One month and counting...

As per usual it's been a while since my last blog post but I have plenty to right about it, it's just been finding the time. Since my selection was announced things have been a bit of a whirl wind, despite a couple of hectic days around the announcement it was probably just as well I was away from most it - I was on holiday with my wife and two children in Lanzarote. Well I say holiday it was just as tiring as my marathon training! We went 'el cheepo' and took a one bedroom self catering apartment in an all inclusive resort. The resort itself was great with good food on offer and yes I did indulge a little! however having an energetic 3 years old who loved the kids disco and late nights and an 8 month year old who decide lye in's weren't for her, things did take's there toll Teresa and myself. It was nice to have time away with the family though and we had fun on beach in the day and most nights took Thomas to the kids disco to showing off his moves... which most of the time involved him running around!... not sure where he gets it from :)  After being away so much of year in Kenya it was nice to just be the four of us for a week but I did come back spent! I actually felt a bit run down, I guess it was to be expected given the usual aftermath effects of the marathon and the a lack of sleep whilst in Lanzarote.
Back at home in Guernsey I was soon back in training routine which was I keen to with Olympics at the forefront of my mind, although the first few weeks of training were somewhat conservative. My coach and I were keen to ensure I that I had fully recovered following the London Marathon & the whole selection situation. Looking back at things now, this was definately the right thing to have done, training is really starting to click into place here in Font Romeu... more on that in a minute.  I must admit since my selection things have been fun in Guernsey for me, a friend of mine from the Education Department and the Guernsey Athletics Club put together a booklet entitled 'From Torteval to London' (Torteval is a small rural parish in Guernsey where I lived and grewed in). The bookley has been aimed at Primary school level essentially encouraging children to work hard to achive their goals and self sport for all its positives, so very flatering that I was the focus. Once the booklet was put together it was destributed out to all primary school children and in particular at an assembly at Forest Primary School, my old school. It was the first time I had been back to the school since I left over 20years ago!  The school has actually been knocked down and rebuilt during that time but one of my old teachers was still there and the response we had from all the kids was incredibly. Someone said to me thats 'that's what the Olympic movement is all about', I couldn't help but think the same thing. The visit was even more special in that Alun (who had put the booklet together) had arranged for Cara Saul to come over... some people may remember that a random facebook page was started to encourage my selection, Cara was the lady behind this. So it was nice to be able to thank her in person for the support she had shown. She is lovely kind hearted women, who whilst admits to not being sporty herself she clear has a passion for watching it and seeing other get involved.

Currently I am in Font Romeu one of two familar UKA altitude training locations, I have been to in the past. I have blogged about Font Romeu before as I've been a few times now so I won't bore you with the same details but what I will say is this is the best weather I have experienced here in all my visits. Sorry to anyone back in the UK reading this as might sound like I am rubbing it in as I'm hearing bad things about the weather in the UK at the moment. For me though it seems the camp has been timed perfectly in order to avoid a UK non-event in during of a summer! hopefully that improves for the Olympics. I am in a good place right now with my training here, feeling I have turned things around well following a bad cold I was struggling to shake off not long before I left Guernsey.  Training these first couple of weeks here have gone as well as I could have hoped for and with another couple to go I feel in a great position to be able to push on and have myself in great shape for Games. As ever it's been tough being away from home again for so long, with the holding camp and my time in the village I will be away from home for 7 weeks in all, my longest time apart from the family since our kids were born. Only the a few days after I left home my daughter walked for the first time, fortunately I have skype and have been able to watch her walking on video... although it's never the same missing out on that contact time with them. My son Thomas doesn't seem too bother though as his grand parents (Teresa parents) are over in Guernsey visiting so he soon forget I wasn't about! 

With literally a month to go now, I can't help get a little excited by the prospect of the games, although I must admit when people were asking me a few week backs I been fairly laid back things... I think some people thought it odd that I wasn't excited but I don't think I can stay excited for weeks on end and not expected to feel exhausted in the process. As things start to draw closer though I feel the natural excitement building, prior to departing Font Romeu I went through the Team GB experience at Loughborough more commonly know as kitting out. I won't reveal too much about this as there are still athletes yet to experience this but the BOA seem to have made a real effort to provide a pretty memorable experience.

A month to go!
     

I’m going to be an Olympian!

Wow what a week, the last few days have literally been a roller coaster of emotions, it's a good job we are on holiday as it’s definitely needed! Some of you will have watched the Virgin London marathon and seen that I missed out on the qualifying time set by UKA. It was something of a bitter sweet day as I should have perhaps been pleased to finish first British runner and to come home in a new personal best time however that was not the target. It's Olympic year and there was only one prize I was interested in.

