Hanson's Marathon Method Week 1 Plan

Week 1 of my Hanson's method training for Barcelona Marathon 2015 is nearly here. Below will be my Week 1 training. I have taken out a normal run and added speed training as I feel I have the running base needed to do this. Also I'm a little scared to go in from zero to the first speed training of 12 x 400 metres with 400 metres recovery as it sounds like a killer. So I thought if I can work up to at least 8 x 400 metres before the real speed training starts I might just have a chance to complete it!

Some days will also be changed due to family commitments. For example, my son has athletics indoors every Wednesday after school for one and a half hours. I take him and there is a track outside so what a great place for me to do my speed training. Therefore my day off is Tuesday and my speed training is Wednesday (except over the Christmas holidays). Because of this I also have to change my tempo run as I can't do speed then tempo the next day. So Thursday becomes an easy run and Friday becomes my tempo run.

Hanson's Method Week 1 Plan

Monday      - Off
Tuesday      - Off
Wednesday - 5 x 400 metres speed training with 400 metres recovery
Thursday    - Off
Friday         - 5k with a pace of 6:20
Saturday     - 5k with a pace of 6:00
Sunday       - 6.5k with a pace of 5:40

Hansons Marathon Method

On the 9th November it will be exactly 18 weeks until I run Barcelona Marathon again. My first goal was to try and finish in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds or less. This would be quite a challenge seeing as my best marathon time stands at 4 hours, 27 minutes and 19 seconds which I got in Berlin 2012.

As I didn't get a place in London Marathon 2015 and this has always been my ultimate running goal I started looking to see what the 'best for age' qualifying time was for a woman. It's 3:45. So my challenge for Barcelona 2015 has now changed into trying to qualify for London 2016!

I am aware that this is quite a BIG challenge so I needed to find the right (and proven) training program for me. I have decided to follow the Hansons Marathon Method as many people have had a lot of success with this plan and knocked a lot of time of their previous PB's. I have never followed a training plan completely before and certainly never trained more than 3 times a week consistently. I also take photos and talk a lot while running marathons, taking my time at water stations, and going to the toilet A LOT. I figured if I work on all these things I actually do have a chance of at least a SUB 4, if not qualifying for London!

The Hansons Marathon Method (I'm following the beginner plan as the advanced looks way too hard) starts off slow but then gets pretty serious very quickly. It's written in miles so I've had to work out roughly what it is in kilometres.

Here's an example of week 11:-

Mon     Tue                           Wed   Thurs                   Fri       Sat       Sun

8k         6 x 1.5k Strength      Off     Tempo - 13k       9.5k     13k      25.5k

(easy)   (400m recovery)                 (5:15 pace)           (easy)  (easy)  (5:40 pace)                                                                                                               

I'll be writing a post every Sunday about how the week's training has gone. I think the hardest thing will be getting out of the door 6 times a week during the cold Danish winter!!

Wish me luck! I'm going to need it..........

The Marathon Oscars!

After running Barcelona and Rome marathons last week, which were organised completely differently from each other, I decided to rate each marathon I've run out of 10 for different categories. It's kind of like the Marathon Oscars.

I invite comments below for you to rate your own marathons by the categories too and then, when I have quite a few marathons rated, I'll make a Marathon Oscar stand alone page. If you can think of any categories I have missed let me know and I'll add them to the post.

Remember these are my ratings. Maybe you ran Berlin last year when the start number pick up was supposed to be a nightmare? Or you don't agree with my low rating about Rome marathons course? Again rate your marathons in the comments section below.

My hope is that this will help other runners decide which marathons will be great to run and which they should avoid!

Welcome to The Marathon Oscars!!!

Registration

Copenhagen 9/10

Valencia 7/10

Madrid 9/10

Berlin 8/10

Barcelona 9/10

Rome 6/10

Expo

Copenhagen 6/10

Valencia 7/10

Madrid 7/10

Berlin 9/10

Barcelona 9/10

Rome 7/10

Race Number Pick Up

Copenhagen 8/10

Valencia 8/10

Madrid 7/10

Berlin 9/10

Barcelona 10/10

Rome 8/10

Start Line

Copenhagen 7/10

Valencia 8/10

Madrid 7/10

Berlin 7/10

Barcelona 10/10

Rome 5/10

Refreshment Stations

Copenhagen 7/10

Valencia 7/10

Madrid 9/10

Berlin 6/10

Barcelona 9/10

Rome 4/10

Toilets (Start Line)

Copenhagen 8/10

Valencia 7/10

Madrid 7/10

Berlin 8/10

Barcelona 8/10

Rome 7/10

Toilets (Around the Course)

Copenhagen 7/10

Valencia 0/10 (no toilets)

Madrid 7/10

Berlin (I never used them so will give the average point of 5/10 from the other marathons)

Barcelona 7/10

Rome 4/10

Course

Copenhagen 6/10

Valencia 7/10

Madrid 9/10

Berlin 8/10

Barcelona 7/10

Rome 4/10

Sights (based on how many of the city sights were part of the course)

Copenhagen 6/10

Valencia 9/10

Madrid 9/10

Berlin 8/10

Barcelona 9/10

Rome 7/10

Finish Line

Copenhagen 8/10

Valencia 10/10

Madrid 7/10

Berlin 10/10

Barcelona 8/10

Rome 5/10

Medal

Copenhagen 6/10

Valencia 6/10

Madrid 9/10

Berlin 8/10

Barcelona 9/10

Rome 10/10

Other Runners (considerate, friendly, etc.)

