Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Ramping Up The Mileage

by Russell Turner - 15:28 on 10 April 2023

Week 8 of Race to the Stones training ends tomorrow with a 25k run (that’s 15.5 miles in old money). The plan currently calls for only three runs a week – which increases from Week 10 – but mileage is building steadily, supplemented by a few short walks to keep the legs loose.

The plan is all about distance, rather than pace; there’s no indication about how the runs should be done so I’ve been mostly sticking to easy runs. However, the last couple of weeks have found me making one of them a speedier effort: the Glenlivet 10k two weeks ago and a home 10k yesterday where I aimed for under an hour and succeeded. It was also the first time this year I’ve not run in a long-sleeved shirt. Spring must be here.

Last week’s 22k long run went without a problem, despite 282 metres of ascent, so I’m expecting no trouble reaching a quarter of my ultra target tomorrow (touch wood). Not caring about the time makes a big difference. I’ll have to remember that next time I take on a marathon.

When that will be remains to be seen. I did have Loch Ness pencilled in, very faintly, in October, but a wedding gig has appeared the night before so that’s unlikely to happen, and there are no other marathons on dates not clashing with gigs, cats or other races. Maybe it’s time to begin planning for 2024.

Which means the only marathon I’ll do this year (apart from the two in training for RTTS – a marathon as a training run! How did that happen?) is the virtual London, now less than two weeks away, when I’ll combine the four scheduled Week 10 RTTS runs into one. I’ll probably keep it reasonably flat, though

In the previous five years I’ve built up to the big day, whether for a real race or a virtual one. This time it’s coming around with no fanfare, no nerves and no expectation apart from extending my London Marathon medal streak to six. The cunning plan is to cover 6.2 miles while I’m fresh then four lots of 5 miles with four ultra-style pit-stops for water and snacks (and the Garmin left running – no cheating on the time).

RTTS Week 9 is a cut back week of just three runs: 10k, 5k and 10k, so I even get a taper. It will be a breeze.

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