My Forum

l've got a half marathon in November, am planning on taking it fairly easy in Dec and then handing myself over to a 16 week plan in Jan. Last year l trained too much and got injured the month before London. My plan for VLM 2013 is to have fewer but higher quality training sessions.

Anyone got any advice for a three sessions a week plan?

l seem to struggle to be motivated by anything other than a marathon. l've done a few other events (10m's and half mara's) but l never have the same level of enthusiasm or committment as l did when training for last year's VLM. l'm actually a real novice when compared to Shadow, Gaz and dave b, this is only my second marathon but am as excited as l was last year -- in fact probably more. l had a reasonably serious injury 8 weeks before last year's event so l couldn't do much training towards the end and l had the exact same experience as shadow in that l felt l owed so many people a marathon l just grinned (well not during miles 21-24) and put up with it. This year l want to run the whole thing and really feel like l have 'run' the London marathon

l really enjoyed the training for last year's VLM and knew on the day (whilst waiting at the start) that l was going to miss it before it was even over. Good luck with the prep for Dublin and if l can make a suggestion, have a good rest before you get back into the plan for London.

Ps -- have a look at virginmoneygiving as well as justgiving. VMG are not for profit so more money makes its way through to charities

The charities l know will fall ovet themselves to have ballot place runners elect to run for them. l ran for sense last year and they didn't set me a minimum amount, and they treated me the same as any of their charity place runners.

It's a great thing to do and l remember thinking a lot about it during training. Not to be over dramatic but it did make me think my efforts were going to make a difference to those less fortunate.

Whatever you decide to do -- hope you enjoy the whole experience

Congratulations on your places Gaz, nicola and dave -- this will be my second VLM and l think l'm more excited this time than l was last year.

l think the charity thing is a personal choice and is actually (in my opinion) a small part of the overall experience. l wasn't going to raise money last year but then decided l would, a simple page on virginmoneygiving.com gave me somewhere to point people at who wanted to donate but l didn't really mind if l raised £50 or £500. l didn't hold any events or email all of my friends, l just let it happen naturally. l was amazed at how generous people were and it did feel nice to raise some money for a charity but as l say, it felt a small part of it really.

l celebrated my 2013 place with a 5 miler yesterday -- thankfully my legs still remember the longer distances so 5 miles is still a joy.

Are you all regular runners or are you now starting to work out plans to get you ready for April?