Charlotte is racing in the European Championships Marathon on Sunday – here is how she prepared….in her words…
My first training camp in St Moritz. I’ve been to loads of places in Europe for training but surprisingly never St Moritz before so I was excited to come here and see what all the fuss was about. I’m here with British Athletics before the European Championships which are next week in Berlin.
I’ve been up here for the last 5 weeks. We are at 1,800m Altitude. I respond really well to Altitude so that’s a big reason why I chose to come here. I can honestly say it’s great here for training. There’s a great mix of running routes which are straight from the door (you don’t need a car at all). There are hilly runs but also flat ones around the lakes of St Moritz. There is also a track up here and an Engadin airport about 4K away which has a 5K road loop around it. Iv been doing most of my marathon specific training sessions around this loop as it’s perfect for marathon simulation.
My training has been going really well here and I’m hoping to show a good result next week when I race. Obviously I was really disappointed to miss the London Marathon this year due to injury, but I believe this has been a blessing in disguise as I’m now feeling fitter and fresher than I believe I would have been. On this training camp I was able to complete 6 weeks of 110+ mile weeks with my biggest being a couple of weeks ago where I ran 130 miles.
I’m now into the final 10 days before the race so it’s all about reducing the miles and starting to feel fresher now. I’m excited to get out there and race. After running 3 marathons last year I feel as if it has been ages since I raced one! Up until race day now I have one more mini session on Tuesday and the rest is pretty straight forward!
The race next week is also a team event for the marathon, it’s great that we have a strong team of British women and we can hopefully grasp a team medal. The course is 4X10k laps and I’ve heard from Steve (who did a reccie as part of an inter-railing holiday with his family!) that is is fast and flat with a few turns so I’ll let you know what I think of it next Sunday evening!