Needless to say when the marathon teams were announced the following day I was not surprised when I was not one of the names included even if part of me had held out some hope. So to have now have been picked really is the stuff dreams are made of. For the selectors to have picked me and to given me the opportunity to pull on the GB vest at an Olympics is the biggest honour and privilege that can be bestowed upon me. Being a home Olympics will make this all the more special.I have run thousands of miles preparing for this over the past 10 years so I will be immensely proud to take to the streets of London and represent my country, I have to keep pinching myself.

Whilst I realise that not everyone was in favour of my selection, the overall consensus has been hugely positive. I am also confident that on another day in better conditions I would have achieved a sub 2.12 last week in London. I'd like to thank the selectors for taking the various circumstances into consideration and giving me the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage on earth. I fully intend to prove my place in Team GB and put in a creditable performance.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, the amount of messages I have received supporting my selection has been somewhat overwhelming. Long distance running is a very individual pursuit but never in a million years did I dream of receiving so much support. Thank you.

Without making this sound any more like an of Oscar speech I want to single out my wife (although she rarely reads my blogs and usually it's only to correct my grammar and spelling!) as the build-up to this has been tougher on her than anyone else. Without her I wouldn't have achieved my dream.

Next stop London!

Paris Half Marathon & overdue update

As per usual an update is long overdue! Firstly I will start with a race update from the half marathon I ran a couple of weeks ago...

I ran in the Paris Half Marathon Sunday 4th March, which fitted in well with my next trip to Kenya, I literally travelled out to Paris from Guernsey the day before the race, back to London straight after the race and then on to Kenya the following morning, I've clocked up some good air miles recently. I must admit when I arrived at race hotel in Paris I stood out a bit on the start list, as I was the only non-Kenyan or non-Ethiopian athlete, there was not even a french men on the elite list, well not unless you count my my french surname! It didn't bother though, I just wanted the opportunity to race as this was the only weekend were a raced fitted into my schedule and there are actually few good half marathon opportunities this early into March.

The race itself was a bit caged early on, with a slow first km (approx 3.10) and to be honest it didn't really get going until 5km, when the field was suddenly strung out due to quicker km of around 2.40. From about the 6km point I was on my own for the rest of the race, going through 10km in 30.00, feeling good though and at that point confident I could hold that pace and run something around 63.15. The course however was a little more up and down that I had expected, don't get me wrong its not the hilliest course in the world but there were a few long drags which meant a few km splits of around 3.15's rather than 3.00. After a few of those my 63min clocking unfortunately slipped away. I passed one Kenyan guy with 4km to go I ran out road with a further 3 or 4 guys starting to come back to me over the last couple of km's. I finish in 16th place in a time of 64.10. I was a little disappointed with the time but overall, given the course and recent heavy marathon training prior to the race it was strong enough and at least faster than marathon target pace for London. Perhaps in the future when marathon plans aren't the priority I find myself in a position to attack and nail a fast half marathon.

The Paris half was the start of 5 weeks away from home, something which clearly bothers me more than it bothers my 3 year old son Thomas. I usually bring him back a present each time I'm away from home for long periods, so this time I told him I would bring back some lego, he loves lego! In-fact I would go as far to say it's an unhealthy obsession for him at the moment, he will often spend hours building the stuff. Having told him I would bring some back, this was all that he was interested in talking about when I've called home, I have probably spoken to him 5 or 6 times since I've been away now and the first question ever time is always 'daddy have you got my lego yet!' I think it's also been driving my wife crazy as he has been asking Teresa about it every 5 minutes too. Little does he know we bought it before I left and that it's hidden in the bottom of the wardrobe. I also stupidly asked him a question of what he loves more daddy or lego, not even a pause! He said lego before I'd finished the sentence. I guess I shouldn't ask the question if you don't want to hear the answer! I don't think my daugher is missing me either, however she is only 7 months old so I won't hold that against her.

Other than missing the family, things have been going well out here, it's only been 3 weeks since I was here last and that made a big difference, with adaption time seeming to be a bit quicker this time around. I was also sleeping in my altitude tent when home to help maintain the benefits built up previous visits so I'm sure both these approaches have helped. Training and preparations for the marathon have been slightly different this time around compared with my previous marathons, with the idea being to extend the quality training at and around marathon pace. This has lead to the introduction of new training sessions, whilst still maintaining some of the work I have done in the past but I have been pleased with how these new sessions have gone.

