Weeks 8, 9 & 10 (18th Feb - 10th March)

WEEK 8

Mon - Rest

Tue - 10km in 38m39 - Fitness test for Barry

Wed - 4.75m (7m34 m/pm)

Thu - Rest, calf tightened up again yesterday 

Fri - Rest

Sat - Rest

Sun - 7.5m (8m00 m/pm)

TOTAL MILEAGE - 19.8

Okay so a bit of catching up to do here. The blog was designed to capture the highs and the lows of the build up to the ACP, but it is funny how when it isn't going quite so well the blog is that little bit harder to pull together. If you have seen the results of Barry you will have seen that I was a no show. Week 8 was a week of internal debate with myself trying to work out if I was fit enough to run at Barry. One day I felt good, for example after Tuesday's sesion I was almost certain I would be running. Wednesday's run and my calf was sore again and so by Thursday I decided I should do the sensible thing and pull out. 

Pretty disappointed, but to my delight on Friday the race director (Mick McGeoch) e-mailed me the race programme. The Barry race programme is quite a piece of literature at 20 pages and I would recommend to anyone that they should enter the race just to feature in the program. Anyway, here is a snippet of what he wrote about me.

No: 288 Harry Johnston (Kingston & Polytechnic Harriers)

Age 26. Second youngest in the race, Harry has made a huge improvement in the short time he has been in the sport. His range of distances and performances makes for fascinating reading. In 2012 he improved his best marathon time to 2:37:54 in October in Amsterdam where he placed 71st. He also has some very impressive ultra marks with a best 100km of 7:51:21 in the 2011 Anglo Celtic Plate in Perth, where he was 10th, and more recently 8:03:32 last June in Biel, Switzerland. He doesn’t just race over long distances though, and in 2012 recorded PBs of 9:12 for 3000 metres, 16:26 for 5000 metres, 16:14 for 5 km on the road and 56:31 for 10 miles. On the professional front, Harry has just qualified as an Actuary, and brings a great support crew (wife Emily and friend Kevin) to help him on his Barry 40 debut. Certainly one to watch.

What a way to massage your ego when you are feeling pretty crappy about things. This really did cheer me up. Mick wrote similar amounts on each of the runners, he really does seem to put his heart and soul into this race. The results can be found here, some very good performances at the front with Paul Fernandez on great form and an outstanding performance from previous European 100km silver medallist Pieter Vermeesch

Maybe next year...

WEEK 9

Mon - Rest

Tue - 7.5m (7m47 m/pm)

Wed - 7.75m (7m15 m/pm)

Thu – 10 x 1km off 90s (7m00 m/pm)

Fri - Rest

Sat – 14.75m (7m46 m/pm including parkrun)

Sun – 23.3m (7m43 m/pm)

TOTAL MILEAGE – 60.3

The previous Thursday I took a 2h20 car journey (most of which I was stuck in traffic on the M4) to see my chiropractor. I have not visited him since moving away from Maidenhead as I deemed it to no longer be convenient. However, enough was enough and I believed if anyone could fix me it would be him. We started the session by performing a simple test. Walk on the spot with your eyes closed and see what happens. After about 20 seconds of marching I opened my eyes and had rotated 30 degrees to the left. 30 minutes of manipulations and crunching of various joints and we re-performed the test. Now I am facing forward after this test, superb fixed (I bloody hope). Never have I felt more comfortable and happy to be in a small room, basically naked with another man! I felt like he had fixed me.

With that I used this as a re-introduction week. I had planned a longer run at the weekend, but I didn't quite feel comfortable going for a 4 hour romp so cut it back to 3 hours. My calf in general was still tight but my trip to the chiropractor meant I had re-established control in my ankle and I was no longer getting inflammation in my calf. The tension was slowly easing with each run. Not a huge week, but a week nonetheless.

On Saturday I ran a parkrun with my wife and she achieved a big PB, nice to see one of us is moving in the right direction.

