Daz Does Tri

Yesterday I read the session slightly wrong, think I was supposed to do 9 miles LT with 4 @ tempo whereas it turned out to be 9 miles 'general' and 4 miles LT. Nonetheless was a good run at a decent clip and didn't kill me. Todays run was always going to be harder, even though these 'general aerobic' run are at a very comfortable pace, I have not done big miles for months now. Pace wise, bopping along at 7/mm is easy enough but 12 miles I would still consider a long 'un - although from now long is 16+. So, 12 miles general endurance (138 - 155 bpm). Started off easy enough, first mile up in 7.14 followed by a decent 6.46 with wind behind and well under 150 bpm. 3rd mile took a different route for a change and last bit was into bang wind. Garmin beeped for low battery - shite !! Thought it was good. So, knowing Garmin wouldn't last, ran back the way I came. Would have to do 2 loops whatever happened so decided to do 3 mile out and back twice (ya...

Christmas was a fest of excess. Went to Potters resort in Norfolk, outstanding place, very opulant with loads of activities for the kids and more than enough to do for the adults. What makes the place amazing is the 3 meals a day. There is so much food it's rediculous and you spend time waiting to shovel even more unneeded food in. God knows how many calories I consumed but it was enough for 3 adults a day! Top that off with all day drinking with family and friends and I am shocked I csme back in the same clothes I went in. Me and the missus joked our table was the diabetes express there was so much rich food being eaten. Had planned to do Park run at Goreston Cliffs but with the 9am start and 9-10am breakfast window it just never happened. Got out for 20 mins on Christmas day, very lethargic and 45 mins on Boxing day. Started OK but ran last mile on the beach so pace was 9+ mm. Came back today, missus is still unpacking all the prezzies, there is shite everywhere! Go...

January is fast approaching. Hip issue ruined my December racing plans but things are still on the up in terms of training. Going alright and on shedule to start marathon mileage! Looks busy, I hope to race myself into shape and use training races at harder tempo sessions with plenty of miles either side! Better get entering! January looks busy race wise. Will aim to get some decent finish positions in there rather than times. Jan 2 - Mid lancs Half Jan 8 - County XC Jan 15 - Frostbite league February will be a hard month as miles should rise a bit. Feb 5 - Frostbite Feb 19 - Sleaford half training run March - hopefully be fit at last ! Mar 4 - Frostbite Mar 11 - Silverstone half Mar 18 - Ashby 20 training run Mar 25 - Victoria Park 5 Training wise, still can't get my head around a plan. I will try and get a steady longer run in, a couple of runs at LT and mix up intervals and racing. January so far in my head looks like this ... Rest days will...

December is traditionally a booze fueled, food stuffing, sicky piss-up. This year I have tried to limit all of the above and so far has been OK. Knowing how bad December is and knowing I have a) no races and b) marathon training coming up - the aim has specifically been to maintain fitness. It's a pretty unusal and nice place to be for me right now. I have spent the last 18 month chasing fitness and trying to get faster all the time. This month I have just been doing enough to get me into January in the same shape I went into December in ! I've really enjoyed running with little pressure this month. I don't feel in great shape but the sessions keep going well and all the extra recovery is giving my hip flexors some time out. Tonights session was 3 x 3k at St Ives. Really didn't feel up for this after a long day at work. Short warm up as I was running late and got straight into the session. No Garmin like last time I did this one. Ran it pretty hard from ...

After a great long run on Sunday, Hips were slightly sore on Monday so I just did a session on the Turbo. Tuesday kicked off boozing season. Trying to get through this booze/run/injury cycle and not loose too much fitness! Was aiming to get a short run in first thing but was far too busy sorting kids and grandparents out for big partners night out. Went into London, did shopping, cocktails on 5th Floor at Harvey Nicks, drinks in hotel bar (Rembrandt - bit dissapointing) followed by 14 course dinner on chefs table at Marcus Wareing The Berkeley. Unreal food & wine was flowing! Wednesday morning hangover was followed by a tired HR test - 5.17 miles with some great results against baseline. Beats per mile 1036 is one of best this year and close to Amsterdam levels. Thursday flew to Dublin for Spurs game. Took running kit, unfortunately hotel room was not ready on time and we hit the Guiness. After about 6 I started chewing so had a bottle of red then moved on to Magners f...

Today I was spoilt for choices on the racing front. First priority was the Bedford Half Marathon. This was my A race for the year - more by the fact that it was going to be my last chance to get fit and nail a sub 75 ! At the same time by incredibly poor annual timing was also the 3rd Frostbite league race at Hinchingbrook Park. So after seeing the specialist on Sunday today's race would be ... neither! Half marathon would be a risk, I know if I felt any pain I would probably continue and make things worse. Shit, even after doing it twice before with the same injury I know I'd do it again! Hinchingbrook has the risk of a couple of slippy uphills and some hard and fast downhills. It's a great race but there is no chance of getting into a rythem which is the only way I can keep running right now. So I opted for a long run. Aim was 14 @ 7's which was pretty much exactly what it was - 7.11, 6.57, 6.48, 6.49, 6.56, 7.00, 7.08, 6.47, 6.59, 7.05, 6.57, 7.05, 7.01,...

