After last Friday’s decent race but poor time I was pleased to roll on into this week feeling in good shape & looking forward to a couple of 5000’s on the track! For the rest of this month there is no plan to get into the really high mileage & having a couple of races within the week certainly helps ensure that. Still I’ve averaged 110mpw for the last month, so not exactly low on miles! Continue reading
Races
W/C 12/6/17 – Routine
Counting last week as the start of my Berlin build up it felt good to be back approaching my normal routine. There’s no harm in change & I’m not obsessive about any one aspect of my training but over a period of several weeks there are certain things I know I need to do in order to get the best fitness gains – most of those were back last week, & the others will fall into place over the next couple of weeks. Continue reading
W/C 29/05/17 – Reflect & move on
As mentioned in last week’s blog, the result in London 10K left me quite down at the time. However after a day of reflection & considering what I am trying to achieve I soon had myself back confident in my ability, eager to put the work in, race well in June & commit 100% in all aspects to running a big PB in September. Continue reading
Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PB’s
Surely now established as the best night in the domestic running calendar? This event has grown into a huge spectacle over recent years & it is already a must do/see day of distance running with thousands attending & many more streaming it live. Continue reading
W/C 8/5/17 – The Wait is Almost Over
The last full week of hard work for a while! This week will see the hard training done with just a couple more sessions before hitting the two 10K’s & seeing what I can do – track & road PB’s being the minimum target! Highgate is the following Saturday (20th, live stream via Vinco), London 10K on Bank Holiday Monday (29th) & I’ll then take a recovery week to just tick over. The following Sunday marks 16 weeks to Berlin, & will also be a decent run out at the Ramathon as my annual guest appearance in the Thermo Fisher vest for Jo’s corporate team. That will finish my recovery week & it will then be into the specific block of training for Berlin, although looking to include several early season track races to compliment the increased volume & keep the speed in my legs! Continue reading
12 Stage Relays – Silver & Bronze
The 12 Stage relays are some of my favourite races of the year, & this year was no exception with a close (& fast) battle with Bristol & Cheltenham at the Midland relays at the end of March followed a fortnight later by an unexpected (before the day & even at the finish) medal at the National relays. Continue reading
Den Haag Half Marathon
Back for the third consecutive year, having ran be current PB of 66:o5 in 2015 & wining the 10K in 2016 after just a week back running. So I’ve ran well on the Dutch roads & although the year didn’t start as planned, following a good trip to Spain I knew I was in reasonable shape. Continue reading
6ª CARRERA POPULAR BENIJOFAR PREMIO CASAS MANUEL
Jo was flying back home on the Saturday & I had another 5 days of training to knuckle down to! The plan was to continue the alternate hard days but having received an email from the organisers of the previous week’s Medio Maraton Torrevieja I started to have a quick scan online for any local races & the event organiser from Club Atletismo Benijófar got straight back to me on Friday saying I could still enter their race. Continue reading
Medio Maraton Torrevieja
Our amazingly helpful friend at SportsCity in Torrevieja – Javier Lopez – was able to arrange my entry for the local half marathon taking place the day after we arrived. A happy coincidence, although with some apprehension given my lack of proper training so far in 2017! Continue reading
An update post Berlin
Having beaten myself up after London 2015’s relative disappointment I made a conscious effort to reflect on the positives from Berlin to ensure I was in a good place to resume training with real focus once well rested.
There were many positives, with the main ones being:
- Going inside 2:20 for the first time
- Finishing relatively strongly again
- A consistent & enjoyable build up