I posted about my first week update on the 16 week Marathon training plan that I am currently following a few weeks back! Now I’m well into the program and is at end of week 5. The 16 week Marathon plan has undergone some significant changes since I first published it – the updated version can be found here. This has been due to some valuable feedback from experienced Marathoners and also because of a few *new* events that I have signed up for. First I’ll talk about how the last 4 weeks had gone and then outline the updated plan.
Key highlights:
I do at least 1 or 2 runs of approximately 16km or 22km each week regardless of my long run
I attended the New Zealand Mountain Running camp in week 4 of the plan and ran about 60kms in 4 days with two back to back runs over 2hrs duration
I am recovering faster and can run a 14km run at steady pace
I ran a 5km PB (20:28) at Park Run on week 3
Ran a steady 25km run in just over 2hrs at an average pace of 5min per km
Last weekend (Easter break of 4 days) I signed up to be part of an organised weekend of running in Tongariro National Park. The event was organised by one our club runners Glenn Hughes who has competed in International Mountain Running events representing New Zealand. The biggest draw card for this weekend was that Jonathan Wyatt (six-time world mountain running champion) one of New Zealand’s top athletes of all time was going to be attending the camp! Read his bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wyatt He has an impressive list of wins and also is as far as I know the NZ’s fastest half marathon time record holder in 1hrs 02mins 37secs! Talk about being fast! He is very humble about his achievements and to have him at the camp was just inspirational.
Update from Michael via comment 6th April 2013 – “Rod Dixon is the fastest NZ half runner (1:02:12 in 1981) but Jono is the NZ 10km record holder (28:04 in 1996).”
Camp Recap
The camp was held at Discovery Lodge and scheduled from Friday afternoon with a first group starting at 3pm. Unfortunately I was late leaving Wellington and got stuck in Easter holiday traffic going up North along the coast. However I got to camp and went for an easy solo run in Whakapapa Village. There are so many nice trails to explore! In the end I ran along to a place called Silica Rapids on one of the trails. In the evening we had a great dinner and discussed what the rest of the weekend would look like in terms of running.
Whakapapanui Trail
Saturday morning after breakfast we got transported to start of the Whakapapnui trail which leads all the way up to the top ski field in Whakapapa via the Whakapapaiti Hut. (It’s just end of summer here in NZ so no snow). The plan was to follow this trail and regroup at the hut and then climb up to the ski field area. Of the 14 runners I was the slowest in terms of average pace on trails and climbing. Luckily we formed two groups and I was in the ‘slower’ paced group. Somehow on the way (mainly because I was slow :-)) I got a bit side tracked and lost myself and soon realised I took a wrong turn. Nevertheless I was able to back track and re-join the others who were half way down looking for me. We ended up climbing up to the ski area with some great views over the valley below.
From top of Ski Field
Here is what the trail looked like. Around the 10k mark I took a slight side trip 🙂 Total of about 18ks run.
Elevation Profile for Run up to ski field
I was pretty bashed after that run! At the top we enjoyed some great views and coffee from the cafe!
Running Group with Jono Wyatt and others
That evening we ended up in Owhango where some of the runners did a another trail and went to the Owhango pub for dinner and back to base for a well earned rest and sleep!
On Sunday we set off again and decided to do part of the Tongariro Northern circuit. The trail started from Whakapapa Village and to some degree it was a reverse of The Tussock Traverse event I did in January this year. This was an awesome run of about 22ks, not much of climbing and through some great trails! I really enjoyed this day! The trail ended on the Desert road where we got picked up. We then drove to the town of Turangi for lunch/coffee and then on to Tokaanu for some recovery in the famous geo thermal hot pools! Great day!
Whakapapa Village to Desert Road
In the afternoon/evening we all relaxed and shared stories then watched a movie about Kilian Jornet, A Fine Line. Great movie and highly recommended. It was a great weekend and I made some new friends and heard so many great stories about why each of us have chosen running and being in mountains, trails and enjoying life!
Monday morning we did another easy trail around Lake Rotopounamu near National Park and then after breakfast said our good byes and headed back to Wellington!
I am planning to organise another event myself for those who would like to explore some new trails and get out of their comfort zone. This was definitely outside of my comfort zone but I enjoyed every bit of it!
After three years of running I think I am ready for the next step and that is to complete a Marathon. I know that some people do marathons within a year or even six months of training which is great. My focus has been to gradually get there and this year (2013) feels right to me. As some of you know I finished my sixth half marathon with a personal best of 1:33.54 on 17th Feb 2013. Based on that the McMillan Running Calculator tells me that I should be able to complete the Marathon in a time of 3hrs:17mins!! (Yeah right!) However I have no time goals since this is my first Marathon, the goal is to finish the 42.2km distance with a smile on my face (well not while running maybe). 🙂
McMillan Marathon Prediction
If you haven’t tried the McMillan Running Calculator – do try it. It is fairly accurate. Example when I entered my half marathon time it pretty much calculated my 5km time spot on! It also gives you guidance on at what pace you should train on in order to race a certain distance under a certain time goal. For me this is what it means. Although I am not going for a time goal I will still train at these paces since they match my current training runs leading up to the last half marathon. And theoretically this should provide me with a good base improvement overall on other distances.
