A Full Marathon Training Week
I am in such a negative head space today.
I can't shake myself out of it. Sometimes you have a good run.
Sometimes it's a piece of shit. Berlin feels so
close and I feel nowhere near close to
being ready for this.
Never count yourself out until you get to the race day.
Welcome back to The Running Channel. I'm Anna,
and this is the Quarantine to Qualifier series where, with the help of adidas
and some very special experts, I'm training to run a Boston marathon
qualifying time at Berlin marathon in September.
So in this episode, what can you expect?
I will be going through what I eat in a day.
What a full week of training looks like.
And I've got some help and advice from someone who's very well versed in
running marathons. But before all that, make sure you hit subscribe,
tap the bell icon so you get notified when we upload new videos all about running.
And first off I'm going to do a 5K race.
Well well well,
my first race in months, months,
and months and months and months,
I can't even think when the last time I properly raced was. I am
a bag of nerves. I feel sick as a chip.
I've been hydrating all day. It's very warm.
It's 22 degrees at half past 6 in the evening, which, um,
I know a lot of you will laugh at if you're not from the UK,
but that is warm for us. And yeah,
I just feel so nervous.
I think because I wiped my watch clean when I came back from injury and I've
started again from fresh, I don't really know what to expect.
Oh, wish me luck. So nervous.
So sweaty. Oh my goodness me. That was so warm and so hard.
I forgot how hard racing a cross 5K is.
There were some people to overtake, some people who overtook me.
I lost my nerve a little bit halfway,
had a little chat to myself and was like, come on, do this, you know,
you can finish when you stopped. It's 5K, just get to the end. Um, yeah,
I'm buzzing. Absolutely on top of the world, I ran it...
I'll have to do the math, don't leave that to me,
but I'm pretty sure I ran it about 2 minutes quicker than I thought I was going
to. Um, but anyway,
I can't stop and chat because coach wants me to do a nice 5k jog, uh,
as well, this evening as part of my training so better get stuck in. So,
part of team Anna is having a nutritionist to help me with
what I need to be eating,
to fuel my runs and my training as I take on this marathon
challenge.
And a lot of people commented on episode two saying that you'd quite like to see
what I eat in a day to get some tips for yourself about what you can eat too.
So I'm going to kick off with breakfast and it's rice pudding.
Bear with me on this one. Might sound a little bit of a strange choice,
but basically I was having a bit of problems with my
stomach on my long runs. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but yes,
it did involve a stop behind a tree.
So I'd been having overnight oats for my pre long run breakfast and
Alex Cook the nutritionist who is part of team
Anna told me that if you are prone to having a sensitive stomach when you run,
which I know a lot of people are,
sometimes rice is actually better than oats. So I thought I'd give it a go,
but you do need to prepare this one in advance because it takes quite a while to
cook in the oven, but it does keep for a couple of days, which is a bonus.
So check that out for a snack tray.
So I've got some Greek yogurt and fruits, some wholemeal pitta that's been
toasted and some hummus. Got a cup of tea cuz I love tea.
This is so wildly different to what I used to do.
I would grab a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar
or just anything that was really easy and convenient.
That took me six minutes,
I think to prepare. Lunchtime,
And this is the perfect lunch to deliver a really good balance of carbohydrates
and protein and good fats. Dinner time. Now,
I don't know about anyone else, but during marathon training,
I just feel like I am so short on time with all the extra time spent
running, working, walking the dog.
I just need something that's really quick and easy to eat.
Can anyone else relate to that?
So this evening I'm going to be making something really, really simple,
but again has a really good balance of carbohydrates,
fats and protein,
and also lots of nutrients from all the veg. So easy peasy,
chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, pepper,
onion, and some courgettes,
a bit of spice just to make it a little bit tasty,
and this serves two,
so it's perfect to keep for leftovers and that's gonna save me some time
tomorrow as well. Win.
So
just out on a dog walk with Ralph. It's
6:30 in the morning and, um,
I've just had my training through for the week from Andy.
And I think now is the point where the realisation has hit,
that this is,
this is all hard work now from now until the marathon.
Um, training this week is,
it's scary. It's, it's ridiculous because it is,
it's marathon training. Marathon training is hard. So, um,
I tell you what I've got. So yesterday was a rest day. Um,
today I've got 30 minutes easy with, um, 4 100 metre strides at the end.
Then Wednesday, I've got a 60 minute progressive run.
So starting off 20 minutes
easy then 20 minutes at 9 minute miles and 20 minutes at 8:30
miles. Thursday, I've got a session.