Outside of training much of my time tends to be spent resting or asleep, so much so that the other athletes on the camp have commented that they only seem to see me at meal times. One of the major benefits of preparing on a camp like this is the extra rest that you are able to get and this can make a big difference to your recovery, which at altitude is event more important given your body is working harder even at rest. When not asleep I've been watching episodes of one my favourite TV programmes... 'The Inbetweeners', I love the fact that so many of the foreign athletes here are also into this programme. It seems that rude teenage humour is fairly easy to interpret.

Watch out Lance, the Kenyan's are coming!

Again it's been a while since my last post, infact I only seem to be posting from Kenya these days! as you've probably gathered I'm back here again as part of my spring Marathon preparations. Having been weighing up my options in terms of my marathon choice my decision I guess was a fairly straight forward one in the end... I will be running the Virgin London Marathon this April in my pursuit of the Olympic qualifying time. Whilst I have been in Kenya London Marathon have been out here too, they announced details of the full elite field here in Iten too, as ever the field is about as strong as you will see anywhere in the World and promises to be an exciting race both from a domestic and international perspective. From a British view point pretty much everyone who is looking to achieve the Olympic time will also be running in London too. Here's a link to the elite field....

http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/news-and-media/news-and-media/press-release-20-01-12-olympics-goal-mutai-defends/

Between my two Kenya trips there's been plenty going on, xmas new year was a fairly quiet one with the family, well as much as it can be an excitable 3 years old Thomas, we had a scaletrix set...sorry I mean Thomas did, this present was well recieved allround though though :) After new year I raced my first cross race for 12months in the form of the Hampshire County Champs, its been 4 years since my last outing at the event and another rare opportunity to pull on a Guernsey Race. I had a good race with John Beattie, as we had both decide to race seeing as we were bothing after a race that weekend. We had a pretty close race but I managed to draw clear within the last 600m or so to win by a handful of seconds. There a link to part of the race on Channel TV (not sure it will work in all regions though)....

http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_sportnews/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=497808

Following the race I had a good week of training at home before then picking up a cold unfortunately, it meant I arrived in Kenya a little under the weather, not ideal given we are 8000feet above sea level and with some very dusty trails to contend with this time around. The cold is now thankfully over with and training is starting to tick along nicely up here. The weather has been much better than November, no rain in sight!... ironically a few people were complaining about the dust but hey I will take that over muddy sticky trials any day! although I have said I might bring with me some B&Q dust masks to run with next time I come :)

Kenya as a training venue never fails to inspire me and our long run this morning inparticular was no different, whilst we had to contend with running through some thick smoke from a small bush fire (if you call the crop fields of Kenya the bush!) having run the long run in one direction, some 22miles plus miles it meant we got to see some fairly remote parts of around Iten. Thankfully we had drinks providing on the run and a lift back afterwards, note before a much need stop a small kenyan shack for a bottle of coke! On our drive back we saw something rather noval a Kenya peleton, at the time we thought this was just a training ride but turns out this was actually a race. A lot of them had single speed bikes that looked like something out of the 1970's, many were also had running shoes rather than cycling shoes.

Watch out Lance, the Kenyan's are coming!

Anyhow with 12 weeks to go until London the training as they say start here.. ok technically I have be preparing in the general sense since a took a break after the World Champs last year, but these next 12 weeks is when the real work take places.

OK there's Wet and there's this!

Last time I blogged I was nearer the end of my trip in Kenya and about to travel home, this I did but not without a bit of drama to make this interesting...

Usually we leave Lorna's Centre about 2 hours before our flight as the drive is only 45minutes to the airport, the airport is even smaller than Guernsey airport so you are usually safe arriving 45-60minutes before. On the day of travel though, Willy (Songok) who looks after us while we are there, came and said we would be leaving earlier due to flooding on the road between the centre and the airport (there is only one tarmac road the rest of dirt roads) in order to allow for any possible delays. We had been told that we should be able to get through the flooded area, which was also being blocked off my some of the Kenyan Matatu (Kenyan mini bus/taxi) drivers. This way apparently a way for them to make a quick buck as they were charging people to carry them (and their belongs) across the flooded section of road, where they were able to pick up another Matatu! When we arrived at the flood it was carnage...


Whilst it was all pretty amusing initially the novelty soon wore off, particularly when a number of the locals saw we were in a 4x4 vehicle and starting climbing onto the roof. I can only presume they thought they would be able to get across the flooded road without getting wet but I must admit for a minute it didn't feel particularly safe!