McMillan Training Paces
All the advice I have had is that training for a Marathon should not be taken lightly, meaning that it is very important to get the mix of running, recovery and nutrition right. Also there is no point in going hard out and getting injured. Key is gradual build up and maintenance of core endurance and stamina. After the RTB half, in the last two weeks I have reduced my weekly mileage to about 40-50k with some easy runs. This is so that I have a break and be ready for the start of my training program towards the Marathon.
I created a plan consisting of 16 weeks – and this is posted on under the heading “16 Week Marathon Plan” on my blog. So officially my training starts next week on Monday 4th of March. I won’t do a week by week update as I did for RTB but rather do maybe fortnightly updates on my progress leading up to the Marathon day of 23rd June 2013! The Marathon I chose is my local marathon in Wellington. June in Wellington is not the best time of year for running (early winter/cold) but it’s local and in familiar surroundings plus I don’t have to travel far to get to the start!
Also during the training time frame of 16 weeks I am doing a few events as well. So the plan is largely also accommodating these events.
And of course the 5k races on the waterfront and Lower Hutt Park run. These provides me with the motivation to keep going. We have been lucky with great summer weather locally in Wellington and with autumn and winter on the way this will change. Having some events to focus on will keep me motivated to get out the door and run!
I’d love to get feedback from others on their first marathon experiences! If you are like me and love watching running documentaries check out “Spirit of the Marathon” on YouTube below. This is a full length movie of 1hr 45mins about a bunch of runners elite and non elite on their marathon training for the Chicago Marathon! Connect your PC to the TV and watch it on the big screen!
Based on my previous running experience I am looking at the possibility of running close to 1:35 for my half marathon this weekend on Sunday 17th.
Taking a closer look at two of my last year’s half marathon times I can see that I had run negative splits on one race and positive splits in the next. Negative splits meaning that the second half of the race is faster than the first. But this may not always be the case depending on the conditions of the day and the course etc.
In February 2012 I ran my current a half marathon PB of 1:37:22. (current PB is 1:33)That time consisted of an average per Km pace of 4min 31secs. In this race my second half of the race was run much faster than the first. It was perfect conditions for running on the day of the event and everything ‘clicked’ for me.
RTB 2012 race splits (5k in 21mins, 10k in 46mins and 13.5kms in 1hrs)
In August 2012 I also ran another half marathon, this was in Taupo. In contrast I went out a bit too fast and slowed down significantly and finished in 1:38 which wasn’t too far off but felt different in terms of effort somehow. Arguably I was not planning to run faster and only entered this race at the last minute. It was however interesting to see the splits. The average per Km pace was roughly 4min38secs with the second half of the race being pretty slow going.
Taupo Half marathon 2012 August splits
Leading up to this weekends race my goal is to try and run equal splits of 4min 29secs which will put me in with a chance of running a PB and getting close to 1:34:59. I also know that I can sustain 4min 20sec pace over 10-12k if I really push hard. It will all depend on the days conditions and how I feel. Either way I am pretty happy with my overall training so far and it’s going to come down to how I feel after the first 14kms. Then I know that I only need to run another 7kms and that is where (training) endurance and racing pace comes into play. Current weather forecast for Sunday 17th is ‘Dry with southerlies’ which can mean anything from breezes to gale force winds and or low temperatures. The only thing is to trust your training and run your best.
What’s your race strategy for Sunday the 17th? Based on above can you predict my final time? Add a comment below with your guess and you’ll go in the draw to win – check out “Keep running and you’ll be winning” 🙂
Good luck to everyone and hope to see some of you after the race!
So you have done the training – you’re ready to run “THE” event you have been training for – but have you thought about what’s next? For me I’ve always had another event that I wanted to take part in. This has helped me in terms of keeping myself motivated and look forward to keep going on with running.
So if you are about to do your first event here are some tips to get ready and motivated for the next event!
Keep a log book of how often and how long you run. – One of the best ways is to sign up with a site such as Endomondo, Run Keeper or Sports Tracker. These also offer ‘free’ apps that you can use on your smart phone and can track your Kms, Heart rate and your route of the run. I find it very motivating to see the daily, weekly, monthly stats and the progress I have made. Check out my previous post on “How much do you run?”
According to my current stats I have run 4412.79 km which is equivalent to 0.11 Trips around the world and 0.011 Trips to the moon!
Running Summary
Sign up for local 5k races – there are plenty of races around and these are on each week. The point is not competing against others but competing with yourself to see if you can beat your previous time.
Sign up for a longer event, if you have just completed Round the Bays 7km why not target the Wellington 10k that happens in June? This helps you to keep yourself motivated and keep going.
Traveling overseas? – Look up a local race in the destination you are going to be at – back in 2011 I was in Ireland in April and I entered a half marathon which happened to be on at the time I was there. You’ll meet some new people and even make new friends!
Join a local running group – In Wellington there are many options with professional clubs as well as socially organised group runs. Check out The Wellington Running Meetup Group. They organise runs every week for all levels. The Wellington Scottish Athletics Club also have many options for all levels of runners.
74 running 