THIS week started off a lot more satisfying for me regarding time, pace and effort. Tuesday’s interval session and Thursdays brisk run both left me wanting more, so much so that I was tempted to do a fourth 1.5 mile ‘fast’ interval on Tuesday.

However I thought it best to finish with “something left in the tank” rather than push it and run the risk of being too tired to comfortably complete the rest of the week’s schedule.

Sunday came around and it was a 20 miler, the same as last week. I felt confident and bearing in mind that the clocks were moving forward and I would be losing an hour of sleep, I made a point of having an early night on the Saturday. The weather conditions were perfect.

We had planned the same route as last week that started and finished at St. Peters Garden Centre. Ron was going to be with me on his bike, but we decided to do this run a little differently in preparation for London. We wrote down my ‘split’ times (the time it should take me to get to each mile marker) to take with us. I carried everything I would be carrying on the day in my bum bag i.e. carbohydrate gels, plasters, phone, Vaseline! Ron carried water and Lucozade. He planned to meet me at each mile and offer the drinks for me to take, as on the day water is available at every mile and Lucozade at miles 5, 10, 15, 19 and 23. Unfortunately when I filled one of the water bottles at home I had not put the top on properly, it had all leaked out in the car. Not a good start. We had a second bottle but this would not be enough water for the full 20 miles. I took a sip of water from mile one, this kept me hydrated but was obviously too much as at mile 5 I needed to stop for a pee! Mile 8 was near a friends house, so while Ron re-filled the water bottle here he stopped for a quick chat whilst I carried on running. When he caught me up he noticed that the timer on the bike trip computer had stopped because he had been stationary for so long! I had forgotten to put my watch on, so from this point my pace was a question of guesswork. Mile 11 came and I needed yet another pee! This run was not going to plan. The schedule suggested running the last third of this 20-mile run at my planned marathon pace. Ron reset the timer for the last 7 miles. I couldn’t get this pace right today and ended up doing it quite a bit quicker than I needed to, which sounds great but actually wasn’t necessarily a good thing as the idea was to practice ‘race pace’ once the body was starting to fatigue. I’m hoping that by making all these mistakes on this run I have learned from this and will be more prepared for the actual event on the 26th April.

So what do some of these running terms mean? Easy pace is exactly that, enjoy the scenery and use this pace when warming up or recovering. Steady is a bit quicker than easy; you should still be able to hold a conversation. Threshold or brisk running is a harder pace, it should be ‘controlled discomfort’ and you should be able to say a 3 or 4 word sentence. Race pace is obviously the pace that you can maintain for 26 miles (when training for a marathon) and it’s really important to feel and understand this pace well before race day. I have got 4 weeks to work on that!

Thanks very much to those of you who have sponsored me to run the London Marathon to raise money for Acorns Childrens Hospice. If you would like to donate please go to www.justgiving.com/vikkisivertsen.