Training Week Commencing 24th December 2012

Monday: 5 steady at 6:37mm (5)

Tuesday: Christmas day - rest

Wednesday: 10 easy at 7:05mm (10)

Thursday: Rest-ill

Friday: Rest - ill.

Saturday: wu, 1 lap steady (11:37 / 6:37mm), wd, was hacking up stuff afterwards. (4)

Sunday: Rest

19 miles

Training Week Commencing 17th December

Monday: Rest - Hayley surgery.

Tuesday: Rest - recuperation.

Wednesday: wu, 2 laps steady (11:14, 11:16, AVG:- 11:15 / 6:25mm), wd (6.5)

Thursday: wu, 2 steady (11:38, 11:16 avg:- 11:27 / 6:32mm), wd (6.5)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: wu, 10 miles hilly steady (6:38mm avg), wd (13)

Sunday: wu, 20 x 22 second strides, wd (7)

Total: 33 miles

Training Week Commencing 10th December 2012

Monday: Rest - ill and hip flexor painful

Tuesday: 30 very easy - hip flexor a bit better

Wednesday: 60

Thursday: 30 wu, 3 laps BP tempo, wd (10:52, 10:27, 10:32- AVG: 10:37 / 6:04mm)

Friday: 45 to work

Saturday: wu, 3 laps BP steady, wd (12:42, 11:22, 10:53- AVG: 11:49 / 6:39mm)

Sunday: Rest

Training Week Commencing 3rd December 2012

Monday: 69 steady + strength and conditioning session

Tuesday: 41 steady AM; PM 75 including 8,4,2,4,2,2,2 as part of an aborted session.

Wednesday: 46 AM; PM 38 + light swim

Thursday: 36 steady at lunch

Friday: Recovery

Saturday: wu, 3 laps BP steady, wd (12:21, 11:51, 11:46 - AVG: 11:59 / 6:51mm)

Sunday: 16.5 miles steady at 6.57mm.

Training W/C 26th November

Monday: 65 easy w. 4 minute hard burst - followed by core/weights/core.
Tuesday: wu, 8 x 800 off 80 (2:39, 33, 37, 37, 39, 35, 39, 35) wd - great session with Dan. Running within myself as this isn't the focus of the week but felt really good. Left hip was a bit tight.
Wednesday: 50 v. slow into work AM; 51 v. slow home from work.
Thursday: wu, 4 x mile off 90 at ~ 5:40mm (sub-maximal), wd
Friday: 44 to work
Saturday: 30 wu, Old Gits race (23:31), 15 wd AM; PM 33 easy
Sunday: 46 easy (hip flexor playing up post-race) AM; PM 55 exercise bike

Not a particularly hard week but volume was better - just hope hip flexor issue goes away.

Training W/C 19th November

Monday: 30 easy AM; 45 easy PM (75)

Tuesday: 45 easy AM; track PM (mile, mile, 800 - half session at ~5:20 pace)

Wednesday: 45 easy AM; 45 easy PM (90)

Thursday: rest

Friday: rest

Saturday: 37 minutes (stomach painful)

Sunday: 11 minutes (felt drained and fuzzy/dizzy)

Weird week. My stomach was playing up the whole time but was very much in the background in the earlier party of the week where a minor twinge in my hip flexor from the hill session last week playing up towards the end of runs was annoying. I also had a very weird and scary niggle where after about 2 minutes of running my right achilles/calf would go very tight and painful (almost too much to run) and then within a couple of minutes totally disappear and not bother me for the rest of the run.

Second half of the week my stomach got worse. Thursday I was planning to run in and got as far as kit on and all packed up before I decided I'd end up curled in a ball on the way to work. A leaving do on Thursday didn't help matters and my stomach was very painful on Friday. Saturday it held up for a but ended in me walking back in pain. Sunday I got 6 minutes into my run and was dizzy and confused (probably wasn't absorbing anything properly) so headed straight back.

Things seem to have perked up today with a decent run and core session and a better stomach. Hopefully it'll be a better week!

Training W/C 12/11/2012

Stressful week saw a decreased volume but a couple of good sessions and my best long run in quite a while.