Nice gentle 7 miles tis mornign over the trails. 8/mm or so, HR little high but hills and tiredness accounted for that. HR wa sin the loe part of the 'endurance zone' so probably achieved what I set out to. Saw the specialist today. Conclusion is that it's stress related - not likely a fracture but some kind of bruisng around the bone. Need an MRI scan to find out exactly what's wrong and then look at a plan to rehab it. Specialist said to reduce volume and intensity and to guide my training by the level of pain. At the moment I get a dull ache but no pain so all good. Nice rest day tomorrow so hopefully be in shape for a good long run on Sunday. Obviously can't race which I am gutted about but got to keep an eye on the master plan, which is to wrap in cotton wool until January and not take risks.

Tuesday I started to run again after 3 days off. Was OK but felt hard work. Felt pretty much the same on Wednesday, 12 miles @ 7.17 pace. HR was OK - 149 bpm for the run and never got too high. Felt a little lethargic but to be expected after not running much recently. Today was aiming to do a tempo, HM effort tempo which should be fairly comfortable. Aiming to do longer tempos than the traditional 5 miles @ close to race effort. Started off with no Garmin signal but know this run like the back of my hand. Clicked first mile at same bench in 6:31 - not great as it felt quite hard and HR was up to 164 bpm by then. It was quite windy and the canal route to Dobbs Weir is a 3 mile out and back and wind was dead into first 3 miles! 2nd mile clicked off at 6:17 under the train bridge near Rye House dog track. Feeling a bit battered and HR needed to be looked at to keep down to 167 target. 3rd mile started fine as was out of wind but last 400m or so into wind really slowed to ...

Last couple of weeks have been interesting. Last Sunday ran 15 miles @ 6.20/mm feeling great. Hips ached afterwards so X-Trained a couple of days then ran 8 @ 7.10 pace feeling so-so. Thursday did 6 x mile in 5.18, 5.21, 5.22, 5.22, 5.25 & 5.36 (uphill). Absolutely cracking session. Friday hip went fubar on an easy 7.5 and had to walk home. X Train Sat & Sun then rest Monday and physio (weak hip flexors, tight glute). So that's the round up. I prey that my running is one long boring progress from a 31 min Frostbite to a sub 2.30 marathon but alas it seems the rollercoaster that is my return to athletics will continue!! The physio - Eric @ Bodybalance at the HIPAC in Hatfield is an amazing guy. Not only does he have some great stories of people, places & events he's worked on but he nails what's wrong with you. He quickly identified my Hip adductors problem was my flexors in fact and the tightness from the glutes that was a hangover from St Neots wa...

Supposed to do 6 miles with Stevie B on Friday. Long story short he made it an 8 miler and by 7.5 I was walking in agony. Bloody weak adductors again! It's not his fault, regularly I would have been happy to make it a bit longer but the last mile and a half was what broke the camels back. Offic party Friday night, planned rest day Saturday (leg not feeling too bad but dull ache) and Sunday spent doing 2 turbo sessions. Leg now feels OKish. Have physio appt tomorrow morning were I should find out whats happening Sunday. If all goes well, I hope I can run reasonably comfortable Tuesday, then hard on Wednesday and Thursday. BUT, and like mine it's a big but I will have to wait on results from physio tomorrrow. If things are not great I will keep rocking the cross training, it would be criminal to waste fitness after what I've done recently. So right now I am a bit lost. Have swimming kit tomorrow so not planning to run. Thursday last week I killed a session and t...

After feeling a bit sore after Sunday I X-trained Monday & Tuesday and stretched like a bastard. Finally got a run in today. 8 miles @ 7.10/mm. HR was a bit high, in fact I didn't really believe the readings as it felt really easy. No sore legs afterwards so happy with that. Met up with DC, Ian, Ed & Wayne tonight to discuss our VO2 max test readings. What really hit home was that the results are only going to help you if you are getting specific for your event. For me, I am targetting a marathon and need to adapt the training to a marathon schedule. Plan for now though is to get fit for Bedford Half, which I guess will follow roughly the same plan. T - Road Reps F - 8 Mid Endurance S - 5 w/3 tempo S - 20 Endurance M - 6 & 5 Low Endurance T - 12 LT W - 10 Mid Endurance T - Road reps F - 8 Low Endurance S - Rest S - Race Basically the plan is to run hard/easy up till Thursday before the race and then back off. No idea what pace to start at yet, k...

After Thursdays road session, Fridays long run attempt was a struggling 8 miles @ 7.59/mm over the hilly trails. Felt so tired! Good thing was it was done and dusted by 10am. Rested up Saturday and Sunday went out for a long run with DC. Aim was to push it to just above LT effort. Started nice and steady and reeled off the miles. After 8 miles DC called it on to go for 15! I thought we would be doing 10 and at that stage the pace was dropping to 6:06/mm ! Splits were (approx Garmin took ages to pick up signal so some from DCs) 6.37, 6.27, 6.24, 6.22, 6.20, 6.10, 6.11, 6.09, 6.22, 6.27, 6.20, 6.21, 6.15, 6.18, 6.24 For 1:34.52 @ 160 bpm. Half marathon in 1:23 feeling good. Was only wind in face last 2 1/2 miles that pushed HR up to half marathon effort. Felt really good the whole run, running with DC always feels easier for the pace! Big improvement on previous long runs and a good start at an attack on Beford Half next weekend. Unfortunately woke up this morning w...