So 2K jog warmup, then 16,
60 second strides with 30 seconds jog recovery.
Um,
four minutes recovery after I've completed that set and then 3K
at 5:20 per K pace. Uh,
Friday is a rest day or an easy 30, come on this way.
Saturday, I've got an easy to steady
10K and then Sunday is a 30K long
run. Um, but not just 30K, come on this way.
It is run 10K easy, 10K steady.
And then the last 10K aim for sub nine minute miles.
No rush is what Andy's put.
Good morning.
It is my third run of this week. So it's Thursday.
I've got an interval session to do today after my progressive run that I did,
um, yesterday evening. So I should have got up and done it in the morning, but,
um, I'm feeling really tired. If anyone's trained for a marathon before you'll know
that, just, feeling of always being tired. So,
um, I woke up, uh, well,
I went to bed really early last night, I'm prioritising sleep this week and good
food. So, uh, yeah,
woke up at half past 5 this morning, did a bit of yoga to stretch myself out
and now I've got my intervals session to do. Um,
yeah, it's really hard this week.
And I know that once I've pushed through it,
we'll get on to next week and we're just taking it one day at a time as my
coach has texted me to say quite a few times this week already. Oh,
Ralph, you look like how I feel.
So we're coming to the business end of this training week. I had a lovely rest day yesterday.
And now I'm just out on the 10
K Saturday, easy to steady pace,
whatever you feel. Um,
but it's going to be the hottest weekend of the year so far in the UK,
like 30 degrees or something. So it's 6:00 AM, and I'm not a morning runner,
but I've got to be.
I was so tired about Wednesday-ish,
but I feel like we're re-energised with that rest day.
10:00 PM on a Saturday night. And I am just about to go to bed,
rock and roll. Um, but that is what marathon training is like. Um,
having a social life and marathon training can be quite difficult.
And the reason why I'm going to bed now, um,
is because it's going to be 30 degrees in the UK tomorrow,
and I've got a 30K long run - all the thirties.
And I don't want to be doing that in that kind of heat.
So I'm going to get out. My alarm is set for 4:30.
I'm going to get out and run at 5.
And I think it'll probably take about three hours. Um, so yeah,
going to get a good sleep now, go and get the run done.
Then I'll be home and tucking into second breakfast by half past
8 so, winner.
Don't think I'll be quite so happy about it tomorrow morning though.
Good morning. It's long run day.
I'm a little later setting off than planned.
I managed to sleep through my alarm. I was obviously quite tired,
so I'm just trotting to a local reservoir to do my
long run. I've decided to do four laps
of the reservoir. Just easier to keep
track, keep going.
And I've got a bottle of water in my hand and one in my pack
cause it's gonna be warm.
So I'm gonna stash this so that I can grab it when I need
it. Ooh, tunnel.
I've got some company - there's no one else around,
but all of these geese.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Long run maths time. So I've done three miles,
which is half of the first 10K and yes, I am mixing up miles and Ks,
um, 3 miles first,
half the first 10K, three 10 Ks.
So I'm a sixth of the way there.
I'm 10 K into my long run.
I am in such a negative head space today.
I can't shake myself out of it. Like
this seems really far, I can't hit the paces that have been set,
if I can't hit the paces now, how am I going to run a BQ? Honestly,
like I just want to give up, I just want to stop.
I'm a third of the way there and I'm like,
just get the whole lot done as a minimum.
And I have to keep reminding myself that on actual race day,
I won't have done however many kilometres
in the week leading up to it.
I don't really have any words,
but I just thought I would record something just to
show that sometimes you have a good run.
Sometimes it's a piece of .
I don't know what it is. I just cannot get into it today.
Cannot.
I've been going for an hour and 15, I'm in a lovely place.
It's actually not too warm yet. I've had a gel,
just in case I needed a bit of a oomph,
just
so annoying.
Berlin feels so close and I feel
nowhere near close to being ready for this.
I need some help.
So, Charlotte, help. I need some help.
I'm really struggling with my training at the moment.
I'm 10 weeks into training and I've got 9 weeks until the marathon
and it just feels like it's so close and I'm nowhere near close to being ready.
Like what can I do? Have you ever felt like that? Yeah,
I think like marathon training can feel a bit like a slog. Um, so for me,
I just- you need to remind yourself about the consistency of the weeks.
So rather than looking at like a specific session, um,
and trying to nail that session, it's more about getting each week done.
That's personally what I do. So, um, just all the weeks consistently,
like building upon each week. Um,