Training W/C 5th November 2012

Monday: rest - gave the ankle a break and spent the day revising

Tuesday: Exam in morning. Wasn't going to do a session for a week or so but no one else was around to lead the session so headed down planning to set people off and do some easy laps but decided to give it a go.

Session was 4, 8, 12, 2k, 12, 8, 4 off 75 (120 after 2k rep) - (78, 2:37, 3:59, 7:00, 3:59, 2:36, 68) - really pleased as was running solo on a windy track and despite my lungs screaming the week off seems to have been fine.

Wednesday: 20 wu, 8 x 60 sec hill (90 jog down), 20 wd

Thursday: wu, 3 x lap BP off 90 (9:33, 10:13, 7:30 for 3/4), wd

First rep was too fast trying to stay with the guys. Second rep was too slow trying to recover. Third rep was just right but unfortunately 3 huge blisters were forming sure to wearing new Faas 300s and I had to stop and hobble/jog home.

Friday: 35 very easy, blisters okay after some home surgery the night before.

Saturday: wu, Surrey League XC (5th), wd

Good race on the whole. Started steadily in about 40th but had worked my way to the big lead group over the first mile. Walton runner got clear early on but a few of us pulled away on the first big hill chasing after those he'd dropped.

Second lap I was a bit lazy sitting behind a guildford runner. Really I should have tried to push on but given I'd not run for a week beforehand played it safe.

Sunday: 46 easy after moving.

Good week with some tough workouts. Very glad to see I've lost minimal fitness due to the ankle injury.

Nike Victory XC spikes were a revelation. First time ever I've been able to run in spikes with no pain. 10/10

Training W/C 29th October 2012

First part of the week was spent recovering from the ankle sprain with some light steady running in the second part of the week.

Training W/C 22nd October 2012

Was looking like a decent week until I managed to go over on my ankle pretty badly!

Training W/C 15th October

Poor week of training this week with only 4 proper runs but still clocked a decent number of minutes as each run was long and some good workouts as each contained some sort of session.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: wu, 8 x 880m (90), 30 easy, wd ( 2:54, 2:52, 2:51, 2:52, 2:53, 2:43 - AVG 2:51; 5:13mm)

Wednesday: 16 abortive run

Thursday: 92 steady averaging 7:04mm including 2 x 450m fast and 10 minutes at MP.

Friday: rest

Saturday: long wu + strides, Surrey League XC (11th)

Sunday: 2 hours with the last 30 split 10 steady / 10 MP / 5 tempo / 5 hard.

Summary:

Tuesday's session was a nice improvement over a very similar session a few weeks back with the pace increased by about 16 seconds per mile. (Previous session was 8 x same length with 2 minutes recovery averaging 3 minutes per rep).

Race was okay. Felt strong until the 1st hill when I started falling back. See race report for more details shortly.

Was a bit disappointed to not run more this week but I'd been feeling pretty rubbish and so taking an easier week helped. Still roughly 50 under the belt which after high 60s/low 70s for a fair few weeks is reasonable.

2012/13 Surrey XC League Division 2 - Race 1 Nork Park

With the turning of the leaves and the chill in the air Autumn has arrived and with it the XC season! After promotion two seasons ago and relegation last year by the tightest of margins (2 points...) the squad were keen to start the season strong and go back up as Champions.

Unfortunately due to the timing of the race a number of the club's faster and stalwart members were out of action for this first fixture together with the loss of Guy McLaren and Jamie White from last season. Without them it was always going to be a tough race but the enthusiasm of the team was not dinted and a number of new runners were keen to take advantage of the absences to make a name for themselves.

The race was held at Nork Park with a flat fast lap at the top of roughly a k followed by 3 longer laps of 2.5k. The longer laps were essentially down one side of the hill the park was set on, along the bottom of the park next to a road and then back up the other side of the hill to the top before you headed down again. Flat ground was at a premium! The course was almost entirely on grass with only a few areas particularly muddy. What was perhaps most disconcerting was that on the hill back up you were occasionally running on a camber and then on uneven and potholed ground for a short stretch. The course was clearly going to be challenging.

