Week 6 of 13 (4th Feb - 10th Feb)

WEEK 6
Mon AM - Conditioning work
Mon PM - 11m (8:00 mpm)
Tue - 1.6km w/u. Interval Session 6km @ 5:43 mpm, 3km @ 5:41 mpm, 2km @ 5:35 mpm, 1.6km @ 5:36 mpm, 1.2km @ 5:35 mpm, 0.9km @ 5:33 mpm, 0.6km @ 5:26 mpm, 0.4km @ 5:18 mpm
Wed Lunch - Weights - Cleans, overhead squat, deadlifts
Wed PM - 8m (8:00 mpm)
Thu -2.25m w/u, 31 x 400m (c. 1:40 per 400, 20 secs rest), 2.75m w/d
Fri - Rest / Yoga
Sat - 12 x 1.3m + w/d (alternating 8:00 mpm and 6:30 mpm) - Total 18m
Sun - 16m (8:00 mpm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 76.5

Tired this week. I am quite suprised I actually got round to doing the blog as for the first time I really didn't want to. I thought I should be re-energised after holiday. Oh well I guess that's what a week back at work does to you. All in all a positive week, the only session that didn't go to plan was today's planned 30 miler. Physically I felt okay, but a busy weekend socialising left me feeling a little fried. I also had a few personal things to sort out that were playing on my mind. Training isn't always physical and I decided cutting the long run short and using the extra time to sort a few things out and relax would pay dividends. More time to relax and let the mind repair. Besides an 18m / 16m back to back run isn't too bad going.

I have been finding recently I've been getting more and more stressed about running and training and fitting it all in. Partly this is due to an increase in training over the past 6 months, but also I've had a bit of a change in mindset. I used to be positive, adaptable and quite a good problem solver when it comes to fitting all the training in. However it seems I now just get in a strop when it doesn't go my way and I have to juggle things round. I'm pleased I've come to this realisation and I'm trying to make active steps to manage the training load more positively.

On the training front, I was particularly pleased with Tuesday's session. Long rests on these reps, between 4-6 minutes but this was a big accumulation of sub 6 minute pace running. I just wish it was summer again. These sessions at the track were much more enjoyable in short shorts and a vest. Thursday's track session was an interesting one. On paper 31 x 400m doesn't seem that appealing. I was running them off of 2 minutes. The quicker I ran them the more rest I got. I used this session as a opportunity to try and dial into "Barry pace". If I can manage 1m40 a lap at Barry I will be very happy.

Saturday I had an easy 18 miles planned, but with a 30 miler scheduled the following day I couldn't really face the prospect of plodding around. So I went against coach's recommendations and changed the session into some kind of fartlek session of a closed 1.3m loop. It was a good session alternating one fast loop with one slow loop. However, maybe it was part of the reason I jacked in today's big one. All a learning experience.

Next week will be a tough week and I really need to make sure I get the whole week done. This is because the following week will be a taper down for the Barry 40 miler. Whilst I want Barry to have limited impact on training I am realistic. Running 40 miles on the track will damage me. Sessions of note next week are a "to failure" session which I will provide more details on next week and a 37.5 mile super plod.

Last but not least, I got the call this week that I have been selected to represent England in the Anglo Celtic Plate. I am still awaiting details for the rest of the team but this is fantastic news.

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

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

Week 1 of 13 - (31 Dec > 6 Jan)

WEEK 1
Mon - Rest / Ill
Tue - Rest / Ill
Wed - Rest
Thu - Lunchtime, 4 miles @ 7mins pace, Evening Track session cut short
Fri - Rest
Sat - Easy 11 miles
Sun - Long run cut short 18.5 miles
TOTAL MILEAGE - 39.4

So I wanted to start writing a blog to capture my training for the Anglo Celtic Plate and UK 100km Championships on 31st March. Looking at the above it certainly hasn't started with a bang. Having been ill over the Christmas period this was my first week back running so just to get out of the house a few times was an achievement.

