snatches and military presses.  I started the workout with a 14kg kettlebell and then moved up to a 16kg bell, I didn't feel as if I should push my luck beyond this after several weeks of not using the bells so much.




Kettlebell one arm swing



Kettlebell Military Press

I've also run every day this week, except today, one way or another.  On Tuesday I ran with two clients; a gentle one in the morning and a not so gentle one in the evening.  On Wednesday I did my own interval training session, which I kept fairly short, but this was followed by putting the Sweaty Betty ladies through their paces.  I had them doing lots of short sprints with very little recovery time.  It was a tough session which had them complaining in all the right ways.  I think most enjoyed it, really!  I then followed this with an 11 mile run yesterday morning.  Since Monday the weather has gradually got warmer with each passing day.  By the time I finished my 11 miler yesterday I was a puddle of sweat.  I then did another quick kettlebell session this morning, focusing mainly on core specific exercises.

I hope to do a short run tomorrow followed by another kettlebell session.  On Sunday I'm toying with the idea of doing a long hill training session in preparation for the South Downs the following week, but I suspect I've left it a little late to do any serious hill work.  I'll see if I can persuade some friends to go to Royston hills with me.