When I came back from my family holiday in France, I decided that I was going to have one last crack at running some half decent times again. 2011 has been horrible, my races thus far have gone - Feb 26 5k Parkrun 18.45 2nd. Ouch, got lost and ran like a proper bum. Mar 6 5.4 Frostbite 6.16/mm 17th place. Weakest Frostbite field ever and I had a real shocker. I actually barely managed to overtake someone walking up hill with a mile and a half to go. Mar 27 10k Thorney 36.30 Pretty good considering but could not run any faster than 5.50 pace May 30 10k Hatfield Broad Oak 36.30 Same again, was hoping to pb and got into pretty good shape after losing fitness through illness Jun 4 5k Leeds Parkrun 18.03 5th Ran quicker that evening on a steady run. Legs did not want to work Jun 22 Eye 5k 17.11 Pretty good after everything I had been through and an improvement on the years performances Jul 6 Peterborough 5k 16.49 Good run, fast course & erfect conditions but cr...

VO2 Max testing today. DC arranged for myself, Ed & Iand to go and have a test at University of Hertfordshire. Really looking forward to seeing where I really am as I have always used 145 bpm 160bpm 170bpm as a guide for Easy, Steady & Tempo runs. Started off with testing out weight (10st 6lbs), height & body fat. Have to wait for the last 2! Warmed up 10 mins on the treadmill @ 10.5 kmph and eventually got hooked up to the gas mask. After warm up did 20 mins lactate test starting at 14kmph (6:40/mm) on 1% incline for 4 mins then incremented every 4 mins or so by 0.5 kmph. Got to 16 kmph or 6/mm before the test ended as lactate soared. Felt pretty tough and HR got to around 170 bpm at this pace so no surprises after Sundat that LT is probably between 6:05 - 6:10/mm 5 mins recovery and it was time to get Max HR for the VO2 max test. Ran starting at 15 kmph increasing incline to 3% and pace to 17.5 kmph before I bailled out at around 9 mins for 185 bpm. Ver...

Bedford Half in 3 weeks. Time to start planning, got to think big if I am going to run a decent time. 'A' target is obviously 75 mins. Maybe a bit ambitious but it's out there and I've been close before. Probably a bit far-fetched but considering I am shit at hills, I held back and I have been under the weather maybe with a good run I could go close? Aim for the starts and all that! 'B' target has to be sub 6/mm. 1:18.30 I think that would be. Good stepping stone going into London preperation and more than realistic based on the issues above! 'C' target would be running same as today but much more comfortable. Good hard honest training run. If it doesn't go well in the lead up then it would be a good back up for today. So, got to get back on it. First step is to recover from today. Legs are pretty hammered and I am tired. I will try and run easy Monday - Wednesday this week just banking some good easy miles. Thursday hard road in...

After a topsy turvey week of training going from Monday & Tuesdays awesome tempo work to Thursday and Fridays lazy & tired runs I was hoping for a decent performance today. Saturday I rested all day and recovered nicely. Spent the day doing family things with the kids (football training, bike riding & cinema) and generally taking my mind off of racing - which has gone BADLY all year. Woke up today feeling good. Slept all right and legs felt happy. Resting HR though was 49/50 bpm - still way too high. Little girl has had high temperature for a few days and I've felt a little chesty so guess it's still in the system. Decided to just throw it down and have a crack. Foggy as hell this morning and bloody cold. Got to St Neots rec and jogged a bit after getting my number and felt nice and warm. Kept myself to myself at the start only catching up with Ian & DC on the way to the start line. Decided to switch GPS off and run to feel. Would lap the Garmin ...

Meetings overran today so my breakfast protein power shake that should last me for my 20 miles was well out of my system by the time I set out (1.45pm instead of 11.30 am) ! Started and felt OK but HR through the roof - 157 bpm for 7.30/mm. Got to 4.5 miles and just thoght best to turn around. Dropped the HR to sub 150 bpm for the second half. 9 miles in 1.08 ish for 7.38/mm. HR far too high for that pace. Bit pissed as was hanging around and HR was just up because of lack of food. Never mind, binned it but to be fair 9 miles didn;t even feel like I had touched the sides! Will probably do 10 tomorrow at decent HR then it's all about the rest up for Sunday. Not overly confident racing at the minute but training is going well so signs are there that it should be OK. Fingers crossed about time a race went to plan !!