Copenhagen 8/10

Valencia 8/10

Madrid 8/10

Berlin 5/10

Barcelona 8/10

Rome 4/10

Spectators

Copenhagen 7/10

Valencia 8/10

Madrid 9/10

Berlin 10/10

Barcelona 9/10

Rome 4/10

Overall Marathon Oscar Champion Ratings:-

WINNER!!!

Barcelona 112/130 points

Madrid 104/130 points

Berlin 100/130 points

Copenhagen 93/130 points

Valencia 91/130 points

Rome 77/130 points

Barcelona Marathon Weekend will be Hot!

Weather This Weekend, Mar 14

Next Weekend >

• Friday

  Mar 14

  Partly sunny and delightful16° Lo 10°RealFeel® 19° / Lo 6°more

• Saturday

  Mar 15

  Mostly sunny and pleasant19° Lo 10°RealFeel® 19° / Lo 7°more

• Sunday

  Mar 16

  Mostly sunny17° Lo 10°RealFeel® 19° / Lo 8°more

Long Run Before Barcelona!

My long run for Barcelona is now done and out of the way :-) I ran 26k this time which is much more than I did for Copenhagen last year!

I have done so much training the last few months and feel in the best shape and am ready to run my slowest marathon yet!
The challenge for me will be to run slow so I'll probably do my normal marathon pace and just walk a lot :-)

I'm aiming to finish Barcelona and Rome in 5 hours. Barcelona won't be a problem but I have no idea how my legs will be for Rome one week later! Even if it takes me 6 hours to finish Rome I don't care as it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful and interesting marathon routes :-)

Now I can sit back and relax a bit. I love tapering!

4 Weeks until Barcelona Marathon and 5 Weeks until Rome!

 It's been a little while since I've last written here! I've been very busy with my training and also setting up my new business More Than Tourism. I thought today would be a great day to catch up as it's now only 4 weeks until Barcelona marathon and 5 weeks until Rome!

My training has been the best ever! I've been following my own plan of running a fast 5k each week, a 10k each week, and then building up my kilometres on the third training day. I have run two half marathon training sessions, one two weeks ago and one yesterday. I have my VERY long training run next Sunday and then can start tapering at last :-)

I believe my training has been so successful because, for two of the runs each week, I have my running partner Felicity with me! This has really helped get me out of the door in the snow, rain, and wind!

I am very much looking forward to both Barcelona and Rome marathons :-) I can't wait to visit both cities again! As of now I know no one in Barcelona and aren't in touch with anyone that will be running there! I'm sure I'll find a local to run next to and talk their ears off a bit ;-)

In Rome I am meeting up with an old school friend of mine called Danny. I haven't seen him in 20 years so it will be lovely to have a chance to catch up. He ran London marathon for the first time last year. It seems he caught the bug too!

I am so close to achieving my goal of joining the Marathon Maniacs and am going to be an extremely HAPPY girlie when I cross Romes finish line. I've already decided to treat myself to the biggest and most delicious Italian ice cream I can find :-)

2014 Race Plan

I can't believe I have almost all of my races planned out for 2014!

Here's the list:- (so far)

16th March 2014 - Barcelona Marathon

23rd March 2014 - Rome Marathon

4th August 2014 - Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon

14th September 2014 - Copenhagen Powerade Half Marathon

12th October 2014 - Royal Parks Ultra Marathon 50km

 As you can see there's a rather large gap between Rome Marathon and Dublin Half Marathon. This is because I am doing another sporty activity in May that I haven't tried before so won't know until afterwards if I want a race before Dublin or not.

21st May 2014 - Climbing Ben Nevis (and yes there will probably be snow on the mountain)

Two Marathons in One Week!

And so I'm out of the running for a London Marathon place again! When I found
out I was pretty sad so I automatically began looking for some other
running goal to cheer myself up.

I am already signed up for Rome on 23rd March 2014 so started considering
running Madrid marathon again as that's in April. Then I realised that if I also
run Copenhagen in May I would have run 3 marathons in 3 months which will
mean I can become a Marathon Maniac!

There were two problems with this idea though; 1: I've already run Madrid and,
even though I loved it, I'd like to run somewhere else, 2: I've run Copenhagen
marathon twice now and really I'm not that interested in running it again! I only
did it the second time because I got a free race number.

