Holidays over,time to prepare for Barcelona

Hi everyone,

Im back in Guernsey now after a 10 day family break in sunny Turkey, I must admit it was kinda nice having my days evolve around things other than running for a change. However after a week of no running and the body feeling much better for it I did start to miss the routine!

Whilst away I had my selection for the Great Britain team confirmed for European Champs/European Marathon Cup event, which will be in Barcelona from 27th July until 1st August, the mens Marathon is on the 1st August. The Guernsey Commonwealth Games Association also confirmed my selection for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games which are in October later this year, so plenty of big races to train for and look forward to.

Barcelona and Delhi will not only provide a very competitive stage to compete on but both will provide a challanging climate to cope with too, Barcelona inparticular could potentially be very tough. Running a marathon is hardwork enough but with temparatures likely to be in and about the mid 30's this will be a whole new ball game. This sort of thing can make races more open though so I see this as a excellent opportunity to surpase expectations and to make a name for myself. I plan to run on the track in Delhi in either the 5k or the 10k (yet to be decided) as I don't want to race three marathons in such a short period of time, it would also be nice to finally record a fast track time that i know I am capable of doing.

So with 12 weeks to Barcelona my recovery seems to be coming along ok. I am just steady running at the minute and probably will do this for at least another week to ensure that London is completely out of my legs.

One other I would I like to mentioned is the overwelming feedback and messages I had following London. I had a tons of messages (i tried to reply to most of them although I did lose track of which ones I actually replied too!) I also had a lot of people just simply coming up to me to congratulate me. I think this is one of the reasons why Guernsey has so many people doing well in sport for a small place, as the recognition and support from local people makes it all the more rewarding.

Until next time.

12th at the Virgin London Marathon

Hi folks


I'm writing this up from a guest house, myself Teresa and Thomas head off to Turkey tomorrow for a well earnt family holiday so I wanted to get a race report up before I headed out as I probably won't get online while I'm away...


So, I finished in 12th place as the title suggests in a time of 2.16.47 inside the qualifying time for the European Championships which are in Barcelona later this summer. Qualification will be confirmed tomorow (tuesday 27th April) on the UK Athletics website http://www.uka.org.uk/.


I must admit I'm not completely satisfied with the time as I believe I was capable of running 2.15, possibly faster, however all things considered it was a solid debut, perhaps if I hadn't missed the couple of weeks of training at the start of March the time may have been quicker but still much to be pleased with and a good starting point to build on for the future.


London was a fantastic experience and has taught me a lot for future marathons, the crowd support was awesume and I could hear lots of familar voices cheering me along the course. Thanks to all who sent through well done message over the past 24 hours too.


Before I sign off here are a couple of piccies courtesy of Mark Shearman from Sunday...

Last weekend race & looking ahead to London

I'm a little bit slow in getting this post out but on Easter Friday I raced in the Guernsey 10k, well I say raced, technically it was training. Having missed a bit of training a few weeks back we decided (that's John, my coach & I) that it was better to get a key marathon paced session in... the session planned was a 20k split up run, which was 10k at race pace and 10k faster but rather than run this completely on my own I ran the first 10k at race pace before the race, iterally finishing a minute before, threw my vest on and then turned round and ran the 10k race. The route that I have been using for my marathon paced sessions has been along the west coast of the island anyway which is same stretch of road used for the race so it made sense to combine things. It was nice to have some company too on the second 10k and the pace that the guys around me were running (at least the first 5k) was pretty much what I was aiming for. Unfortunately the second 5k slowed down a bit, it got a bit tactical and was also into a strong wind. In hindsight I should have just pushed on as after all it was training session, however I got a sniff of victory so I sat in for a couple of km's while running into wind. With 1km to go though I did pushed on (in what turned out to be a nasty stretch into the wind), this broke up the group of 5 runners, all except a young lad called Jonny Hay, who sat in for the ride and then took advance of the 19.5km in my legs and out kicked me. Overall though I was pleased with the workout, generally I felt pretty good within myself, although strangely my heart rates were a bit higher than I would have expected. As it turns out this may have been an early warning sign as the following evening I came down with stomach bug! unfortunately missing my sunday run. Luckily it was just a 24hour thing and I was out running again on the following day, it wasn't pleasant being in the same room as though on Sunday though!

It's only just over 2 weeks to London now and I'm starting to get that excited and nervous feeling that comes with the build up to an important race. This is definately one of the best bits about racing and knowing that I'm feeling this way is always a good sign for me. When I starting to feel like this I know that i'm starting to get both body and mind ready to race. When I feel nothing it usually means one of two things... either the race doesn't mean anything to me and I'm unlikely to raise my game or I'm simply to tired from training to get excited, which I tend to feel sometimes during heavy periods of training. Funnily enough I was listening to radio one yesterday on the way to do my last marathon session and a song came on which kind reminded me why I like racing, its song called Everybody's Free (to wear sunsreen) by Baz Luhrmann, the lyrics are apparently from a essay which was publish in US newspaper in 1997 (thanks to wikipedia for that the info :@) the lyrics are basically all spoken and is essentially advice but one particular line says 'do something everyday which scares you', racing feels a bit like this, I guess a bit like riding a roller coaster, the anticipation can be scary and gets the adrenaline pumping but afterwards you are buzzing and you want to do it all over again. Perhaps not straight away in the case of the marathon mind you!

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.

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.

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.

Edinburgh XC Report

Hi Folks

Well I didn't think I was going to get there but after being rescheduled onto a later flight Friday afternoon, i did get away after all. I had to get my train into a racing mind set as I had kind of resided myself that I would get away. I must say my arrangement were a walk in the park compared with the Mexican athlete Barrios (who finished 5th in the end) he flew into Heathrow from Mexico two days before, had this flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh cancelled so had to get the train, the train then terminated at Newcastle due to weather and he had to get the bus from Newcastle to Edinburgh which got him to the hotel at 3am the day of the race! hats to him for racing as well as he did.

I was fairly pleased with my race in the end, as i've been quite tired in training recently and was unsure as to what I might produce on the day. 10th overall was a good enough result and I believe I will only get better over the coming weeks with training changing a little bit now. Conditions during the race were quite pleasant with the sun coming out and there being no wind, its was still fairly cold in terms of the temparature and i wore only a vest! which was fine to begin with but the sun disappeared behind the hills midway into the race and my body started to feel the effects of the cold later into the race. I went straight to the foil wraps they were handing out at the end of the race and then straight to the athletes tent for a hot drink! not usually my first thoughts after a race. Overall I really enjoyed the race though, which I think is my first in the snow (from start to finish), I had a good battle with the Eritrean athletes (now based in Scotland) althought they need to learn to run in a straight line as they kept cutting across me in the race, nothing a good elbow didnt fix though :@), was nice to beat them both too. Also in the race was Bekele (the current World and Olympic Champ over 10,000m and 11 time World XC Champion) he who suffered only his second ever defeat in a xc race and although clearly not in his best shape, still a shock defeat none the less.

1st Ebyua (kenya) 28.41

2nd Mbishei 28.42

3rdKipchoge 29.04

4th Bekele (Ethiopia) 29.17

5th Barrios (Mexico) 29.25

6th Lebid (UKraine) 29.51

7th Thompson (GB) 29.52

8th Skinner (GB) 30.01

9th McLeod (GB) 30.20

10th Merrien 30.22

11th Tewelde (Eritrean) 30.24

12th Mengisteab (Eritean) 30.26)

It looking likely that my next race off island won't be until February, this will the European Club Cross Country Champs in Bilbao,Spain where i will be racing my UK club Newham.

Until next time.