Write your goal in concrete and your plan in sand (or snow)

Here we are at the end of week 11, just 5 weeks to go. I'm a planner, I like to have a list and I like to tick things off my list and that's how I've approached my marathon training. If I do all the training and tick it off then hopefully the race should just follow on naturally.

I started the week feeling the effects of the Ashby 20 last Sunday, heavy legs and with various aches and pains. I did bootcamp on Tuesday which helped get me moving again. Wednesday's run went well, 6 miles at 9.32 pace although the first 3 miles were tough. Thursday was 7 miles so that was to be covered by a 6.8 mile club run, I wasn't expecting any problems with it. The weather was cold and I ran so badly and found it so difficult that I may as well have had a blue rinse and changed my name to Doris. It was like I'd never run in my life but had decided to borrow the legs of an octogenarian to give it a go. Undaunted I looked ahead to Sunday's 16 miles.

I'd like to say that Sunday dawned bright and sunny like a typical March day, but that would be a lie. Sunday dawned with a temperature of -2, 4 or 5 inches of snow and a wind direct from the North Pole. Despite the weather 11 of us met up for a nice relaxed long run of around 15 miles. It went wrong from the start, my Garmin had died, the weather was difficult and then there were snow drifts up to my knees. It was beautiful though and it's always fun to have a run and a chat with my clubmates, it was just the actual running that didn't seem to work. We all agreed that it was difficult and ended up calling it a day at 10.5 miles. It was the right thing to do as I couldn't have managed another hour out there running but it means I can't really tick my 16 mile run off with a clear conscience. In 'normal' conditions I could have done it without any problems but today just wasn't the day for it. It's the first week that I haven't done it properly and hopefully it'll be the last.

Next week holds a 7 and two 8s. I'm not going to predict how they'll go after this past week. Sunday's run will be happening in North Yorkshire, possibly up hills with some local runners which will be fun. I'll report back when I get home on Tuesday.

I think I need to address my diet now, I'm putting weight on which slows me down. I know what to eat but I eat too much of it and supplement it with far too many extras as I'm marathon training. All I need to do is be a little bit more sensible (or eat a bit less cake).