Saturday 27 March 2010

The last 3 weeks

Hi folks,

It always seems to be too long since my last post but I though I better provide an update of what have been going on these past 3 weeks, its been a bit of a rollercoaster but thankfully finishing on a positive on note. I also thought I better reassure a few running friends who might have been to scared to ask me how I was :-)

After a key workout a couple of weeks ago (A 20k tempo), which was run as 10k at race pace then 10k faster, the second 10k was actually the one of fastest 10ks I have run locally. I unfortunately a couple of days later picked up a niggle around my left ankle/achilles area which prevented me finishing my long run. A problem which subsquently prevented me for training for the following week and disrupting the a further week after that. This meant I had to pull out of the Reading Half Marathon, disappointing as I felt I was ready to run a fast time and improve on my PB of 64.27.

I'm pleased to say that things are now looking good again after a solid week of running this week and an ultra sound scan which showed nothing to be worried about. This was music to my ears and good timing seeing as I went to see Cannon (my main sponsors) later that day. I was invited to the first noon day gun of the year at Castle Cornet (Cannon also aptly sponsor this). So it was good to be able to talk about positive stuff and my plans for London.

London is now only 4 weeks away so I'm hitting the training again with a vengeance. After being in such good shape after the interuption I feel confident that the small amount of fitness lost will be recovered over the next few days or so.

Will keep you update later next week with training and possible racing... its the Guernsey Easter Festival over the holidays but I am yet to commit to racing as I need to see how this next few days of training go before deciding what will serve me best as part of the marathon preparations.

Also good luck to the Guernsey team who travel over to our neighbors Jersey today to race in the annual XC inter-insular event. We should dominate the mens agains ( i think we've won it the last 15 years or something daft like that), the womens will be a much closer affair.

Anyway I better get myself ready to get out and run, just a couple of easy runs todays to recover from last times tempo workout then a long run tomorrow of 2hr 30 (which equates to around 24miles or so), until next week.

Monday 1 March 2010

Training report.

Hi folks, sorry its been so long again since my last post, as now seems the norm for me these days. Training has been going well as I start to enter the key preparation weeks in the lead up to the Virgin London Marathon. After the European Club XC Champs I went into 2 weeks build up in terms of mileage, running 110 and just short 120 of these weeks, this basically meant all i was doing was steady running alongside my none running activities such as stretching, core & other conditioning exercises, foam rolling and so on. My long run is now up to 2hr 30mins, and i'm covering just over 24miles in that time feeling pretty comfortable too, I must admit I'm enjoying these runs more than I thought I would and feeling nice and strong on them too, with little in the way of any after effects.

Last week I went up to Loughborough to see John (Nuttal) my coach, to get a session in with the training group(s) up there (loughborough is now UK Athletics home for Endurance) and also to do some fitness testing to check how things are going. I was only there from the Monday to the Friday, but I got a good hill session done on the Tuesday night and then a more specific session done Friday morning. This consisted of a part Physiology test (part because I only did the first section of a the usual full test) this was used to just check my first lactate turn point, this point usually tells you a lot above your possible marathon shape as marathon pace tends to occur just above this point. It was good news as looking at the initial data it suggests that this turn point have improved since last time, ( i should get full data later this week back from the physiologist). Other results and feedback were good too, with my blood lactate readings being very low generally (essentially this means I am using mainly fat as a fuel source which key for the marathon). After a only a few minutes of doing the test in the lab I was out on the road for a marathon pace workout which consisted of just over 12miles of running over a 3mile circuit (as we again took a blood sample after each circuit), unfortably it was very windy that day so the pace was all over the place (slow into the wind) and fast with the wind so I used my heart rate readings to make sure i didn't work too hard when the pace got slowed down by the conditions. It was good session in the end though, I felt good and blood reading stayed constant which suggests I has holding the pace well and not getting tired as the session went on.

Overall a good few days in Loughborough and another step forward. I have another couple of weeks of heavy training planned now before a slightly easier week leading into the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday 21st March.

Until next time.