After trying initially to get across the road things proved unsuccessful and so our driver decided we would take the detour via the various dirt roads in order to bypass the flood and then rejoin the main road further on. Literally no sooner did we back up and turn off onto an already muddy and flooded dirt road it started lashing it down with rain! The dirt road were proving a challenge even for our 4x4 and there were a few times I thought we were going to slide into a few Kenyans walking between villages.


We had only driven a mile or so before we came across our first major obstacle, which was a broken down car blocking the road we were on. Our driver decided to try and get into the adjacent field in order to drive. Unfortunately we became stuck and despite our drivers best efforts it didn't appear we would be getting out anytime soon as the wheels had dug themselves a nice deep grove into the mud. A Kenyan guy in our vehicle managed to find some rocks which were thrown in by the front wheels in an attempt to find traction but it didn't seem to help. Fortunately by this point a local man had joined us and he basically dug us a pathway for our driver to able to negioate his way out, although not before we had all got thoroughly socked in attempt to help push our vehicle out.


Despite being on edge for much of the next 2hours we did at least make it through to the main road eventually, through some pretty hurrendously muddy and flooded sections. The usual 45min journey from the centre to Eldoret Airport took us 3hours and we arrived only 20mins or so before our flight but we made it at least!


On a lighter note, early in the day myself, Hannah England and Luke Gunn had met up with Tom Payn, a british marathon runner who bases himself Iten. Tom whilst renting a room elsewhere spends much of his time with a training camp called Run-Fast and he invited us into visit the camp. We met Edwin Kipyego who is one of probably the camps star athlete and one to watch out for, his 10k PB is already 28.12 and 61.23 for the half marathon and so I've been told has only been training serious for a couple of years.


We were invited into his accommodation for a cup of chi (kenyan tea) or at least Edwin's version of it, as he had added a sachet of hot chocolate to the original flask, however having not had anything particular sweet for the past few weeks it was a bit of treat to satisfy my sweet tooth!
(myself and Edwin outside his one room accommodation which sleeps two people, a room no bigger and 10 feet by 10, includes 2 bunk beds, a sofa, a tv and a sink, its compared to most Kenyan homes this is luxury)

The camp was situated slightly off the main dirt roads, near to Iten town centre and meant we had to walk through a few back streets (which were basically muddy paths) to get there and we passed lots of Kenyan kids en route. They apparantly have all of December off school. Myself Hannah (England) and Luke (Gunn) couldn't resist a picture with them.

Update from a wet Kenya

Hi folks

I’ve been Kenya a couple of weeks now, in fact my trip is nearly at an end! but my altitude camp has gone really well for me. A couple of weeks before I got hear I had to pull out of the Great South Run due to illness but I now feel I have found my feet again and I’ve put in some good 100mile weeks, alongside all the little things too. The added benefit of being on a training camp is having the time to utilize recovery with daytime naps the order of the day… I do manage to squeeze a few in at home but logistically it’s always more challenging, out here its part of the daily routine.

This now my third time in Kenya, I also came out in January and March earlier this year before the Virgin London Marathon, so I feel quite at home. Things have been a little different this time around though as there’s been a substantial amount of rain, somewhat unusual for Kenya in November. There main rainy season is usually April & May and whilst there is supposedly a short rainy period in November, this has been anything but short. Previously we there has been rain it’s mostly been over night and not that regularly but since we’ve arrived there has been rain most days and some heavy down pours during the day too. I don’t feel it has affected my training all that much in terms of quality but we have had to adapt the surface, the trails are all ground/clay based so as soon as you get any persistent rain they become very stick and sometimes just not run-able. The only option for running when its been really muddy has been the solitary tarmac road which goes through Iten, so this has lead to a few out and back on the bad days. Whilst the rain has not been a big issue for us, with perhaps the exception of the crazy drivers when we have taken to the road, no pavement here! For the people locals it is a little more serious, as the heavy rain is delaying the harvesting of crops and this for many is there only source of food or income.

It has not been all bad weather though, as we did manage to get on the Iten Track a couple of times. This is always an impressive spectacle on ‘session day’, that being a Tuesday morning, as you will always find large number and various Kenyan training groups in full swing (assuming its dry day). We were even witness to something other than distance running on one occasion with some crazy high jump techniques going on.