So I started thinking about what other marathons I wanted to run. While I'm doing
this my older son is watching TV and sees a Barcelona football advert. He shouts
'Barcelona' at the TV and I type Barcelona marathon into google.
I can see it's on 16th March 2014, only one week before Rome. I really like the idea of
running two marathons one after the other. But it's not just two marathons, it's two
that have been on my bucketlist for a REALLY long time. My husband says it's fine for
me to be away for two weekends in a row and I'll just travel out on the Saturdays and
back on the Mondays.

So I sign up for Barcelona marathon 2014!!!

I am very excited about this challenge and know that I have to prepare and train
properly this time. My plan is to train for a 4:30 Barcelona marathon and then run
it in 5 hours. This way I won't be working myself to the limit and should have a nice
easy time in Barcelona.
My plan for Rome is and always has been to treat it like a tourist run around the city
with my camera so I don't care if this takes me 6 hours to finish :-)

Because I will be running two marathons so close together I can still join the Marathon
Maniacs!!

What have I got myself into this time :-)

Gran Canaria Marathon Wins!

Gran Canaria Marathon wins over Valencia and I will be running it if I can get cheap flights down there.

This is because I don't have any accommodation costs as one of the most WONDERFUL people I have met in a long time has invited me to stay with them :-)

The price of registration looks like it goes up at the end of June so I have given myself until then to decide.....

Also I signed up yesterday for the London Marathon 2013 lottery. This is the 2nd year running! I don't like lotterys but have to try to get a spot if I can.

So we've got Berlin Sept. 2012 as a definate, Gran Canaria Jan. 2013 as an 80% chance, Barcelona March 2013 as a 95% chance (just have to convince Ciry), London April 2013 as a 50/50, Brisbane August 2013 as a 80%. I bet you thought I'd forgotten Brisbane (ok I actually had). And that will probably be it for 2013.

If I keep going like this I'll be getting so much closer to my 50 marathons, in 50 cities, before I'm 50 goal :-)
I'm already at 3! Only 47 to go in ___ years......Well I'm not telling you how 'young' I am!!

My Marathon Wish List for the Next Year!

Madrid Memories

My plan is now to become a 'Marathon Maniac' like my friend Paul from 50 is the new 30. All I have to do is run 3 marathons in 90 days. I'm not sure if I can do that this year or not. There is a marathon not far from me on October 14th which is 2 weeks after Berlin and one month before Valencia. You don't have to sign up much in advance so I think I'll see how I recover from Berlin and take it from there. If I do run all 3 I'll be doing three marathons in less than 2 months!!

This is my 'marathon wish list' for the next year (or so).

30th Sept 2012 - Berlin Marathon (already have a place)

14th Oct 2012 - Sydkyst Marathon (this depends how easily I recover from Berlin)

18th Nov 2012 - Valencia Marathon (again)

17th March 2013 - Barcelona Marathon (please please please Ciry)

April 2013 - London Marathon (if I get a place in the lottery draw)

Jan 2014 - Gran Canaria Marathon (for Pancho!)

I was looking at Athens in November 2013 but think that 90 Euros is a little steep for race entry. I know London will be expensive too but it's almost my 'home town' so if I get a place I have to pay out for that one :-)

Valencia looks like it will be a definate one as I'm hoping to go there for a week and take 'part one' of a beginner Spanish course. I'll take part two 'when' I am in Barcelona to run the marathon there next March!

I'm really hoping that Ciry wants to run Barcelona in 2013!! There are so many people we know that are going to. Come on Ciry......you know you want to :-)

50 Marathons, 50 Cities, Before I'm 50

I shared a dream of mine with a Spanish guy that I ran some of Valencia Marathon with.

That dream is to run 50 marathons in 50 different european cities before I'm 50!!

These are my marathon ideas (not set in stone) for the next few years:-

May 2011 - Copenhagen Marathon
Nov 2011 - Valencia Marathon
Spring 2012 - Madrid or Barcelona Marathon
Autumn 2012 - Berlin Marathon
Spring 2013 - Barcelona or Madrid Marathon
Autumn 2013 - Nice-Cannes Marathon
Spring 2014 - Seville Marathon
Autumn 2014 - Venice Marathon

From 2013 I will probably begin to run three marathons a year!! There are so many others I want to do such as Milan, Lisbon, Budapest, Florence, Hamburg, Rome.........

I'm not sure if I can be called a beginner anymore. Maybe I should change the title of my blog to the title of this post??

My Barcelona Marathon Goals!

SUNDAY JUNE 5th, 2011

I've been asked by a few people what my Barcelona Marathon 2012 goals are. They are as follows :-

1. To enjoy myself and have fun.

2. To finish quicker than Copenhagen Marathon. Around 4:30 is what I will be aiming for.

3. To see the sights of Barcelona.

For me, enjoying myself while running a marathon will always be top of the list :-)