Thursday night's session at the track didn't really happen but I wasn't too worried as this was my first day back running in a week. It seems that even today my legs (and most probably my mind) are not quite in the right place. I had planned a 30 mile run but decided to cut it short and start a fresh with a proper training week starting tomorrow.

My race plans in the build up to the 100km in Perth are now set. These are:

12/1 Surrey XC League Race. I can easily include the XC races into the schedule without losing too much training as these are on Saturday.

17/2 Valentine's 10km. Just wanted to have a bash at a 10km since I went through the whole of the 2012 season without doing one

24/2 Barry 40 mile track race. I don't want to go into Perth 100km cold and this gives me a good opportunity to test fitness, race nutrition and strategy. Running 161 laps on a track will also be an experience. The race organiser has informed me that Grant Jeans and Paul Fernandez are already on the entry list, so this could be a great race in the making.

31/3 Perth 100km. The big one.

Not much more to report from me for now. Hopefully I can string something like looks like a week of running together next week. I'm hoping the return to routine after the Christmas break will help.

Mileage so far: 39
Weight (kg): 68.6

Amsterdam Marathon 2012 - The End of Season and Coming of Age

So here I am, one week (well it's now two weeks) after Amsterdam marathon how things have changed. Last week I saw myself as a supremely trained athlete, but now I'm just a drunken slob. I've had more hangovers in the last week than I have in the past year. It's acted as a nice reminder as to why I don't drink that often...

Amsterdam marathon served as the end of the season for me. Whilst the year has gone reasonably well with good improvements over the shorter distances, ultimately a disappointing result at Biel 100km left me needing a good performance to see the year go off with a bang.

As ever with the marathon the great debate over what pace to run the event was present during the build up. I ended up deciding I would go for a more conservative approach and aim to break the 2h40 marker and shock horror I would try and run an even race...It ended up that I would run a 3m45 per km pace, just because this was a nice round number and meant I could run through the maths a little easier in my small brain. I tend not to use auto-lap on the Garmin for races. It has a habit of getting out of sync with the markers, whilst I appreciate these are not always accurate themselves, it still annoys me when the Garmin beeps can get over 1 minute before or after the marker.

Anyway... the race, taking from Thomas Loehndorf's recent blog post I've give a 5km split account of the race.

The first 5km started with a little trepidation, however I was very happy to get going. I had been at the start for a while and I was starting to get pretty cold. The wind was a little cutting but once we got moving the temparature was spot on. Lots of swapping of position whilst the excited runners quickly realised that they had started a little aggressively.
0 - 5km : 18m50

The first 5km is on a loop that takes you back towards the start so it quite well supported. Got a nice cheers from the Wife and Mrs. A which was nice.

In the next 5km I had established my place in a group of around 4 runners, this group was to grow over the next few kms. Given the wind on the course, which wasn't really strong but could still have been significant having a group to work with would be useful.

I took first gel (of 4) at 8km, and would continue to take at 8km intervals. Aid stations were getting beasted, getting isotonic, water and sponges (to wash isotonic out of my eyes) at each station.
5 - 10km : 18m41

In the next section I was becoming conscious that the 3m45 per km was not feeling as easy as I would like. Breathing was fine but it wasn't ticking over quite as easy as I would like. I was also conscious that I was sitting in a group and not really doing any of the work. I don't believe that running at the front was physically that much harder, even though there was some wind. It is more that it is mentally much more easy to sit and follow someone oppose to set the pace (which was some reason felt a real responsibility).

In this section there was a 180 degree turn which meant we turned to face the wind. Here I decided I would take a turn to lead the group. I continued to lead us out of the city and down the river Amstel. This was an exposed piece of the course with a tail and cross wind. We discussed in the group that we should try and stick together. We would turn around and run back up the river and therefore into a head wind in a few kilometers and so having a group would make life easier for all.
10 - 15km : 18m42

I wish these guys had kept up...

