Stats Entertainment

Day:         84

Distance: 6.93km

Time:       47:27 secs

Calories:  529

The Guardian's 12 week marathon training guide comes to an end with a "45 mins easy" run. As with the first run of the week I'm accompanied by Varoo. 

I'm in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to go out the day after completing 22 miles, but an "easy" pace seems like a good idea and as we start running I can feel the aches and pains in my thighs loosening a little. Also, in doing this run I've achieved what I set out to do and been out for five runs this week. That feels a lot better than the three I managed last week. Thirteen weeks ago three runs in a week would have been more than sufficient but training for a marathon has got me into a completely different mindset.

Now seems like a good point at which to look back over the 12 weeks to see what progress I've made. A comparison with week one really underlines how much the training builds up. As the table below shows, I've increased the weekly distance by around 40km and have more than doubled the amount of time spent running. 

                    Runs (n)      Distance        Time

Week 1        4                  29.05km        2:46 mins

Week 12      5                  68.29km        6:17 mins

The stats for the full 12 weeks show that I have undertaken 51 runs in 82 days (that's an average of 4.25 runs per week), spent 54 hours running, covered 573 kilometres (or, 356 miles) and burnt off 40,071 calories since I started recording that stat in Week 2.

It's useful to look back at these stats as they show how far I've come, provide reassurance that I can run a full marathon and give a good idea of the preparation that goes into marathon running.

So, what now? It's five weeks until the big day and I now find myself cut adrift by the Guardian. The training guide gives no help whatsoever for the 'tapering' period so I'm left casting around for other trusted sources of advice. Luckily, Varoo is on hand with the "Ultimate Marathon Training Plan" courtesy of Runners World. I'm interested in the last 3 weeks as that's how much time I will be allowing myself for the tapering period (which starts in 2 weeks). I still struggle with the logic of reducing the weekly long run from 22 miles down to 13 miles but how could you not trust something called the Ultimate Marathon Training Plan?