WEEK 10

Mon – 11m (7m20 m/pm,  progressive run)

Tue AM – Circuits

Tue PM – 5.6km time trial (19m35, 5m25 m/pm)

Wed – 7.5m (8m20 m/pm)

Thu AM – 29 x 500m off 30 secs (rep pace c. 5m50 m/pm)

Fri -  Rest

Sat – 29m (8m07 m/pm)

Sun AM – Weights, cleans and squats

Sun – 16m (7m49 m/pm)

TOTAL MILEAGE – 79.3

With last week going so well, okay not amazing but at least I was running. This week has really represented a true week of training yet again. Boy am I pleased. The weeks were fast disappearing and my chances of running well if at all at ACP were starting to potentially look bleak. Hopefully all that worry was for nothing. I just need to string something together next week to get my confidence up and then a short taper.

Tuesday's session was a 5.8km time trial. 14.5 laps of the track pretty much on my own to see what I could achieve. My total time was 19m35 and I passed 5km in 16m45. Very pleasing for a training run and also a great test of the condition of my calf.

Thursday's session of 29 x 500m off 30 seconds was clearly designed for the track, but work commitments meant I was to do this one on a lumpy road loop near work early in the morning. Pace coming out at around 5m50 and for a man who doesn't usually operate that early in the morning I was again very happy.

Another parkrun with the wife on Saturday. Unfortunately no PB this week, and I tried to reassure her it was because it was more muddy than last week (it was). When the summer comes we will both see some faster running I'm sure. No parkrun next week as my wife is away skiing whilst I stay at home for the final big training weekend.

A few more interesting things going on here, including winning a really cool trophy and the release of the full England team which threw up a few suprises. But I will save that for my next blog post...there is enough on here already.

Hope everyone's last few weeks are going well. If you've been in a rough patch like me all I can say is keep the faith.

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102, 31, 29, 76, 40, 20, 60, 79

Week 7 of 13 (11th - 17th Feb)

WEEK 7
Mon - Conditioning work
Tue - Track session (15 x 1000 off 1 min c. 3m38 per rep, 5:50 mpm)
Wed - 8.5m XC (8:25 mpm)
Thu AM - 7.5m (7:55 mpm)
Thu PM -"To failure" Track Session (5 x 800m off 3minutes, 2:24, 2:24, 2:28, 2:34, 2:38)
Fri - 3.1m (7:30 mpm)
Sat - 7.5m (8:00 mpm)
Sun - Rest
TOTAL MILEAGE - 39.5

So time is ticking away and I seem to be struggling to string together two good weeks of training on the bounce. On paper this week looks quite disappointing with yet again low mileage. I've been a little unfortunate that the tight calf I was struggling a few weeks ago seems to have come back. Friday's run was uncharacteristically short for this reason. I guess this little niggle can be of no suprise. After what must've been a depressing read on last week's blog I had a number of e-mails and messages from friends basically saying "chin-up lad". Low morale, fatigue, injury risk, all these things are related.

So on the positive side, the two key sessions I did do this week were pretty good. 15 x 1km on the track is tough going but I managed this pretty comfortably. Cardiovascually I was in the best shape I've felt for a while doing that kind of session. Thursday night's track session was a "to failure" session. The aim of the session was to run the 800m reps in 2:23. I would continue trying to run 2:23 until my average rep was above 2:32. The idea is that the 2:23 are very very hard, the session pushes me beyond my current limits and then my rep times fall off the clif. The result a lot of lactic acid. Unfortunately my average didn't go above 2:32 so I probably should've done a few more reps, but I tried to run the 6th rep and had to step off the track after 300m. The lactic acid was absolutley brutal. Not something us ultrarunners usually have to deal with. We are hoping that by the summer the 2:23 per 800m will be extrapolated up to 3000m. Something to look forward to after the ACP.

This week I'm feeling quite relaxed about the missed training. I'm not injured as such, as I ran for an hour on Saurday hassle free. A lot of hard work has been done (but not as much I as would like has been evidenced on the blog) and this could easily be undone by just plodding on with the training and pretending it's all okay. So I have to try and be mature and manage this in a way to maximise my training. Which is why I decided that rest was the course of action for the day. The only shame is that I am due to be running the Barry 40 next week and this kind of preparation is not as ideal. I have a couple of options for Barry but I guess it is all dependent on how I can deal with the calf this week. If the calf recovers quickly I just treat this week as a bonus taper week that I wasn't expecting. If the calf takes a little longer, I will still head down to Barry and run this as training event. I would like to run long next weekend anyway since I haven't done so in the past two weekend. So it's just a case of whether or not it will be easy or it will be hard. Let's hope for the latter! As my wife said "let's not do any that will jepodise Perth". For a non-runner she obviously gets it more than I sometimes credit her.

