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hats
@PhilPub
Good plan. I'm hoping to refer a club mate for sub-3 pacing (2 x 2:29 marathons this year, I'm a little envious!) but otherwise the other regular pacers I know have been very reliable the last couple of years I've done it. Re: the 20 mile race, how much of it are you planning on running at target pace? IMO the whole distance is too much cos even if you recover OK for VMLM itself it can tire you out too much for the rest of your training. Max I've done is 15 miles (3 laps of 4 at Finchley 20), that was hard enough and a good indicator I think.
I've also planned a more running-focused routine compared to last time and just this week kick-started that routine by increasing my running doubles from 2 to 4 x/week (Monday through to Thursday). I think the introduction of 2 x doubles last year improved my fitness significantly, so I'm hoping to get a similar effect from another step up, and that weekly mileage totals I previously thought a bit daunting will be manageable...
First draft:
Key sessions are:
(a) Sunday long runs: A mix of time-on-feet and more intense long runs incorporating race pace (MP)
(b) Thursday "tempo" sessions: Either continuous tempo runs working around MP or "threshold intervals" (typically mile reps with short recoveries). Battersea Park refers to a training group I'm intending to do some of these sessions with.
(c) Tuesday interval sessions on the track: I'll do whatever standard session is on (typically 8k of reps between 400m - 1 mile, or the odd hill rep session) but with an additional 2/3 miles @ MP as a warm-up. I'll try to keep a lid on the effort for the reps, as this is just a weekly opportunity to run quicker than race pace; Thursday is more of a key session.
Paddock Wood HM is my main target warm-up race. I've raced HM three weeks out, the last couple of times, so it's a good indicator comparison for marathon form. I've got a few cross country races but I'll train through these and treat them as hard (!) training runs. Bath HM is semi-training through, will be a good marker for Paddock Wood.
TL;DR - Shit loads of running to do, looking forward to the taper already. :)