Session tonight at the track with the boys - was on the road so decided to come along. Still not ready for track and the way I am building my foundations in training everything seems to be coming into shape so best stick with the plan. So, got to the track and DC declared it would be mile downhill, 2 x 3k loop around St Ives and then mile up hill. 5.6 miles of intervals - wowsers !! Mile warm up on the track at a decent clip - 6.45 pace, bit of stretching and strides. Good group tonight, DC, Ian Turner, Ed, triathlete Mark & myself. Set off for the first mile and nearly get run over about 1200m in. The joys of road reps! Finished in 5.20 and found it pretty hard work and seemed to take forever. 3 mins standing recovery went in no time and into first 3k rep. Stayed with DC & IT for 2k (6:48) and slowed slightly on the last k as it was around town with lots of turns and first time I had done this route. Finished up 1.82 miles in 10.00. Didn't realise everyone e...

Saturday night on the tiles. Stayed out far too late and drank far too much. Sunday was a total write off so finished the week with 59 miles in 5 days. Good return, miles OK but could have been much better. Set out for work this morning, dropped the boy into school and approaching Bassingbourn there was a big crash in front of me. Hit the brakes heavy and stopped just short. Then BANG, van smashes into the back of me followed by another BANG as a BMW convertible smashes into the van. Luckilly noone was badly hurt but 7 cars involved and at least 4 were a write off. Managed to untangle the car (luckily I drove Anges X5 into work rather than my 911) and get it home. No front damage but plenty in the back. Sorted all that out today so no work. Decided to do a decent 8 tonight so set off at a good pace feeling pretty strong. Garmin didn't pick up till just before the first mile marker so no idea of pace. Was shocked at what I was seeing for the rest of the run as it did...

First 20 miler of 2011 !! In the bag and boy does she look pretty !! Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday I had run plenty of miles but eased off the pace to keep my HR down as my resting HR was up to 53 bpm (from 43 last week - a significant climb). I decided there and then I would either run 16 miles Thursday or rest Thursday and run 20 miles Friday. Thursday morning I felt good but just pissed that my resting HR was still 53 bpm. Runnning (even though I felt like a coilled spring) would just prolong it so I rested up. I was home all day bored so was perfect opportunity to get a long one in but just one of lifes bad timings! Went out in the evening for a couple fo sherberts with a pal whose quoting up some building work at home but nothing major. Woke up this morning, did school run and into work. Few bits and bobs, charged the Garmin and tested resting HR. Got to 48 bpm with concentration but was settling around 50. Not perfect but good enough. Kitted up then out the door...

As the Rocky song goes!! 14 miles yesterday in an 8.5 / 5.5 stylee. Evening run went very well, 7:30 pace felt like tripping over my feet and HR at 143bpm is right where it needs to be right now. Woke up this morning with sore throat though, kids all ill, Mrs ill and resting HR of 53 is 10bpm too high. Will run very easy HR until this is back down. Nothing over 145bpm. Want to go for 15 mins tempo ASAP but it's not going to happen today. Will probably do 4 at work then 8 tonight to top up but like I say all easy until I'm healthy again. Have felt on the cusp of being ill for some time now and managed to get some decent training in. Think when this all clears up I will be running much much better. Also a convenient excuse for poor race at Fenland 10 !!

After Frodays not-so-great run, got out Saturday morning not sure what to do. Resting HR was too high at 48 bpm, confirming I'm not 100%. Have been around so many ill people recently it's to be expected ! So set out and warmed up at 8:20 pace for the first mile. Felt still bleugh but stright into 3 miles tempo. Tempo pace for me is 6:20 so thats the danger zone. It's not a great pace but off my base and lack of basic speed that where I need to be working. Tempo miles reeled off at 6:08, 6:08, 5:57 with HR at 164 bpm avge which is pretty low. 169 bpm for the 5:57 mile. 6:08 was pretty comfortable but the 5:57 was far too pacey this early in the morning! Warm down mile at 7:10 ish pace feeling good. Got out again in the evening for 4.5, reelled off progressive miles at 7:25, 7:11, 6:54 & 6:10. Picked up the pace on the last mile as part of my master plan. Pace this week has felt quite quick, it's been a good week but tough and not feeling as relaxed a...

Rested Thursday. Diet was a bit all over the place as I was trying to do it on my own. Mr P was staying at a friends house. They have just had their first baby and my pal was away on business so Mrs P went to help doing the night feeds and stuff. So I had all 3 kids on my own. Nursery run for Sawyer & Lola then school run for Jacob. Miltary operation getting them organised but got it done! Friday (after dumping the kids in their relevant education establishments) set up for my run. Plan was 16 miles steady but with the rain I really didn't fancy getting wet for 2 hours as I've been feeling under the weather for a week or so. So dropped plan to 10. As I had on long sleeve, hat, jacket etc. etc. I binned the Garmin and ran to feel. really CNBA with this run. After 7 I just decided I wasn't enjoying it, first run for a long time I just wasn't happy running. Pace was OK, no niggles just really didn't want to be out there. So ran a mile route home to ...

As I said yesterday, Mrs P has had me on the Abs diet now since Saturday and since my stomach issues 10 days ago I have generally been eating much healthier. Aside from my shite race performance I have to say my running in general has improved dramatically. Pace is well under 7/mm avge and I feel much stronger. Not only that but the high protein content of the diet has left me recovering much quicker and I'm not walking like an old man first thing in the morning. The diet is mainly based around having a protein and fruit shake in the morning, a mid morning snack (almonds & raisens), lunch of say tuna & sweetcorn on wholemeal bread, another snack, helthy dinner (salmon & rice) and a final snack of same sort of thing. I have been topping up levels in the evening with a hot choclate but I have laid off the fried food, beer, sweets & chocolate and to be honest I haven't missed it much. We get one 'cheat' meal a week so one takeaway on Friday ! May...