Plan to get me in best shape for Barry is a second trip to the Osteopath (seen already on Friday evening), sports massage on Wednesday, easy week of running, early nights and the next. I've not had any rehab treatment was almost a year now, but with this niggle raising its head twice in the period of a month it's time to take some more serious action. As I said I want to be at Barry regardless if I am to race or to plod. I missed the race last year and just want to experience what is one of the classic events on the UK circuit. Maybe it's just a cursed event for me and my body's way of avoiding running 161 laps of the track!

On the England team front, I received some more official confirmation this week. The kit order has already gone in. All exciting stuff. I've been scouring the internet for news on the other teams but am yet to see any information. I'm sure you will all let us know when you find out.

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102, 31, 29, 76, 40

Week 5 of 13 (28th Jan - 3rd Feb)

WEEK 5
Mon - Rest / Holiday
Tue - Rest / Holiday
Wed - Rest / Holiday
Thu -Rest / Holiday
Fri - Rest / Holiday
Sat - Rest / Holiday
Sun - 29m (7:56 mpm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 29

So not much of a suprise here, a week away skiing and a week away from running. I had planned to do at least some training whilst away but ended up just relaxing instead. My wife and I had a couple of hard days skiing and so that counted for something. We were also staying at 1950m altitude and my lungs feel bigger already! It all counts. The rest from running has given my tight calf some time to loosen off and today's 29 miler gave me no troubles in this respect. However the first day back out on the roads did batter the legs a little, to be expected after 10 days off running. 10 days wow, not pleasant to write when you are in the build up to 100km.

I guess part of the reason I didn't train whilst away is the great similarity between the challenges of running and the challenges of skiing. Skiing satisfies a number of those things running does. I'm not an expert skier so the challenge of working my way down a tricky black run without falling on my arse is akin to completing your first marathon without walking breaks (I think this took me 3 or 4 goes). Similarly going for an easy jog along the river Thames is similar to taking an easy blue run through the forests. I guess skiing gives me the same joy that running does, so whilst I was away the prospect of going outside for some skiing would always win against staying inside and running on the treadmill.

The travel time to the French Alps gave me some thinking time, I've started to pull together my full race / event calendar for the year but I will save the details for another post. I also looked into the prospect of joining the 100 Marathon Club and counted up the number of events I have to count towards membership. I'm currently on 20 eligible events. I need 50 for associate member and 100 for the full member. Think I still have a few years to go on that little project.

In my last post I mentioned that the England team would be announced shortly. I now understand that the team selection has been put forward to England Athletics and we can expect to find out tomorrow at the very earliest. We found this out on Thursday on our holiday, the previous days I had been absolutely glued to my blackberry to the great annoyance of my wife. Tomorrow I will be firmly attached to the blackberry yet again. I know I'm not the only one who this is affecting. However all this waiting will teach us a little a patience, something we will definitely need for all those laps of North Inch Park.

Training starts again serious tomorrow, Barry is not too far on the horizon.

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102, 31, 29

Week 4 of 13 (21st - 27th Jan)

WEEK 4
Mon Lunch - Conditioning work
Mon PM- 5.5 miles easy, treadmill
Tue - Weights, Cleans, Overhead squat, Straight deadlifts, upper body conditioning
Wed - 15.75 miles (7:40 m/pm)
Thu AM - 6.2 miles (8m20 m/pm)
Thu PM - 4 miles (8m20 m/pm)
Fri - Rest
Sat - Rest
Sun - Rest
TOTAL MILEAGE - 31.5

Bonjour from the slopes of the Alps! Now on a ski holiday so the running stops for a week. Hurray!

After what was described as an "intimidating week" last week we can only say that the mighty have fallen. This week was always going to be a reduced mileage week and although I was going to try and squeeze in as much running as possible, the loss of Saturday and Sunday for my ski break was always going to hamper the mileage.

