Marathon Training- Take two

Oh the joys of training for your first marathon- feet pounding as your building more and more miles. Running distances you've never run before-it's invigorating and exciting. When I lined up at the start line I knew I had done the miles and all I had to do was finish. I ran it and although I enjoyed it, I was never going to run again (I really told multiple people this) and here I am four and a half weeks into my training for my second marathon feeling like a prize plum.

First time round I just set myself the target of hitting the distances at a pace I was comfortable with, I walked a lot in my long runs and was comfortable with that. I have set myself a goal of beating my Brighton time of 5:30-which means I need to run under 12 min miles. That may not be much to most people but 26 miles at any guaranteed pace is hard work for my tired legs. Also the miles aren't as new as they first were, I'm not reaching new distances every week and therefore I'm not getting the satisfaction that I once had, but I guess that was due to come eventually.

This is clearly a worried face in a very patchy training run.

I am at the moment reaching most of my targets but my body is always tired and I worry that every little niggle is an injury. This spring season I have two friends who have been injured and unable to run their marathons, I am now starting to worry this will happen to me as I haven't been able to train as much as I wanted before I started my plan.

Tempo runs are hard! Forcing myself to pick up the pace when I'm tired and wanting to go home and shower. Having paces are even harder and making myself check pace and run to set times is harder then I thought. I love running and I am enjoying the plan but I don't know if my body will cope enough to make it.

The biggest difficulty I have been having is not being a grumpy girlfriend. I forgot how hangry I get after running, especially the long run. My poor boyfriend has also had to put up with pre-run tears and post run grumpiness. He has handled it perfectly but for the sake of my relationship I want to sort out my fuelling so I'm less grumpy. I'm also hoping that as I grow in strength that I will stop doubting my inability to do the miles and the speeds that my plan is asking.

I'm hoping that as it goes on I will get stronger, I will stop being sore and I will grow in confidence. I just hope that when I line up for the Edinburgh Marathon in May that I am proud of what I've done and I can go ahead knowing the training paid off.