My sessions have gone surprisingly whilst here actually, as after picking up a stomach bug at home a few weeks ago I must admit to did struggle with my training somewhat in the aftermath. It been nice to train in group again though and having been on previous UKA/London Marathon training camps I know that these trips work well for me and it has been just what I needed to get my fitness back and set the wheels in motion for the next few months of training.
Its certainly tough training here though as you won’t find too many flat runs but I’m sure that is one part of what makes so many successful athletes here. I did have an unscheduled day off the other day however, feeling dizzy and generally under the weather, fortunately it turned out to be just a 24hour thing… or as I've since heard it call here ‘a little malaria’. Whenever a Kenyan person gets sick, whatever shape or form it takes it is usually referred to as malaria, it seems this is just a word for someone who is ill! Whilst of course genuine malaria is a serious issue here and across many areas of Africa it seems to me that the Kenyan’s version of man-flu is this ‘small malaria’, don’t let the reference foul you. When I was here in January one of the Kenya guys who works at the centre was off ill with malaria, only to be back at work the next day!

Just a few more days here now and then off to Preston to catch up with a Sports Psychologist and then on to Loughborough for some physiological testing to measure how well the camp has really gone.

Planning for success

It’s between a while since my last blog even by standards but plenty to update you on, despite my lack of racing…

I took my usual break after the World Champs as planned, actually that’s a little bit of lie as I actually started running a few days earlier than planned. I usually get out on my push bike just to do something in the second week to fend of the boredom but unfortunately my bike was out of action so went out for a few easy runs instead. Nothing major just 20 to 30mins of easy jogging on a daily basis but it at least kept the cabin fever at bay.

I have since been building things up again training wise and despite not feeling particular fit I ran the National Road Relays for my UK club Newham & Essex Beagles only a few weeks after starting back. I have only competed for Newham a small number of times over the last 2 years, mainly due to events clashing with other racing plans but I enjoying doing something as part of a team when the chance arises. On previous outings for Newham in UK competitions I have always been on a winning team, but with a slightly weaker team (partly down to me not being in shape) and coming up again a strong Aldershot team we had to settle for 3rd spot on this occasion. I ran 4th leg for the team and whilst my time was somewhat short of what I would expect to run I came away thinking I can now kick on the training. Unfortunately no sooner did I touch down back in Guernsey airport that night after the relays did I come down with a stomach bug, this let to no running for following week and when I did start back again things took a good few days before I started to feel a bit more like myself again. For those reasons I decided against running the Great South Run which I was down to do originally and decide I would be better just getting myself back to full health.

Since the Daegu Champs I have a lot of time to analysis my past season and also look ahead to the next 12months and most importantly how I will tackle it. One of the main things I have done is sit down and think about how I can improve things and find those little difference, the one percenters which will all add up to an overall better performance. I have always set myself targets and within that the little processes which will get me there. A book which first encouraged me to start thinking like this was ‘Gold Minds’ by Brian Miller, a book which my old coach recommended to me. The book is a few years old now but the principles are still useful, although recently it’s been useful to fine tune things following a meeting I had with a guy called Tim Newenham. Tim runs a company called Javelin Consultancy and the Guernsey Sports Commission have been using him to help develop a support programme for athletes in Guernsey. Tim helped me fine tune my goal settings a little more which helped identify a slightly clearer path to achieving success. I still have one or two things I need to finish off in terms of my full season plan, namely the marathon I will run in the spring, but I plan to decide this over the next couple of weeks.

I am now a couple of weeks on from the road relays and I’m actually out in Kenya at the minute on a UK Athletics & London Marathon funded altitude training camp. I will be here for just over 3 weeks with the plan to use the altitude and extra time away from my usual environment to focus on things like rest and recovery a bit more. I have to admit I have found the past 8 weeks challenging at home with our little girl Jessica (who is only 13 weeks old) still not sleeping through the night yet. I do find it hard to be away from the family these days but the training camps and the altitude exposure in particular are something I see as a an essential ingredient if I’m going achieve my targets. Our boy Thomas is a really good sleeper at night fortunately so all being well Jessica will follow suit, I joked with my wife that it she could get her sleeping through the night for when I return that would be sit nicely with me :) I won’t repeat what she said to me!

I leave you with something which made me laugh following a conversation with my son on the phone the other night (sorry I have become one of those parents who talk about their children all the time). He has been given the part of father Christmas in his nursery nativity play and he has to sing the song quoted below, however he when he sang it back to me he replaced the final word (the word out) with the word ‘off’, hopefully he gets it right on the day!

Father Christmas got stuck in the chimney,
So he began to shout,
If you boys & girls want your toys,
You better pull me out.

You can see our concerns at his mistake!

I will try to post up regular while out in Kenya, with what Kenya & the camp in general has been like but in the meantime if anyone has any questions please feel free to leave comment or questions in the comment box below.