Yesterday ticked the boxes - groundhog day, 6 & 5 done and dusted and in the bag. Today, spoke to DC this morning. His VO2 max test had told him the same as me - he needed to do more work at LT pace - or for me much faster. Intervals, although I love them more than any other kind of run are just nowhere near relevant to any race pace at the moment. So, emailled DC a session I have been doing it and when we got to the track we adapted it. Myself, DC, Ed & Superfast Paul set off for a good warm up, followed by 10 mins tempo effort. Then we would recover and choose an interval each and whoever chose had to lead out. This was great fun and the pace varied with whoever led and the time they chose. Then we would recover and do a final 10 mins tempo before running home easy. The first 10 mins came in at 5:36/mm for 10 mins - that was what I wanted for the whole session this morning and it felt pretty good! Then the intervals were 1:45 (5:23/mm) for DC leading, 5:23 for 6...

Yesterdays run was 10 miles @ 167 bpm. Near as damn 10 miles tempo effort. Pace was shit but it was a workout. End of story, move on. This afternoon got my regulation 10k run with Andy around the wildlife park. He's getting fitter - 8:17/mm - we were knocking these out at 9:30-10/mm at the start of the year ! 4.8 miles tonight, kids everywhere in Cambourne couldn't be arsed with the last extra bit choping and changing everywhere. 6:58/mm for the run feeling pretty easy. Feeling good sitting here typing this - no niggles or aches & feeling OK. Been run down last week or so but it seems my pre-base work is done. I can run forever at 7/mm but sub 6:30 pace is too hard. Sure sign that it's time to move on a level. Have started getting my steady run at around 7/mm - same for my long runs. Just need to push a little harder on them to keep it here for 16 miles and need to hold back to 7/mm on the shorter runs and see HR improvement. Easy runs anything from 8+/...

Monday am) 6 pm) 5 Tuesday 2 mile tempo, long wu / cd Wednesday am) 10 easy pm) 5 Thursday Rest Friday 16 steady Saturday 8 Sunday 12 Thats the plan. All works if I can get through it. Long way to go...

After Sunday / Mondays stomach issues managed to get out for a tester 5 on Tuesday. 7:34/mm feeling okish. Farted about 1000 times on the run and by then end of it stomach was pretty much sorted. Wednesday felt alright and had a go at a decent 12. Managed 6:50/mm for the run feeling pretty damn good. Surprising turaround but started feeling a little fluey. Thursday had people over till Saturday so did 5 gentle miles with James @ 7:47/mm HR very low and feeling great. Few too many beers and fruit pastels consumed that night!! Friday 8 easy miles @ 6:53/mm HR almost best all year feeling like a jog. Best I have felt running this year and really positive about the weekend. Saturday rest up although still a little fluey and tired all day. Slept like a champ with the extr hour in bed. Woke up this morning ready to race. Picked Ian up, got to the start line feeling good. Can say a million things about this race. 64:17 was way short of both expectations and wishes. Not ...

Real bad stomach cramps since Thursday night, have no idea what it is - the missus thinks it's IBS but feels like trapped wind or a pulled muscle in my gut or something. Feels like a stabbing pain in my stomach when it's bad but does come and go. No chance of running today, gutted as I wanted to make up for yesterday. Tomorrow will have to properly address the diet, absolutely nothing interesting to eat and just water. Got a date with Ian down the track for 4 miles tempo (race pace for Sunday !) If I can't run tomorrow I will probably knock Sunday on the head which will piss me off no end. Have bought all sorts of medication - gaviscon, some shit for trapped wind, dyralite etc. etc. Annoyed that it's always something. Oh well, fingers crossed will be back at it tomorrow.

Last week I blogged about the ups and downs of getting fit. 2 steps forward and one step back I think is the phrase I used! After a good long run last Friday and great steady runs Sat & Sun, Monday & Tuesday this week were tiring. Just the miles catching up with me. Wednesday was a planned rest day and I felt great. Thursday I had planned to do my long run but life got in the way and it became a booze and junk fuelled rest day. First back to back rest days for some time! Thursday night I barely slept with stomach cramps. Friday was a busy day with family stuff on and I eventually got out for a steady 8 that went really well. Saturday again an easy 7 over the trails with 2 miles at hard effort. Really went well here with 2 miles at 6:08 and 6:20. The 6:08 was on road and really comfortable. The 6:20 was harder as it was on the trails but felt good to put my foot down a bit! What was nice was this trail run is quite slow going and usually an 8/mm effort and today...

