Darren’s Berlin Marathon Training – Week Ending 02 September 2012

Number of miles run this week – 56.

Having moved my 17 mile practice run to the Bank Holiday Monday made for a heavy week of running relatively speaking. Relative to other weeks rather than to the number of mile Mo Farah regularly puts in (100+).

A 10 mile easy run mid-week followed by a stride session for speed brought my miles up to 35 miles before my 18 mile practice run around and around Southampton Common at the weekend. The practice run involves a slow jog to and from The Common before running laps around it at a pace close to intended marathon pace.

The Common is a very handy place to train, lots of wide pathways which are traffic free (mind out for the dogs and cyclists) and it is surprisingly hilly as well. Over my 18 mile practice run I recorded 2,825 ft of rise, which hopefully will come in handy for the marathon. The thing is, once you have done 1 lap of the Common you have seen it all and by the time you hit the 8th lap it has become a touch tedious. Tedium vies with exhaustion/thirst at this stage, either way it is a welcome relief to finish. Won’t be doing any more laps for a while, when the next marathon beckons.