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I’m writing this with 8 weeks to go to my 2nd tackling of the Virgin London Marathon which takes places on Sunday the 25th April. 

I’ve just had a quick review of my recent training scheduled and the remaining training/race schedule before the big event.

The previous 3 weekends have featured 2 hour, 2 hour 20 and 2 hour 30 runs and put me bang on for the Marathon and here’s how my remaining schedule pans out:

28th February 2010 – "The Beast"

The Beast is a Double or Quit trail race or approxmately either 5 or 10 miles – the runner decides on the day whether to do 1 or 2 laps of the course hence the "Double or Quit" and features deep water, steep hills and 32 obstacles.

I’m running The Beast with my usual running partners Bunde & Mark Macrae (@m_macrae) and I’ll also be in the race with others that I know from Twitter and British Military Fitness (@the_dobster).

As I said, The Beast has a "Quit" option after the 1st lap (or 5 miles) but I’m planning on completing 2 laps and notching up 10 miles in the process.

The weather forecast is currently showing a maximum temperature of 4C, heavy rain and 35 mph winds so it’s gonna be very wet, very muddy, very cold and very, very difficult.

10 (tough) miles

Update – I completed the "double" version of The Beast in 1:27

14th March 2010 – The Kilomathon

The Kilomathon is a world first as it’s run over a distance of a Kilometre equivalent of a marathon i.e. 26.2K instead of 26 miles making the distance a little over 16 miles.  The race I’m in is the 1st in a series of UK based runs and starts in Nottingham and finishes in Derby – this is a history making run (so the web site says) and I’m looking forward to taking part in it a lot.

I’m taking part in this with Bunde and a couple of Twitter runners – @the_dobster and @nimblerunner.  I’ve not met @nimblerunner yet so that’s another thing I can tick off.

@nimblerunner has organised a “Pasta Party” in Nottingham the night before and I’m attending to meet a few more runners and load up on carbs for the race.

16 miles

Update – I completed the Kilomathon in 2:07

21st March 2010 – The Ashby 20

I’ll be taking part in the Ashby 20 for only the 2nd time.  The Ashby 20 is a fairly tough 20 mile run (you what?  A race called the Ashby 20 is run over a distance of 20 miles :-0).  Described on the race website as rural and undulating I can confirm that it’s both.

I’m running this with the usual suspect Bunde.

I’m hoping to better last years time and I’m gunning for the gorilla this year (see 2009 Ashby 20 for why)

20 miles

Update – I completed The Ashby 20 in 2:39:22

28th March 2010 – Steady Weekend Run

After the exertions of the previous 2 weekends, I’m planning to take a bit of a break and drop my weekend run down to around 1.5 hours in which I reckon I’ll cover about 10 – 11 miles with Bunde

10 – 11 miles

Update – I ran about 9.5 miles in 1:16 and I feel tired and sore

4th April 2010 – 3 Hour Run

This is the planned final long run before the marathon with Bunde.  I reckon 3 hours should just about get us back to the distance of the Ashby 20 which is as far as I go before the full 26.

20 miles

Update – I called a halt to this about half way roubnd as my groin was giving me real gyp and I reckoned better to live to fight another day than to press on – disappointing

11th April 2010 – Steady Weekend Run

Tapering towards the marathon begins – a steady weekend run with Bunde of maybe 1 and a half hours.

10 – 11 miles

18th April 2010 – Steady Weekend Run

Tapering towards the marathon continues – I’m not planning a run at all as I’m in London from the Saturday morning and staying there ‘til Wednesday night.

0 miles

Week Commencing 19th April 2010 – Steady Midweek Runs

I’m in London attending the SharePoint Evolution Conference 2010 and I’m planning to host a “SharePoint Runners” event where conference attendees drag themselves out of bed really early and trot around London. 

Wednesday 21st April marks my last London Marathon training day, leaving me 3 days ‘til the race.

15 miles

So along with the remaining 6 weeks of steady midweek runs – 6 miles, 3 times a week (108 miles), I reckon I’ve got another 210 miles or so to get through before the off.

I’m looking forward to it all and especially the marathon – it’s such a great feeling when you’re running (hopefully!) down the Embankment and can see Big Ben in the distance with only a little over a mile to go.

It’ll be different this year as it’s not my first time and I know what to expect.  I’m hoping that I can improve on my previous time of 4 hours and 9….