The ski holiday couldn't really have come at a better time, my right calf has been tightening up for a week or so. So much so that on Thursday's planned 9 mile run I had to cut it short and finish with only a 4 miler. It certainly wasn't debilitating but it was starting to feel like it was going to become a problem so I cut short rather than plough through. A running imbalance has given me problems with the calf before. The first time this happened it took me 3 months to get over it, the last time it happened it took me only 3 days. So I'm hoping experience has shown me how to manage the niggle. The problem with Thursday's 9 miler is that it was a point to point, office to home run so I needed to get the missus (superstar!!) to come pick me up whilst I stood in the Shell garage drinking a luke warm vanilla latte and looking a complete tool in my fluorescent kit and skin tight leggings.

This wasn't the only thing that didn't go to plan this week. On Tuesday I had planned to run in the evening but really wasn't feeling it. Outside was snow and ice, which is no fun, inside is a treadmill which is no fun either. I was driving to the gym and with about 1 minute before the turn home I had a change of mind and decided that the sofa and a bowl of cereal was indeed a more appealing option. Must be a little run down, motivation flagging and a small niggle.

So I think the less said about the rest of the week the better. Next week, mileage will again be low. A nice week of active rest on the slopes should see the fitness stay in place. I have packed my XC spikes though...planning to try and do at least one outside run. Might be tricky as I'm half way up a mountain but the  slope from our appartment to the main slopes looks perfect for hill reps :-)

Next week will be quite exciting as I am expecting the England team for the Anglo Celtic Plate to be finalised and communicated, so I will await an e-mail or phone call with either the good or bad news. I will share the news as soon as I know. We have now booked our accommodation and flights for the trip to Perth. The whole family is coming up which is fantastic. I thought it would be quite a tough sell to be honest, "hey geys, fancy travelling all the way up to Scotland and watch your little/big brother/son run around a park for 8 hours. All you need to do is stay there all day and make sure I'm well fed and watered and I will probably be miserable at best". They all said "yes".

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102, 31

Week 3 of 13 (14th > 20th Jan)

WEEK 3
Mon Lunch - Conditioning work
Mon PM- 9 miles easy (8:10 m/pm)
Tue AM - 9 miles easy (8:15 m/pm)
Tue PM - Track session 14 x 1300 @ c6:33 m/pm off 1 min
Wed Lunch - 7.9 miles trail (7:47 m/pm)
Wed PM - Strength : Cleans & Squats
Thu - Treadmill session 15 x 650m @ c5:25 m/pm off 1 min
Fri - Rest
Sat - 17 miles easy including 4 miles @ 7:00 m/pm (ave.7:39 p/pm)
Sun - 37.5 miles (8:14 p/pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 101.7

So who says you can't run in the snow! As per last week's blog I said this was going to be a week of bigger mileage and a little bit more speed on the track and I executed the week to plan even given the weather.

The first half of the week went relatively smoothly and on paper the track session looked like it was going to be pretty tough. Whilst the pace wasn't super fast, the stop start nature of these reps always builds fatigue more than you would expect. However, the recent higher mileage seems to be flowing through and this session came pretty comfortably.

However by the time I got to the weights session on Wednesday evening I knew I was ready for a rest and that Thursday session was going to be a toughy. I couldn't wait for Friday's rest day. I've been doing weights and conditioning work reasonably consistently for the last 3 months and at the moment it is difficult to assess the impact of these sessions. However by the time we start racing and as we sharpen up in the summer then we will know. The important thing is I enjoy doing them, building up the pistons!

Thursday's session was planned for the track, however the weather was pretty cold and the track has a habit of freezing up pretty quickly (and I have a habit of falling on my arse). So I opted to do this one on the treadmill. Again on paper this one looked pretty quick, at least for this part of the season. In the summer I would have absolutely beasted this one. I found myself a quiet corner in the gym to do the session as other gym goers seem to have a habit of looking at your screen and trying to compete with you, which is nice compliment I guess but bloody annoying. Still didn't avoid the gawping gym rats. Maybe they thought I was Galen Rupp...Turned out the pre-run pep talk chat with Kevin helped me out. He too has to battle with treadmill sessions this week. Roll-on the summer.

