I was already hitting 100+ miles per week so people were telling me my mileage wouldn’t change that much and they were right! However, I interpreted that as I’ll be doing just the same intensity and volume based sessions as I’ve been doing. I was sadly slapped back to reality when my mileage didn’t differ too much but what happened was the volume of the sessions went up and the volume of my easy mileage to recovery between these mammoth sessions came down by 3 miles. 
So this meant I was running more miles at marathon pace in comparison to when I was doing 10km work. How can I make this make sense, here goes….
So a typical week of 10k training I would train hard Tuesday, Friday and Sunday (uptempo in the long run)… so say we add up the intensity mileage I was running at over these 3 days added upto 20 miles of intensity and I was doing 100 miles per week 20% of my training was done in and around race pace. Now with the marathon training 35-40% of my mileage was at race pace out of the 100 mile week. Yes yes yes I know what you’re all thinking, yes the marathon pace is of lower intensity and yes that’s why I could do more of it but it was still bloody hard running 5min mile pace for 35-40% of your total mileage. On the flip side because my legs were so tired from the training I would run around 7.30min mole pace on recovery days, some days slower some days a little faster but on average 7.30 mile pace.
The reason I stepped up to the marathon is for a couple of reasons first one in all honesty was because I’ve not ran a personal best over the 1500m/5000m/10,000m in over 4 years now and I feel I may need a little change in stimulus and stop banging my head against the wall chasing times because it was making me extremely miserable and affected my emotional state and when I even think about it now it sometimes makes me feel quite worthless. However, the second reason was because Scottish Athletics my national governing body set up a system for athletes looking to one day venture into the marathon a platform to perform and be looked after in their vision to help a select group of Scottish athletes achieve the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games standard for the marathon.
I feel very grateful to be selected in that group and felt this would be a great opportunity to be apart of.
Third reason, I love running lots and training like a man possessed so I thought why not. People around me and my coach thought that I would one day become a great marathon runner and love the training for it because I like running lots of miles. Well I’m here to tell you training for the marathon is grim! There have days, weeks and months where I’ve been so tired I don’t want to get out of bed and run but know I have to; feet, muscles and lower back aching before during and after a massive session; doing training sessions on tired legs and feeling like you are in really shit shape followed by a run later that night that you just can’t wait to be done with or question why should I even go out at all.
The crazy thing is though, you get through it. It’s a bloody rollercoaster of a ride but you get through it. I’ve always taken myself back to why and basically the answer is because I love to run, I love to see myself get fitter and stronger each week, I love seeing what my body is capable of doing, I love the satisfaction of working so hard and going through so much suffering that one day my competition are going to feel the wrath, I love being different, I love challenging my demons in my head and beating their asses. People think this is easy but believe you me it’s not! Everyone has there own life’s battles and struggles. Too many are quick to judge and fire out comments here and there before knowing the full picture or story behind why someone is doing something. That’s the world we live in now but I say fuck it, let people talk. 
The marathon training is now slowly starting to reduce in intensity and volume now as I head into the taper phase before the Valencia marathon on December 1st. It will be my first ever marathon. I’m totally focused, excited, scared, nervous, ready, anxious and every other emotion. But I know as soon as that gun goes it will all disappear and we let the chips fall where they may, let’s hope I’m quids in!
The next blog I do I will talk about my marathon training sessions to give you an insight to the training demands of training for the marathon. This may be good for anyone who is looking to run better in their next marathon or just some tips on how to mix up your training programme if you’re looking for some guidance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, if you have any questions regarding my marathon training and want me to cover it in my next blog please comment below and I will do my best to answer the questions in the next blog.