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.