3 marathons in 3 months update

So time to evaluate how I am getting on working towards this challenge.

Less than two months to go until my first of the three marathons. Having only completed two marathons in the last five or six years to do now be doing three within three months is a massive step up and a demanding challenge I am fully aware of.

So how has my preparation been going? 

I have covered around 50K in each of the last two weeks including one 21K run. I covered the half marathon distance in 1hr 55 which although 16 minutes over my personal best was still something I was pleased with as I took it steady and felt good and strong both at the end and afterwards. 

I have also been focusing on doing more core and ab work as well as trying to stretch and roll wherever and whenever possible. 

I have done some speed and intervals work with the view to beat my current 5K PB at parkrun in the next couple of weeks.

Current training plans

Tomorrow is Run2work day so I will be running part of my commute to work tomorrow as part of my training. I will probably cover around 8K and am looking forward to the demands of running in a different environment with my backpack on to add an extra dynamic.

Healthy Eating

My diet for the most part had been really good especially my lunches at work.

Todays was cous cous, peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, chopped apple and raisins.

The last few days I have been on my staple of brown rice with a variety of differing vegetables. Yesterday I added some variety and bit of fun by turning a boring bowl into my own mini burritos!

My snacking has also been very good and I am loving my dried fruit and nuts. I have also been having plenty of fruit bowls for snacks in the evening. 

As I get closer to my next marathon I keep thinking over my last marathon which was a real struggle. I want to learn as much as possible from that experience and try to banish any demons still lurking in my mind with a great marathon run this time out.

Starting the week feeling strong

After my 17K run yesterday in the heat I expected today to be a struggle as I felt so exhausted yesterday afternoon and evening.

The plan today was a recovery session in the gym and maybe a weights circuit and then perhaps some kind of bodyweight circuit outside in the park in the evening.

Morning workout

My morning workout went well and although I hadn't planned to run I felt like I could. My legs felt strong and ready to go which bodes well for my run tomorrow.

Instead I did some time on the xtrainer followed by an ab and core circuit. I finished this off with a lot of stretching and some foam rolling.

Preparation and Organisation

I think this is the key to any training plan, diet or healthy eating regime. This is what I had prepared the evening before all ready to go for my day.

These are my snacks for my workout and day at work, whey powder, trail mix, bananas, apple and carrot&cucumber sticks.

Evening

In the evening I did get out for my second session and I mixed up skipping with upper body bodyweight ecercises for a quick high intensity burst.

I rounded off the day with a healthy nutrious and delicious snack:

Getting back to a healthy routine

Back from holiday its time to face reality; 3 marathons in 3 months the firat of which is in less than 90 days. Time to shape up. 

Step 1 : First of all post holiday blow out!

Major taste, major calories a massive cheat day an awesome foodgasm courtesy of Papa John.

Hawaian BBQ & The Greek

Step 2 : Sweat out the holiday excess

13K run to sweat out the holiday excess, all that alcohol and cheese (http://idratherbeoutrunning.blogspot.com/2014/05/greek-holiday-foodporn.html). I always find I need one workout to sweat out all the bad stuff before I can get back to training normally again and this run did the job nicely.

I was pretty impressed I managed to have a pace of practically 5min/Km for what at the moment is my maximum distance.

Step 3 : Start eating right

A massive stir fry with loads of veggies. One of my favourite things to cook, this was a chicken and prawn concoction made using some garlic, soy sauce and chicken stock.

I have also loaded up on healthy snacks:

And I am making sure I eat right at work:

Step 4 : Start training my ass off

Next I need to start putting some hours in, I got bck Tuesday afternoon and I have now trained 5 times in 3.5 days. A cardio gym session, 2x runs and 2x weight circuit sessions.

Step 5 : Plan out how I am going to knock this challenge out of the park! 

So now I need to put some work into planning out my training strategy. I do love a good spreadsheet so I will plan this out like a geek! My basic plan is to do 15K at the weekend and then follow that up with at least one 18K and one half marathon by the end of the month.

Then in June I plan to have done at least one run in the area of 30K.

So fingers crossed it all goes to plan and watch out for more updates.