Running often feel like two steps forward and one step back. After Friday, Saturday & Sundays really good paced runs Monday & Tuesday have been a real struggle. Got the miles in by doing two easy double days. Monday was 6.2 @ 8:28/mm and 4.8 @ 7:50/mm. The second run felt awful in the wind because my Garmin was showing 8:30 pace for most of the run and came up well short on the distance compared to usual. Good reason to bin the Garmin occasionally as it dictates how you feel. Today did an easy 8.4 with Andy at work on a new route at a decent clip for him - 8:21/mm. Legs felt really bad on this run. Felt tired and struggled and calves really ached. After stretching and rolling them hard the other night they don't seem to have been right since #morehardthangood !! Decided to have tomorrow as my rest day and move the long run to Thursday as I stil want to run long the day after a rest. So got out tonight for a plod in full tracksuit. 3.5 mile route than I have b...

5 miles steady yesterday @ 6:47/mm. First sub 7 run for a while. Pace was consistent throughout and felt pretty comfortable. This week I have finally started to feel a bit better running. The strength and recovery is starting to happen and the 8:20 pace from a week or so ago is becoming more like 7:40 pace which is moving bang into the area I need it to. Backed yesterdays run up with a shade over 10 @ 6:39/mm this morning. Ran with DC so it was always going to be quick. Felt pretty good today to be fair, the distance is finally starting to feel pretty standard and time wise and hour is not feeling like a mountain to run over ! Pace was- 6:52 (including aquiring satellites so bit quicker in reality) 6:43 6:37 6:29 6:30 6:38 6:30 6:33 6:45 6:43 6:50 pace for the extra bits This pace is perfect for me right now for my harder steady runs and is going to pay dividends long term. DC was on an easy paced long run today so it fit perfect with him. Good to have someon...

Long run today, Fridays (unlike Thursdays) are daddys day! Get up, kids fed, cleaned and watered and into nursery. Then the day is mine until 3.30pm (Jacob has 2 pals over for a play day tonight so it will be fun and games)! Got back from dropping the two little ones at nursery and breakfast and chill out before getting out for my run. Run was planned as 16 and stuck to it today which is surprising early days into training. The plan was to stick around 7:30 pace and see what happens. 7:34/mm (143bpm) 6:44 - 147 7:01 - 150 7:12 - 153 7:08 - 152 7:21 - 154 (heavy trail directly into wind) 7:20 - 155 same, stopped at the hub for no. 2's! 7:08 - 147 7:15 - 148 7:20 - 150 7:25 - 151 7:16 - 153 Off the trails but into wind 7:07 - 158 windy here 7:10 - 162 bloody wind making this hard work 6:58 - 161 out of wind at last 7:34 - 148 ease down 7:11/mm @ 151bpm for 1085 beats per mile. Best return for long run this year and that wind was worth plenty out there. G...

Rest day yesterday, well earned after getting some decent miles and solid runs in the past few days. So, early up with Sawyer jumping in bed with us. Wake up, shower, make kids breakfast & make sure boys get themseles dressed, brushed teeth & hair then take Jacob to school and on to work. In total takes about 1.15 to get into work and do the school run via Bourn. Get into work and straight into Advertising meeting. Our new designer is arranging some marketing for us including TV adverts, radio & other media stuff. Big discussion on how to expand the brand and how much we should spend. Nearly 2 hours for that. Not many decisions but some good starting points for Michal to get on with. Bacon baguette been sitting on my desk for about an hour and a half when I get out so scoff that and half way through it straight into cancellations meeting. Our account management team are working on stopping dealers cancelling our subscription service. Discuss current plans and h...

Running today was 2 x reocvery runs. 7 this morning around the trails at a leisurly 7:44/mm. Pleased with this as it really feels like the tide is turning. Felt good today, tired but strong - exactly how marathon training should be. The VO2 max is climbing and I know after today that I am only 3/4 weeks away from being able to handle decent training paces and start turning in respectable race performances. 3.5 easy tonight, very very easy just to loosen the legs. iPod and a jog, not everyones cup of tea but I really enjoy these runs to clear my mind before settling down for the night with the missus. And 4 well earned beers tonight ;) Originally I had planned to lift the miles from ~60 to ~75 after Peterborough but I seem to have found a nice routine for the week now and with no marathon in the immediate future just keeping the miles where they are and working on pace for the foreseeable seems the best plan. My training week is shaping up nicely as follows Monday - am) 6...

Tempo 7 tonight. Same as last week - 10 easy, 15 at marathon effort, minute to tie shoes then 15 mins at half marathon effort followed by 10 min cool down. The warm up felt tired at 8:20 pace although Garmin was playing silly buggers showing nearly 10/mm for most part ! Got into the 15 mins at marathon effort keeping HR to around 158 and feeling really comfortable at around 6:36 pace for the main part. The last 3/4 mins it dropped down to 6:43 pace overall average but that seems a big slow down? Good news was that I felt great on this HR. The half marathon effort semmed to start really slow for extra heart rate - around 6:40 pace at 162 bpm off the bat. That dropped steadily down to 6:30/mm pace for the overall average. DOMS a bit sore but nicely controlled although HR was 2bpm higher than last week but to be expected 2 days after a half marathon. 10 mins cool down and feeling pretty tired at the end. Looking forward to Thursdays rest day - only got an easy run tomorrow t...

