So this week I’m starting my full training schedule. I’ve also decided, following my performance at the Paris Marathon, to use the non-linear periodisation system again. Hopefully I’ll be able to smash my marathon PB by running the Dublin Marathon in 4h30m00s – that’s my goal anyway.

Friday’s schedule called for 5 miles easy with 6 x 30 second fartlek intervals. The first time I saw what mileage I had to cover, I thought it sounded like a big ask. I’ve still got memories of how tiring this session used to be, especially with the fartlek intervals, which really knackered me out.

However, once I got out there I discovered I didn’t really need to put in any extra effort into running the five miles (except for running around the headland – the wind was quite strong and was a struggle to run against sometimes). What really pleasantly surprised me though was my peformance during the fartlek intervals.

The last time I regularly did this kind of session, I looked upon intervals with some trepidation because after each interval I was always exhausted. This time though I managed to breeze through them. I was even able to increase my pace in each progressive interval, which was something I definitely couldn’t have done last time. Previously I would start out running each interval really fast and then slow down through tiredness in each following interval.

So after the first week back to “normal” training, I’m generally quite impressed with my state of fitness. As usual, I seem to have underestimated my ability again, as I appear to be fitter than I give myself credit for. Using this training plan to train for Paris seems to have really boosted my general levels of fitness, aerobic endurance and stamina. Not bad!

The long tempo runs were also a challenge, having to run at a moderate pace, just below my aerobic threshold, in order to increase my stamina. Hard work. After that I had another week of easy mediu-length runs to recover, then it is on with the same schedule repeated but to a higher intensity. That means longer runs, longer interval periods and more jogging up hills. Great!

So my new intensive base training schedule sees me running between four to five times a week, which is a step up from the effort that I have come to expect at this stage in marathon training. However, I can confidently call myself an intermediate now rather than a beginner, so I’m not intimidated by the increase in training.

The most exciting part of this new schedule is the inclusion of different types of training, such as fartlek and hill work. Fartlek involves running at a fast pace for a set time, then doing a “recovery” jogs for an equal period and repeating the sequence several times. Hill work involves the same principle of a period of hard effort followed by an equal period of recovery, this time running up hills and then jogging down them, several times.

This base training schedule lasts about six weeks. The benefit of all this should be that I will have given myself a solid foundation on which to build my marathon training.