New marathon, new title

I was a bit cagey about what my target was for Boston. The truth is that I went into it with expectations of what I could run on the flat, and was left a little disappointed. It would have been nice to have got under 3:30, but with hindsight I did run a good marathon. I know I would have been well under 3:30 on a faster course. So head says "pleased", heart says "awww!".

This time round I'm not going to be so cagey about my aims.

I already have my 'Good For Age' (GFA) qualifying time for London 2007, but having watched this year's ladies' championships, and in particular the inspiring performance of Hilly, I have to try for a championship place.

So the plan is to get my GFA application in, but then try to upgrade it to a championship place by running under 3:15 at Abingdon in October.

I know this is ambitious, but my improvement has shown no sign of slowing yet. With each marathon I'm able to train harder and keep improving.

The plan this time round is to follow Mike Gratton's plan more closely. I will increase my mileage to maybe 80 miles per week, by adding more doubles. Initially I won't be doing the 20-mile weekend runs, or 15-mile midweek runs, but follow Mike's time based plan and keep to 2:00-2:30 at the weekend and 90 minutes midweek. The longer runs will get phased in later.

I've already started running early each morning before work. I used to struggle to do doubles, largely because it meant getting up more than an hour earlier to do the run. By getting up at the same time each day, the early mornings seem easier. It's then a matter of adding the evening runs for the doubles, which is not a problem.

With the summer upon us, I think I'm actually going to enjoy this!