ALICE
DOGGRELL
Age 37
From Bristol
Big Marathon Challenge To break 3hrs 30mins in London
Day job Knitwear designer
Twitter: @fakoriginalAlthough she’s been running since 2011,
Alice’s speed really took off when she
accidentally joined “the fastest club in the
West”. She loves to set herself a challenge
and, in 2015, ran at least 5K every day –
including her first marathon, which she
completed in 3:40:21, gaining a Good For
Age entry into the London Marathon.
How’s your training going?
I think it’s going really well. I’m following
the plan, I’m doing what Richard says, and
I haven’t broken down or anything so I’m
taking that as a big tick.
Has anything on the plan surprised you?
Probably the volume. Compared to what I’ve
done before, and looking at what my friends
are doing, the volume is quite a bit lower
so I’m trying not to panic at this stage and
just trusting in the plan, because we’re still a
long way out. By now, I thought I’d be doing
around 40 to 50 miles [per week], but I’m
probably doing around 30 miles. I’m sure it
will come together.
Are you managing to enforce that extra
recovery that he’s suggested?
I am at the moment. I’m being very good,
helped a lot by the fact that my gym was
closed down over Christmas so I haven’t
been able to do any extra classes. I’ve been
resting when I’m told to rest. Got to trust in
the plan, it’s there for a reason.Do you have any other functional exercises
to do?
I haven’t been given any specific exercises to
do but I do have strength and conditioning
exercises built in to my timetable. Richard
knows which gym classes I do and he’s
happy for me to use those. I am missing the
classes [that I used to do] a little bit – I’m
missing some of the people.How did you train over Christmas?
I did a little bit of rescheduling here and
there because I celebrated Christmas on
Boxing Day, so I swapped things around and
Richard said it’s fine to do that. I did a very
gentle parkrun on Christmas Day because I
was only allowed to run for 40 minutes.How have your clubmates and friends
reacted to seeing you in print and on the Big
Marathon Challenge team?
They’ve been really supportive. I’ve had
one recognition ‘in the wild’ from one of
my fellow parkrunners, who I don’t actually
know. They’ve all been very curious about
how it works and what my plan is compared
to theirs.How has it felt to hand over control of your
training to somebody else?
A little bit weird but not that bad becauseI have [had] no training or coaching of
any form or description. Before, I relied on
books, and now I rely on Richard. I trusted
in the book last time and now I’m trusting in
Richard. He hasn’t done me wrong so far.
The volume is probably the biggest
change and I’m doing slightly different
sessions as well. Whereas I’d probably do
one speedwork session, one interval session,
one tempo run, and one long run a week, I’m
doing more interval sessions than I would
normally, so my volume is dispersed in a
slightly different way. I’m sure it will change
as the plan evolves. Richard sends us two
weeks of training plans at a time – it means
I can’t plan too far ahead which is probably
good and he’s quite flexible, so if I want to
do a race he’ll fit that in.Or tell you that you can’t do it...?
Exactly – I’m really hoping he tells me I can’t
do cross-country!What are you enjoying most about the
training?
At the moment I’m enjoying the variety,
because I’m doing different sessions to what
I normally would. I’ve never really done
Kenyan hills before. My local parkrun is one
massive hill so that’s normally enough hill
training for one week. I do my hills in a park
near me, it’s just the right distance away for
the warm-up.How did you find the shoe fitting at ASICS
Canary Wharf?
That was very entertaining. I do love having
pictures taken of my feet. I had it done a
couple of years ago and luckily [the ASICS
staff] agreed with what the last person said:
I do still have neutral feet. The sizing’s a
little different – size seven! They’re all very
knowledgeable and it’s good to know that
I’ve been wearing the right shoes so far. I’ve
also had my HIGH5 samples box through;
I already use them so it’s like, “Yay, more
stuff !” The only problem I have now is where
to store it...THE COACH’S VIEW
Alice is going great guns. She’s working to the
right effort levels and handled 3 x 10 mins
threshold off 90 seconds recovery in complete
control during our group training session. She’s
well on target for 3hrs 30mins in the marathon.
We will be increasing her training volume and
intensity. We just need to avoid doing too much
too soon. Alice is a strong runner due to her
consistent strength and conditioning work.womensrunninguk.co.uk