Back Into Full Training

I am now throwing myself back into full marathon training, which is just as well as I have a very hectic marathon schedule looming.  My original marathon plan for the next three months was as follows:

13 August - North Downs
25 September - New Forest
2 October - Loch Ness

However, as I mentioned in my previous posting, the North Downs Marathon now clashes with a friend's birthday celebration, so I've opted to do the Pathfinder Marathon in Cambridgeshire on Monday 29 August instead.  In addition, I have also decided to run the Grafham Water Marathon on 18 September.  This marathon has only just been added to the race calendar, and the opportunity to run in a local marathon in its inaugural year was too good to miss.  Of course, I could have decided to do this instead of New Forest, but this also gives me the chance to visit my family in Hampshire.  I'm also keen to see how I cope with running three marathons on three consecutive weekends.  There's also something appealing in finishing the year having run 13 marathons instead of 12 - a baker's dozen, as it were.

So, following the last marathon two weeks ago, I had a week of just ticking over, which mainly involved running with clients and the Sweaty Betty running club.  I started my training again last Tuesday with a 5 mile tempo run around Cambridge Airport.  On this five miler I averaged a pace of 6 minutes 28 seconds per mile, with two of those miles run at a pace of 6 minutes 16 seconds.  Given that it had only been 9 days since the marathon I was very happy with this pace.

Since last Tuesday I haven't run more than 10 miles on a single run, but I have been trying to focus on pace with each run, trying to run bursts at 6 minutes 30 seconds per mile or faster.  So far it's all going well and my legs seem to be doing fine. 

I've also been doing quite a high volume kettlebell training over the last two weeks and have managed to do more work with a 20kg kettlebell than ever before.  However, I had a brief workout on Sunday and afterwards all felt fine.  But a few hours later I reached into a cupboard to get a carton of fruit juice and my neck and shoulder on my right side went into spasm that then remained a little painful for a good 36 hours afterwards.  How does that work?  Lifting 20kg is fine, but a 1kg carton of juice ends up causing a minor injury!  Fortunately, it all seems fine today, but I think I'll give it a little rest before trying anything to strenuous with a kettlebell again.