Barcelona plan in place

I never seem to update my blog as much as I intend to, however here's the lastest installment...


Training has been steadily building up following my Virgin London Marathon run and my short break immediately following. Whilst the muscle soreness took only a matter of days to settle down it took a little longer for my legs to start to feel fresh and bouncey again. The session I ran last weekend was possible the best I'd felt since the race and was a welcome feeling!

As the heading suggests I now have my plan in place following discusions with my coach (John Nuttall), a relationship that works essentially as a partnership. Generally John sets the specific areas within my training such as the key workouts (usually 3 per week), a weekly mileage guide and a general framework to the periodisation. The day to day stuff such as the actual run lengths, strength work and other daily training routines are essentially my reasonability. It's worked pretty well given the logistics though, being that John is based in Loughborough and myself in Guernsey. This is something I am fairly used to though as other than my 2 years when I was at the University of Bath I have always been based in Guernsey. People always ask me if has made life more difficult for me but other than the obvious travel issues and the lack of training partners from time to time I believe being based in Guernsey has been a hugh part in aiding me in getting to where I am. For a start if i was a runner living in the UK I don't think I would have picked up a such a great sponsor as Cannon, many UK based athletes quit the sport due to the lack of support. There are plenty of other bonuses to being in Guernsey too, such as great training locations and very good facilities all within a stone through of home and not forgetting the fantastic local support generally. Anyway back to the plan... basically the key framework is all in place now with just over 9 weeks to go to race day (Sunday 1st August). Final Preparations also include a 4 1/2 week altitude stay at the UK Athletics training camp in Font Romeu. Font Romeu is a small location in the Pyrennes right on the French/Spanish boarder and its at 1800m altitude and probably better known to some as Paula Radcliffe's preferred training base. I am really looking forward to this as it will ensure my final preparations are as good as they can be in the lead up to what will be my most important race to date. I think I will find it difficult initially though, as it will be the longest time I have been away from home since Thomas was born. To be fair though it will be harder for my wife Teresa having to work fulltime and still look after Thomas on her own. Another thing that I am really looking forward to is Guernsey Spearpoint Fathers Day Half Marathon on 20th June, as I plan to run this event as part of my preparations. It will be the first time I have run the event but it fits perfectly within my schedule, furthermore there will be good competition in the to race too. As Ben Moreau (who is also selected to run for GB in the European Marathon Champs) and Fraser Thompson (an aussie based in London) will be coming over for the event. I would have normally had to look for a race away around the same time so to be able to race in a strong competitive race on home soil (or tarmac in this case) is perfect for me as it means more time at home with the Font Romeu trip around the corner.

Anyway thats all for now. When I get round to my next update I will start putting up some training details so people can see what my 120mile plus weeks look like in general. If people have any questions or thoughts on future blog posts please let me know.

Until next time.