Week 6 - "Full-Cream"

Monday July 4 - day off running, head to the pool. Swimming is great recovery for the load-bearing muscles employed so dynamically in running; excellent for upper-body conditioning; perfect aerobic and cardio-vascular work-out; and an invigorating, refreshing exercise.  The nature and distances of your swim session will depend on your standard as a swimmer. At this level of running training, try to swim twice each week for optimum benefits. It really is of tremendous help. Tuesday July 5 - 3rd endurance-speedwork session. 12 km (7 miles) incorporating 4 x 1-mile (1600 m) repeats, with a 4-minute recovery.  It gets tougher! This week we're up from 3 to 4 repeats of the mile, still aiming to maintain the same pace throughout. Aim to run each mile in at least as good a time as the corresponding session last Tuesday. Find a way to enjoy the experience, as these are some of the most valuable training sessions for the marathon. Wednesday July 6 - good distance run, 15 km (9 miles) at medium intensity on flat road surface, including 6 x 100 m 'floating strides.'  During the strides, visualise feeling as light as possible, floating above the ground. Thursday July 7 - easy recovery run, 7km (4 miles). Swim session. Friday July 8 - 3rd strength endurance session. 10 km (6 miles), including 2 km (1.5 miles) at your 2-mile race pace, completely focused, leading immediately into 4 x 2-minute hill repeats at grunting pace, with no more than 4 minutes between the completion of one hill and the start of the next. Saturday July 9 - alternate exercise day, enjoy the break from running in a relatively intense training week. Sunday July 10 - Sunday long run, 32 km (20 miles) at moderate pace.  This is our longest run to date, so enjoy: if possible, run with friends in a scenic region, over varied terrain. The long runs are the most important session each week because the marathon is, well, a long run! Concentrate on finishing strongly and in good style (that is to say, keep the head, shoulders and feet up, and the arms swinging - easier said than done). Enjoy a relaxing 40-minute cycle in the afternoon.