The Road to Paris - On a Plateau - Asics Target 26.2 Training

So this is it.........the road to the Paris Marathon is about to begin...........16 weeks of focused, dedicated training.  What lies at the end, other than a finish medal and empty tubes of vaseline and deep heat? Hopefully a sub 3:30 marathon, a lifelong dream achieved, and the chance of passing on everything I've learnt to others attempting a similar goal.

Feel free to follow my training, experiences, mistakes and successes on this thread throughout the next 16 weeks. I'm an honest (sometimes too honest!) guy and will give an open and frank account of my attempt in succeeding at my goal.

I plan on updating this at least once daily. If I don't, I'm probably carrying out one of many domestic chores, in order to keep my wife sweet and happy, while I throw everything I have into Asics Target 26.2.

Off we go.........................

Glad to be the first to comment on here Shady_Ady.

Good luck - I'll be following you all the way!

Beaten by DS2  (probably won't be the last time I say that either)

Best of luck Shade'ster - will be with you every step of the way!

Hey malcs, now that no-one is interested in us we'll have to meet for a chat on other people's threads! How was your weekend? Hangoooooooooooooover???

Hi Ady!  Good luck with the training! Can you give us any details on what the training schedule looks like that the Asics team have devised for you?  Is it similar to what ypu would have drawn up for yourself or is it a complete divergence from what you would have thought?

DSanta2 and ChristMalcs Cracker..........thanks for your good wishes, and you are always welcome to takeover my thread for your own personal chats.......it keeps me from being in here all on my lonesome.......but I have 1 rule........no talking about hangovers. Sam has only worked one hangover into my training over the next 16 weeks, and that's for New Years Day! That's going to be a tough rule to follow. So far so good though (what am I talking about, it's been less than one day!).

Xyloid............Yes. I'm planning on putting all my training schedules on here, either week by week, or all in one go (probably both!). Then people can see how (or if) my training plan changes over the 16 weeks as I improve along the way. I'll also be putting on my dietary intake (just to show those who think I'm a garbage bin, that I don't actually eat that much now training has started ) so people can see if what I'm eating will actually help me reach my goal of losing 16lbs in the 16 training weeks, bringing me in to Paris as one lean, mean running machine (apologies for the cliche!).

I'll also update daily (sorry if that's too much to some people!) on how each training session has gone, how I think I did, where I failed and where I did well.

Today was my first training day, which went perfectly. It was an easy 4 miles, which my training plan said to do between 9:30 and 10:15 mins per mile. I did it in 9:31 per mile.

I would expand on this further right now, but unfortunately I have to go out to a music gig tonight and pretend I'm still 18 years old and up to speed on the current music scene (those years disappeared a long time ago when the first grey hair appeared!). I will catch up with today and tomorrow, when I write about it tomorrow night. Hopefully then I'll be able to answer your original questions in more detail! 

Evening Ady!

Good to meet you again yesterday and I'll be watching your progress as we've both got very similar targets!

Ha DS2 - we always have the 26.2 nest to go back to  

I did 3.5 miles to cure the hangover today so I'm half a mile behind you Ady. 

What was it like running that slow? The only time I think I've ever done over 10 minute miles was when I hit the wall! 

Enjoy the gig - what band(s) are you seeing?

Good luck and have fun

Hi Ady, nice intro to your thread. I look forward to reading more.

Hi Ady, have you forgiven me yet for nicking all the medium-sized tops

Evening Ady,

Yes - it's going to be good having you doing the same! So ... if we don't see each other during the marathon then one of us has cocked their pacing up?

My first week is 26 miles ... and includes a parkrun, the 2nd is 31m and the 3rd is 36m, the 4th 39m. What's yours looking like?

Ady -  Congrats again, is this the first time you have had a target of 3:30 ? 

Agreed Ady - running at 9mm feels slow but 10+? Is that still classed as moving? 

Maybe this is where I'm going wrong!

Glad you enjoyed the gig. Water eh? Very impressive. Are you on an alcohol ban or will you indulge over the festive period?

RunnyRunRun wrote (see)

My first week is 26 miles ... and includes a parkrun, the 2nd is 31m and the 3rd is 36m, the 4th 39m. What's yours looking like?

Hi RRR, what is your current normal weekly mileage? Is this vastly different to what you have been doing?

Ady, same question to you please. How different is your training plan from what you have been doing?

I was going to ask the same questions  as StickyMistletoe. These mileages seem quite low with only 16 weeks to go, but I suppose it's important to ease into it and depends a lot on where you are now.

For what it's worth guys, I have always found running slow hard work but this year I've listened to some people that know better and I've definitely benefitted from the slower recovery running. You'll probably look forward to it on the mornings you get up and your calves are still sore from the speedwork!