As a group we continued to run down the river. Was certainly feeling a bit difficult and even though I pushed harder we were only just managed to maintain the pace. I took the lead of the group again and we managed to maintain the pace. The runners kept asking "still 3m45 pace?", the answer was unfortunately yes. I guess they were starting to struggle a little bit too. I led the group all the way down to the bridge, where we crossed the river and turn backed into the headwind. Over the bridge I dropped the whole group, without even trying. I looked back and I had put 5 meters into them just going up a small ramp and going 50 meters or so. This wasn't good. I really had to think about what to do here. Do I slow down, merge back into the group and work our way up the river with protection from the wind. Or do I go it alone, take a bit of a risk and accept that the clowns behind me were just not cut out for the sub 2h40 pace we were running.

Having towed them from the past 2km or so I decided it was time to go alone, whilst I really wanted to work with a group, I felt that these runners were probably going to hinder me more than help me.
15 - 20km : 18m54

This was hard work running up the river on my own. I concentrated on a few of the runners ahead of me, which I seemed to take past with relative ease. It seems that already some runners were starting to struggle with the early pace that had been set.

I had spent the whole of this section concentrating on getting off of the river and back into the relative shelter of the buildings in the city. At around 25km the river was over and we passed under a tunnel which had lots of supporters. A bit of posing for the crowd really lifted my spirits. Apologies to the wife and Mrs. A who I totally missed here...they had apparently walked a full 4km to get there :-)
20 - 25km : 18m48

I spent this section trying to reel in a couple of runners who were running together and seemed to be working well. It was a real push to catch them, but catch them I did.

I love running...

I also saw my friend Donnino out on the course, he ran along with me for 200m, we had a bit of a laugh, I was telling him how good looking he was and that he aroused me...the crowd thought this was very funny and gave me another energy boost.
25 - 30km : 18m39

Having caught the two runners ahead I had to spend 2-3 minutes composing myself. I wanted to work with the 2 runners but I had expelled a lot of energy getting to this point.

Once recovered I moved to the front. At this point I realised that the group of two had not been working together at all, in fact one runner had been towing the other and now that I joined the group the second runner was dropped pretty quickly.

So we were back down to two and we were running strongly together. My Garmin watch had decided to freeze on the battery life screen so I no longer had any feedback on the pace. I knew we were running strongly.
30 - 35km : 18m44

I had to resist the desire to push on during the last 5km, I felt strong but it was still too early to do anything silly.

We got to 37km and the wheels were still rolling. I said to the other runner "we've done it, we've made it to the end". Whilst this was maybe quite premature, but with a little over 3 miles to go I knew even if it unravelled from here we were on for a good time.

He responded "I'll race you over the last 5km". When we promptly sped up.
35 - 40km : 18m23

No, I really love running...it's so much fun

All a bit of a blur, I knew I was passing runners. I knew my back and lungs were tightening up and that I was starting to feel a little like vomiting. But I passed the 40km marker in under 2h30. Too tired to work out the maths at this point, but I certainly wasn't content with "just" a sub 2h40 and I knew if I finished strong I would break by some margin.

Kept on pushing through "the zombie zone", lots of runners falling apart and for a change I wasn't one of them!

Before I knew it I was in the track in the Olympic stadium, I felt at home back on the track where I had done so much of my training in the build up.

Never had I felt like that at the end of a marathon still pushing hard all the way to the finish line.
40 - Finish : 8m06
Result : 2h37m47

Some interesting facts about this run.

1) My Dad predicted my race result as 2h37m48, 1 second over my actual time...he of little faith.

2) When you put 2h37m47 into the Macmillian pace calculator it suggests you should be able to run a 16m12 5km (which is incidentially my current PB)

3) I ran a negative split, Kevin ran a negative. We got quite drunk after the race.

4) Emily and Mrs A must've walked at least 8km whilst spectating...

Massive congratulations to the Armstrong brothers on fantastic performances and to the wives for coming and spectating. An endurance sport in its own right.

Everyone loves finishing in an empty stadium...it makes you realise truly how rubbish you are.