March training started in standard fashion with a workout on Wednesday and a shorter recovery run. Things went ballistic on the Saturday with a monster session masquerading as a long run. I was a bit intimidated by this one – 4 hours total, with the business end being an hour of steady effort, 50 minutes of tempo intervals, then another hour of steady effort, with warm up and cool down either side. It was tough! I took advantage of Shelley’s instruction to find a flat route, taking the train to Maidenhead then running back home along the Thames, a handy recce for TP100. It was certainly flat, but not always a good surface which made it difficult to maintain a good pace. Still, I worked hard and was properly tired afterwards.

I had a work trip to Singapore the following week, a lot of flying for what ended up being a short trip. It was too hot to run outside, over 30 degrees and very high humidity, so I hit the dreadmill in the hotel gym. I was back home on Wednesday evening so the rest of the week’s runs were in mucky March weather. Saturday provided an opportunity to get some more Thames Path action, although a shorter section this time, just from Caversham Bridge up to Pangbourne Bridge, then back on trails through country estates. Sunday saw another 90+ minutes out in the Chilterns.

The week of 13th was mostly taper in the run-up to my second race of the year, Centurion Running’s Hundred Hills 50km. A wet and very muddy affair, it was lots of fun, albeit very tiring on the legs due to the aforementioned mud. With the first 100 in mind, Sunday was not a day for post-race R&R. Instead I had to rouse myself into a hilly trail half-marathon. To keep the thinking to a minimum, I just followed a cut-down version of the 2nd loop of the HH50k route. I wore the right shoes this time, so it was a LOT easier to stay on my feet. My legs were pretty stiff to start with, but I soon got into a rhythm and felt surprisingly chipper throughout. I have an even bigger back-to-back in the plan over Easter weekend, but more on that next month.

The next week saw me on the Thames Path again – twice! My company is based in Richmond, and although I mainly work from home now, each week I usually get at least one run in on the river near the office. During my mid-week runs, I have been practicing landing correctly with a good push off, and doing it with faster turnover than I typically manage. I have been using a metronome app on my phone to help with that, setting it at 170bpm to start with. I’m not 100% convinced yet, but I could be persuaded that I am getting more pace bang for my effort buck. Saturday brought a night recce of the final 20 miles or so of the TP100 route. I ran with Colin, who will pace me on this section on race day. We started in fading light and were soon running in full dark. The first 10 miles were uneventful but I began to feel some discomfort in the GI department – trapped wind, I think, which made running a risky and sometimes painful affair. A couple of trail-side, ahem, toilet breaks gave temporary relief but I didn’t feel great for the final 10. I hope I am not similarly afflicted on race day. To add to the fun, I also lost my phone, but only realised this at the end of the outing. Neither of us could be bothered to go hunting for a phone in the dark. Some early morning detective work narrowed down the likely zone of phone-loss to a section a few km from the finish. My wife and I were due a 90 minute walk that morning anyway, so we headed back up the Thames to see if we could find it. Short story, we did!

Re-united with my phone, and a lot less grumpy as a result, March drew to a close without further incident. Tuesday’s session was another tough one, with 4×18 minute intervals at the top end of steady effort, nudging into Z4. It did feel like hard work in the first 18 minute segment, but I got into a groove and improved the pace with each of the following segments, finishing on 4:51 pace. I think my general fitness is pretty good right now, for an old fart. I hope to build on that in the few weeks left to me before I hit taper time.

So that’s it, another month of training in the bag. As I write this, TP100 is just over 5 weeks away, so really only 3 weeks of good training left. Gulp!

I’ll be back next month with tales of April’s training.