The more I run, the more I like cycling

Less than a month until the London Marathon, four weeks to be precise.

Over the last month, I have been steadily increasing the length of my Sunday monring runs, building up my stamina as well as working out what I’ll need to eat and drink as I go along.

Considering I had not run further than 8 miles ever before I started this little adventure, looking back and analyzing the effects of running 13-15+ miles is a little surreal, to say the least. But that is what I need to do, because I learnt a couple of weeks ago that this isn’t necessarily going to be plain sailing.

In all my challenges to date, since I started this blog, I have pretty much gone with the following formula…

1) Find challenge
2) Train for challenge
3) Do challenge

Be it cycling, duathlon or triathlon, if I have put enough training in, I have always managed to finish said challenge. I’ve never had a problem with injury (thankfully) or more importantly, biting off more than I can chew…

Until now!

Two weeks ago yesterday, I went to do my longest run so far… 18 miles, and wasn’t able to do it! I got to 15 miles and had nothing left! I walked for a quarter of a mile and tried to start again but was literally running on empty…

Nada… rien… nichts… zilch!

Up until then, the training seemed to be going well. I’d done my fastest 13 mile run the week before, and 15 miles with hills the week before that. I had also done a 16 mile run in February, so it wasn’t like it was my longest run ever, even though I was hoping it would be.

This is when the doubts started to creep in. If I can’t get past 15 miles, how am I going to finish 26? I dont know for sure why I ran out of gas. Whether it was three weeks of hard work in a row, or the wrong food the day before… Who knows?

I rested for most of the two weeks since then, only doing a couple of ‘shorter’ 6 mile runs, because I was entered into the Cranleigh 21 race yesterday.

This is a traditional test event for those running the London Marathon, who live in and around South Surrey. Tim, a friend of mine who I think I’ve mentioned here before lives down there and is closely involved with the race. So I thought it would the ideal opportunity for me to build my mileage up and experience a race day atmosphere. However, the snow over the weekend put paid to that. Driving a round trip of nearly 400 miles overnight with the family was never going to be a good idea with the snow we had on Saturday, so I had to bail out!

Instead, I did my long run in Tickhill yesterday morning. 20 miles around Tickhill – 6 laps and 20.5 miles to be precise…

The last four miles were hard… very hard… and I was walking as much as I was running. But I did it, which has gone some way to allay my fears about finishing the marathon.

Some way. I need to take it more steadily in the first half to save some energy for the last 6 miles, but I’m more confident than I was two weeks ago!

All this running and then resting in between running has also meant I haven’t been in the pool for ages, and even worse, out on my bike. The last time I rode my bike (apart from a couple of times on the turbo) was January 12th!!!

The more running I do, the more I realise I am a cyclist!