10k this morning nice and easy around the canal path with Andy at work. 8:24/mm - Andy is getting quicker! We started off this year knocking out anything between 9:25 - 10/mm !! 4.8 miles this evening @ 8:09/mm - felt very tired and heavy legged after yesterday with some DOMS - purely from lack of pace recently. So 11 tired miles for the day. Great miles, especially after yesterdays race but the legs are a concern. Want to do some tempo tomorrow so hope they are nice and fresh by the evening. Big session this week is the long run. I will rest Thursday for it and hope it comes together for 16+ at a decent clip. Feeling positive about start to the season, I am in the gutter looking up at the stars !! Need a race in 3 weeks now as I am not able to do next Frostbite :/

Million % have been down with something from middle of last week onwards. That kinda cheers me up because after last weekends Frostbite run the old deamons about training were kicking in this week and although 54 miles in 5 days is decent it's not the 70+ I was looking for and the pace has been a struggle. Saturday evening after running around with the kids all day (football training & a party) I was shattered and in bed by 9pm hoping to shake off whatever is in my system. So this morning, woke up feeling fantastic. Legs felt great and for the first time in a long time they appreciated the day off running that I had given them. Picked Stevie B up from Somersham and had agreed to drive the 1.25 train for him at 6.2x pace for the run. We talked tactics about what to expect and how to manage the race. Got to the car park a bit late and tried to find Kye, DC & Ed but my morning guts were up to their old tricks so was off to John Lewis looking for a poo !! Dumped kit ...

After getting in from work yesterday, settled down on the sofa for a doze and woke up an hour and a half later feeling rough as a baders arse. Sore thorat and incredibly tired. Wound up in bed by half 8 for first early night for a while. This morning woke up feeling not great but slightly better. Looks like I had been coming down with something for a while. After dropping the little ones into nursery, decided on a change of plan from yesterday so got out for 10 miles @ 145 bpm. HR was well under control and felt ok running to be fair. The conditions, the slow trail I was on and the illness probably accounted for an extra 5 bpm so 8:09/mm wasn't that bad. Jogged a further 3.5 tonight to top it up in a hoodie to sweat it out a bit. Legs feel pretty good and don't feel THAT bad so fingers crossed things are still ticking over. Barring disaster should be 5 weeks over 50 mpw - best since the start of the year. Hopefully if I start feeling better next week should start g...

Today the plan was 20. Get it out of the way nice and early, not go mad just nice and steady and get the first proper long one in the bag. After getting in to work at 10, I was planning to get out of the door by 10.30 but with one thing or another (and another and another .... ) it's just wasn't happening and my window closed. Started to feel a bit tired today, I know the miles are having an effect on me and it's a 2 step forward 1 step back process. Also mentally it's tough to have miles looming over you when you are not performing yet. So, considering my options - I don't really want to run a 20 on Friday with Sundays half and I don't really want to have a 5 day week at this stage. My body feels a bit tired so I will ease it up a bit and go 5 tonight, 12 tomorrow morning, 4 in the evening, rest Saturday and then Sunday do a longer warm up into the race (at Marathon-ish effort) and then a long warm down to make it 18 or so. Would put me on 65+ of I hit...

Bit of a Tempo session tonight. Plan is 10 mins warm up into 15 mins @ 158 bpm, rest for a minute, 15 mins @ 162 bpm and then 10 mins cool down. The 158bpm section represents roughly what marathon pace should be when I have plenty of long runs in the bank (allowing drift to avge 162-165 bpm for the marathon). The 162bpm section should represent half marathon pace (closer to 170bpm for the race overall). The hard sections came out at 6:44/mm for 155bpm avge (was low to start and ended up topping to 159bpm) and 6:21/mm for 161bpm. Really pleased with these and Sundays half marathon I will go off at 6:20 pace and see what happens. Ideally it will feel good and I'll be able to push on but at the moment things are not looking ideal so I will just see how we go. Beats Per Mile is an interesting stat I try to keep an eye on. It's a good guage for how your training is progressing and a good comparison between sessions. I know if it's sub 1100BPM for a standard run ...

11.5 miles today. First up 10k with Andy around the nature reserve and along the river this afternoon. Glorious day for a run, legs bit heavy at first but settled in nicely. Felt pretty good afterwards. Just over 5 this evening, felt alright to be fair. HR was great for pace on an easy run - especially after last few days and 1067 beats per mile is lowest for a long time. Whatever went wrong on Sunday seems OK today. Probably just running lots of slow miles is making me stronger but the pace just isn't there yet. Month is shaping up nicely. 27 miles in 3 days so far. Big ish week and then rest Saturday for an MP session at Peterborough on Sunday. Will try and throw some MP work into tomorrows run to shake the legs out. Ideally will get a very easy 10 in on Wednesday and a long run in on Thursday again.

233 miles 7.44/mm 25 days run 5 rest days 5 double days 54 MPW avge 2nd highest month this year (actually in 13 months). Feels good to have decent miles in the bank and look to push on. General and long run pace @ 7.30/mm both.

