17th in Bilbao

I'm a bit late in getting this report up and sorry it's been so long generally since my last post but things have a been a bit hectic with training, racing, work etc, generally all good though.

First things first... last weekend I was away racing in Bilbao for the European Club Cross Country Championships, I was running for my UK club Newham & Essex Beagles, the team finished a respectable 8th place it what was a strong field and tricky, challanging course. I was our first runner home in 17th place which on reflexion was solid run, particularly bearing in mind the course. It was short lap of approx 1800m on a small area of very muddy ground right bang in the middle of city (I think literally the only piece of grass in a built up city). As the area used for the race was so small it ment the course had many sharp turns, and truth be told I found the very muddy conditions hard going with my training geared more towards the road than the country, although I think most of the 90+ field found it hard going! checkout the results on www.tilastopaja.org/staticresults/eaa12793472.htm this is cool website for those running buffs out their, as you can pretty much find results of every athlete and race across the world of certain standard. To get full access you need to sign up though.

It can be quite difficult to assess your performance in a cross country races when you don't know the opposition around you very well looking at the standard of those around me after the race I'm satified with my run. The race was won by the recent European Champion Alemayehu Bezabeh of Spain and the field contained a number of the top 20 from the December's European Champs.

Generally since Edinburgh my training has been going really well, consistant mileage of around 100 per week and intervals sessions and tempo runs have been much better than than before xmas. Edinburgh felt like a turning point and has come at a good time with my main preparation for the marathon now getting under way, the weekend before the Bilbao I ran a local 10mile road race as tempo run, winning in 50.41, feeling very in control on what isn't the fastest course with the first mile up a steep climb. Currently I'm taking the mileage up at the moment with 110+ scheduled this week, things are going ok although I have had more parent duties this week with Teresa away for a few days for work so that's been a challenge in itself!

Will try and get some more regular posts up over the next few weeks, I'm tend to keep my twitter updated a bit more often though so checkout that out for some more regular updates.

Until next time.