Friday saw the snow really start to come down and this was when I started to wonder if I could complete the week. When the weather sets in like this you just have to accept this as an external event, out of your control, and make the most of it. Maybe that is two easy runs, maybe its two gym runs, you just have to play it by ear. Saturday's session was set at 11 miles easy, 10 mins rest, 5.5 miles @ 7:00 p/pm. I set off onto the snowy footpaths with the hope of doing the session, but I really wanted to assess the damage that the snow would do to Sunday's planned super long run (the term I have dubbed for those runs of 30 miles and beyond). The session on Saturday didn't come out entirely as planned but to all intents and purposes it did the job. I finished the run by taking a photo for a young couple enjoying the wintery views of the river Thames. Funny how the weather sometimes brings people together. Not sure my photos were great though.

The pleasing thing was that the ground was good and easy to run on. I knew I could make a good attempt at the super long run of 37.5 miles the next day. Joined by Kevin for multiple loops of a snowy Bushy park and we just about got the session done. Conditions were not so nice as on Saturday because it snowed for the full run which started to annoy me a little (kept getting in my eyes). Kevin joined me at the 13 mile mark and was due to run 20 miles with me. I would then either finish the session on my own or stop with a solid 33 miles to my name. Sensing I was wavering towards the end Kevin did me a massive favour and ran an epic 25 miles to see me to the finish. Super long run number 5 since November. Rewarded of course by a large Papa Johns pizza. I think the snow underfoot gave a little cushioning as whilst I'm tired now, my legs are not feeling as awful as after a 5 hour pounding on the roads. Pleased to have survived the weather without needing to use trail shoes, particularly as at present I don't even own a pair. I'm a road runner after all.

I'm off skiing next Saturday was will be a smaller week of training due to the loss of the weekend (however maybe I should run, I've proved I can run in the snow). Looking forward to a nice week of active week on the slopes and some time to chill with the Mrs.

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102

Week 2 of 13 (7th Jan > 13th Jan)

WEEK 2
Mon - 11 miles easy (8m28 pm)
Tue - Track session 9100, 2300, 1800, 1400, 100, 800, 500
Wed - 7.5 miles trail (7m57 pm)
Thu - Track session 22 x 450m (30 sec walk rest), c. 1m40 per 450m.
Fri - Rest
Sat - Surrey League XC - Div 2 Mitcham Common - 4th Overall
Sun - 30 miles (7m53 pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 73.3

Last week went so badly that whilst I did actually write the blog I didn't really actively publicise it. After spending 5 days ill and 5 days really lethargic I was starting to get a little annoyed and feeling negative about the whole thing. The lethargy of last week probably wasn't helped by my new year's resolution to give up caffeine during the week so I am certainly partly to blame.

Anyway as the old saying goes what a difference a week can make. The return to a full working week and the routine that brings has made a lot of different. A solid if not spectacular week. Having had two good track sessions during the week I feel a whole lot more positive and this running business. November and December had me doing quite a lot of mileage and adding weights and conditioning to my program. This has left me feeling I've lost a little bit of zip, so these sessions where the confidence booster I needed. Now whilst these sessions are particularly speedy, they represent some much faster running than I have been doing and I handled them comfortably. I believe sessions like Tuesday's will form a fundamental part of my build up. I really enjoy these monster sessions on the track and this is probably going to help me with my preparation race at the Barry 40 miler.

Saturday saw another decent performance in the XC league, and whilst it is dangerous to draw comparisons to the runners around you it is nice to see I beat a number of solid marathoners. Maybe I'm just good at XC, but I somehow how doubt that. I only run up hills once every 4 weeks! But pleasing to see my summer speed hasn't totally eluded me.

During today's run an attractive young cyclist came last me and said "Hey, what are you doing around here?", she stopped to say hello. I didn't recognise her as she had helmet and glasses on. I apologised for not knowing her at all and it did indeed turn out to be a case of mistaken identity. As I ran off I joked in my head she was hitting on me (look I was over 20 miles into the run). However, on returning home and seeing the state of me covered in snot, energy gels and over bodily fluids I am convinced that was not the case. Really who looks good after 4 hours of pounding on the road.

Next week is looking a cracker, mileage will be big (for me at least) and the track work will be fast (for me at least).

Mileage so far: 39, 73
Weight (kg): 68.6, 68.5