Frostbite Friendly League St Neots. Scores on the doors - 33rd position in 30:50 (6:10/mm). Preped really well for this race. Got to the start line nicely warm and feeling good. Race starts and it feels quick as I'm not in race mode yet. Plan is to get to 2 miles around 6/mm and push on. First mile marker in 5:40 (5:48 on the garmin) and mile 2 in 6:08 for a shade under 6's - perfect. Time to push on and feeling good but things start feeling hard work pretty darn quick. Work hard through the mile and into the forest mile slowly passes in around 6:20. 4th mile I am really struggling and getting passed like I'm standing still. 6:52 on the Garmin for the mile - hard to believe as the last miel is 0.12 short but either way it's not quick. 5th mile at 6:18 pace, rally to stop dropping any further down the field. Finish up almost exactly same position and time as 2 years ago when I was over the moon. Interestingly after that race the next one for me was Hinc...

First race of the new season tomorrow - Frostbite Friendly league in Priory Park, St Neots. Interesting to see where I am, have strung together 4 good weeks of training. All base work, nothing much pace wise but I am used to starting these seasons coming into fitness. Love these races, give you a great chance to guage yourself against the local runners and to be fair lots of people tend to retain fitness and finish in similar positions so it's a good chance to see if you are improving. Feel in pretty decent nick for this stage of things. I guess somewhere around 30 mins will be respectable if I judge my pace right. But not really seeing this as a flat out race, kind of a stepping stone to next weekend when I hope for something a bit better. Ran 233 miles in September, think I am a big month away from getting into what I would call decent shape and I really need a seriously big week at some stage. Last 18 months or so I have strung 4 good weeks together and then struggled...

Lunch time run today, 4 miles very, very easy. After going slightly further than planned yesterday, and with a long run pencilled in for tomorrow, today was only ever going to be 4/5 recovery anyways. Racing Sunday in the Frostbite Friendly league at Priory Park St Neots. Last couple of years have gone 34th and 11th there - both pretty good runs at the time, and I hope this year is another good one. The plan was to use this race as a sharpener for a decent crack at a time for Peterborough half. Am in a pretty dark place with training at the minute, where almost every run is a struggle and even recovery runs are taking their toll. It's a neccessary evil of base building - getting the legs toughened up, getting the head strong up and getting used to running through and pushing on. This week has been a particular struggle. Today was really tough for the first 3 miles but actually felt ok towards the end. Will stretch and roll tonight and hopefully the legs will be fine tom...

I do a standard Heart Rate test regularly just to see how my speed at easier paces is looking. I run it as 1 mile @ 140 bpm (recovery pace), straight into 1 mile @ 150 bpm (easy pace), 1 mile @ 155 bpm (steady) and 1 mile @ 160 bpm (marathon pace). Finish with mile or so as close to 150 as possible. At my very fittest I ran sub 7/mm at 140 bpm and sub 6/mm at 160 bpm but that was very fit and well rested. Generally, I do this test as the only run of the day as running in the afternoon afects paces. Have not done this for a while but last time out was in May just before a 36.30 10k and was as follows ... 1.00 139bpm 7:44 1.00 152bpm 6:50 1.00 156bpm 6:58 1.00 162bpm 6:30 1.15 146bpm 7:46 Last night, worked out as... 1.00 133bpm 7:51 1.00 152bpm 7:04 1.00 156bpm 6:39 1.00 165bpm 6:27 1.51 152bpm 7:30 Nice comparison especially afeer a tiring weekend and a tired afternoon run. Am sure I am close to similar shape for 10k but I do feel like I am getting fitter by ...

Today I was marshal director for the Bourn to Run 10k. After weeks of meetings, ringing round for volunteers and chasing up favours from friends race day was upone me and I was up at 5.25am. We set out placing marshal station numbers, arrows, tape, spraying arrows in the ground, basically getting a maze of a course set up so runners can't get lost! Once the course was set, met the marshals at race HQ and handed out bibs, job sheets & walkie talkies. Briefed each marshal and made sure they knew exactly what they were doing and knew where they were going. We were lucky to have 20 cadets turn up and help so they ran the car parks nicely and some of the more sparse points on the course. Most of the locals have done the race for the last 2 years so they knew the route inside out. Nightmare before the start as the highways company didn't come to do the road closures until about 5 minutes before the off. Then it was just dealing with arsey locals trying to get through th...

Good day today, 5 easy this morning (8:05/mm for 138 bpm 1107 beats per mile) and 5.1 this evening (7:24/mm feeling pretty easy). Plan obviously at the minute is to keep the 10 miles per day up, get a long run in and have a rest day. Legs were a bit tired this morning but really eased into the run feeling fresh as a daisy. Bit of a long day today, work, kids at school, swimming lesson, organising Bourn to Run 10k (head marshal this Sunday) so tonights run was feeling a bit jaded. Felt a little quicker than 7:24 pace but didn't really push it and felt fine. Little issue with my sciatica at 4 miles for a bit but really nothing to worry about. Got a roll in tonight on the foam as well to ease the legs off. Getting to the stage I'm going to need to get a rub down, certainly before my next race. Track tomorrow so will try and get an easy 5 in the morning and a decent session in. Hopefully wont take too much out of the legs. Plan for this week is affected by Sunday and ...