They say good things take time. Well this has certainly taken some time so I can only hope its good! It’s been about 4 months since I ran the Berlin marathon where I came 14th in 2:16:49, so I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on my run. I’m reasonably pleased with my result but there’s always room for improvement and it’s good to know things weren’t perfect on the day so I can learn from my mistakes and build on any weaknesses. My buildup went really well and I knew I was on for a pb provided nothing disastro...

It's been a while since my last post and I apologise for not yet getting a Berlin race report out but I am working on it and hopefully it'll be here soon. Great to see the All Blacks take down France so easily too;-)  They certainly made it look a lot harder than they needed to but 1 point is all you need. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little Q&A I had with Xempo.  They are a new running clothing company over here in the UK and have a unique grading system for runners where you essentially get to show off your times.   H...

You'd think that with less running I'd have more time to put together a blog post but sadly that's not been the case!  I started easing down at the start of the September and my last 2 weeks have been 84 and 75 miles.  This week is super easy and I'm on a diet of low singles until Sunday so the week will come out about 30 miles with the race on top. A couple of Sundays ago I ran a half marathon where the aim was to run it at marathon HR.  The first 10 miles were pretty solid and I went through in about 51:35.  The last 5km i...

With 4 weeks left before the Berlin marathon I started to take it a bit easier to ensure I'm fully rested for the big day. The first half of the week was a continuation of miles to see me through to the end of the month. During the second half of the week I started to cut back so I could (hopefully!) freshen up a little. My tempo session on Wednesday morning was a little slower than I wanted but the main thing is that it felt about right effort wise and as soon as I get some life back into my legs the pace will come right. Since I was racing a ...

After 3 big weeks I finally started to feel the effects of the mileage this week as I was feeling quite tired and sluggish after a couple of days (I’m sure my session on Tuesday played its part). It’s not unexpected to feel a bit crap and it’s why I opted to finish my 4 week block 4 weeks out from race day rather than 3 weeks out as it gave me an extra week to bounce back. In the past I’ve made the mistake of going hard right up until the traditional 3 week taper and ended up not feeling rested enough during race week wh...

Other than a slight change of scenery due to being in Tewksebury for a few days, it was more of the same this week with 145 miles on the clock.  The plan for August was to knock out some solid mileage and I'm pleased with how things are going so far as I can still race and complete sessions at a respectable level.  One of my key sessions I do most weeks is a minimum of 10km at MP.  Recently, it's becoming more like a minimum of 8 miles which probably means I'm running too slowly:)  I'm not too worried about hitting MP in tra...

This week resulted in 121 miles and was effectively a toned down version of last week’s 157 miles. I wanted to feel fresh enough to be able to go for a 10000m pb on Saturday but also wanted to keep getting the miles in. I obviously found a good balance as I managed to sneak a small 3 second pb with a 29:43.87 clocking which I was pretty pleased with considering the hammering my body had been taking over the past 2 weeks. It also helped confirm the shape I know I’m in and which I failed to deliver just over 2 weeks ago at the UK 1000...