My Marathon Journey Part 2
As a nature lover and mountain runner, the idea of running a flat road marathon around the industrial part of the city, alone, was rather hilarious. It was the stark opposite of my comfort zone, but hey, growth never came from comfort zones.
My favourite water running sessions.
Here are some of my favourite workouts, all of which I did with a couple of minutes easy either side to make for a 60-90 minute session. I have been doing 60-90 minutes 4 times a week, but these can easily be made longer or shorter by changing number of reps to fit any time/fitness level. The rule I went by for adapting running into the water was to do similar rep times as I would for a distance (Eg 400m = 75-80 seconds, 1km = 3:20-3:30 etc), and whatever the track workout was, I would halve the rest/recovery between reps and sets as you recover quicker in the water and need more time at effort to keep your heart rate high.
When each day became a gift.
Total: 15.2km in 60 mins. 38 laps of a track. In the middle parts of the workout where the speeds were fastest, I hit an 18:25 5km split, a 38:19 10km split, and a 59:15 15km. 12 months ago my PB's over those distances in races weren't even that fast; let alone at 30 degrees celsius, 3000m altitude, at night, alone, on a treadmill. I lie back and shut my eyes, trying to take in the moment of again realising that after all the doubts and fears going into this session, I am again more capable that I realised. The only reason I now know that, is because I threw caution to the wind and had a crack. A tear comes to my eyes as the exhausted relief sets in, and I make the connection that right now, in my day to day being and doing, I am genuinely living the life my 8 year old self dreamed of.