Annual Summary 2013

Device: Garmin Forerunner 610

Notes

2013 marked the first year of what I now call focused marathon training, this included a schedule of build up races for my target marathon ‘London’.  The races selected were HM (Blackmore Vale Marathon), 20 Miles (Mad March 20), HM (Fleet Half Marathon PB 1:16:16), HM (Bournemouth Bay Half) plus a number of Parkruns to add some speed. 2013 also was my batism into the the BAC (Bournemouth AC) Marathon sessions, kindly BAC invited runners from other local club to train together under the planned session put together by Steve Way.

This resulted in PB’s over most distances which boosted confidence in build up to London Marathon and hitting race day in my best shape ever. For 2013 and third year in a row I was running off the ‘Red’ Good for Age start. I ran a strong race feeling positive all the way with only a slight slow down over the final miles to smash neary 10 minutes of my PB set in Dublin to 02:40:57.

Following London more PB’s fell and also my first Mountain marathon in the Salomon Trail Ubaye in the French Alps, and WOW what a experiance, feeling strong running at altitude, getting scared on mountain faces and then being passed by all ages, male and female on the decents but I LOVED IT.

Some more racing before the end of 2013 including another Purbeck Marathon and the first Bournemouth Marathon, this was run as a planned progressive run taking all the pressure off, where I ran the first half slower and speeded up to finish in 02:51:54. Topping the year out with another PB at the Christchurch Christmas 10k (35:14).

Diet & Weight

2013 was the first year I started to think about my diet,  Even saying that most of the weigh loss was down to increased training, portion sizes were not changed but more fueling after session. I recording my weight to down to 160.0 lb pre ‘London Marathon’ race day. And then again back down to 167.0 lb at the end of December ready for 2014.