I looked at my calendar last Thursday thinking that Monday 15th would be the start of my 14 week marathon plan - for the Budapest marathon. A plan to run a marathon in 3 hours. At that point I realized I had miscalculated, and I should have started on Monday 8th!! Argghhh.
I wouldn't have been able to start properly due to illness last week, but I could at least have incorporated some of the speedwork - something I haven't really focussed on.
Oh well, I have started now.

I went to the Hortobagy half marathon on Saturday. Last year, I went off too fast in the sun and suffered on the 2nd and 3rd laps. This time I ran with my heart rate monitor and ran pretty sensibly - keeping myself from exceeding 155 for a long time. Fyi I believe my max heart rate is 171. Only in the 3rd lap did I let it go up.
the result was 8 minutes faster than last year and pretty consistent laps. Though it was 5C cooler which helps a lot!

This week I have started with the 14 week plan properly - jumping to thesecond week. It has been interesting - going for runs when I felt stiff - after Hortobagy - and I am not used to running every day. I did a laza run Monday - that was a good thing as I was stiff after Hortobagy, hill sprints Tuesday, a steady run today - which I turned into a tempo run. Tomorrow is meant to be intervals! I realize I run every day for 8 weeks or so - wow!!!

These runs are all shorter than what I normally do, however it is tough to run each and every day. I suppose that running every day is adjusting my body. Certainly I guess it keeps my metabolism high, which will burn off any excess weight. It would be good to get down to 75kg or less by the marathon - I am 181cm.

Before this plan, I would certainly have been careful and not tried these runs, and being cautious has helped kept me injury free for 2 years almost. However if I do want to improve my speed and get towards a 3 hour marathon, I need to do something else, and learn from someone else's thinking. So I'll keep at it.
Tomorrow might be a step too far though. Hill sprints yesterday, a tempo run today and intervals tomorrow - I'll have to see how I feel! And I might switch the Friday laza run with tomorrow's intervals.

It will be interesting to see if I can keep this up when I travel to England. I guess I just have to keep going and make it work! I still can't believe I have to run every day for 8 weeks or so ..... :)