Andy O was deputising as Captain Fantastic and with 20 minutes to go was metaphorically pulling his hair out with only 7 names on the team sheet (10 to score) and a car of 5 stuck in South Wimbledon. The arrival of Graeme Buscke leading a phalanx of antipodean warriors left us confident we would finish a team and the subsequent arrivals of one of last years regulars Rory O'Neill left us believing we could not just finish a team but be competitive. Ryan Bayley's last second arrival left us over 20 strong and out numbering the other teams.

The race started quickly with the fast first lap and subsequent downhill leading to some of the fastest first miles ever recorded by many of the runners in a XC race. The race strung out fairly quickly with a serpentine stream of multi-coloured vests adorning the hills. A hair pin turn allowed you to see how your club mates were faring. The consensus was that the race passed quickly with most on their third and final lap of the race before they really felt the impact of the hill.

Jon Hamblen of  Walton on Thames athlete won the race by a clear margin however after that there was a steady stream of athletes. Graeme Buscke was second home for Chasers in 17th place despite struggling with an ITB issue which had forced him to withdraw from Abingdon the next day. It wasn't long until the next 3 Chasers came home together in a bunch sprint with Rob Tuer 21st, Rory O'Neill 22nd and Hamish Cropper 24th. Rob's run wasn't quite as good as he hoped but with Cabbage Patch today and Frankfurt next week he has a busy week scheduled. Look for Rob to be in the top 3 of one of these races by the end of the season. Rory's run, just as it did all last season, put us in a strong place and Hamish demonstrated the improvement he's made over the past 12 months.

A gap emerged and those of us watching started to get concerned as the vests streamed past without the blue, green and white present. Finally a Chasers vest appeared as debutante Luke Davis finished with a strong kick to overhaul a 15m lead the runner ahead of him had and pip him on the line. It demonstrated the Chasers spirit that was present throughout the day as not a single Chaser was passed that I noticed in the home stretch with several overtaking. Christian Rose-Day after a hard Thursday session closed shortly afterwards to make the top 50 by the skin of his teeth and 7th place for the Chasers with Nick Burkitt just missing out in 53rd but with a clear target for the next race. Sub 3 man Alan Scott fresh from supporting the ladies race got home in 63rd place, one place behind Walton's first non-scorer but leaving us in with a chance.

All eyes were now on who would be our final counter. Clive Perreira loomed around the corner and sprinted his hardest to power past his competitors and close the team in 74th place. Ryan Bayley followed closely behind in 78th place as our 11th man. Paul Wallace closed in 88th place. Andy O probably got the largest cheer of anyone finishing through-out the entire race in 98th place with Andrew Hobbs finishing immediately behind him and also making the top 100.

David Percival, Sam Morton and Dan Howell all finished before the final counter from other teams pushing their men further back and demonstrating that the Chasers have far greater strength in depth than any other club in the league. Rich Trubshaw, Kyle Fox and Christian Rijs all finished within 5 places of the final scorer of Tadworth showing they can be competitive at this level before former captain and mastermind of our previous promotion efforts Russell Thompson finished the Chasers contingent.

We knew we'd been competitive but were worried that we might not have done enough. The final scores showed that the team had pulled together and produced an awesome performance to finish 2nd in the league with 375 points and in the promotion places.

When we were relegated by such a tight margin last year a lot of people thought that we would storm this league easily and win by a (cross) country mile. Walton scored 250 points and to be frank we are going to have to work hard to overcome them this year. We can't be complacent in this league and although this was a great performance and rear-guard action given the loss of some of our superstars we really need to get everyone out there and training hard.

Leagues don't get won by the top 5 scorers in a team - they get won by the last 5 scorers. Tadworth had 4 runners in the top 20 but ended with 456 points. Walton similarly had 4 in the top 20 and ended up with 250 points because they closed their entire team barely outside the top 50.

So get out there, hitting the hills, the mud and the roads and lets see if we can overhaul Walton next time.

Bad runs

Today the initial intention was to run 90 minutes home from work. I realized quite late I was out the office tomorrow so couldn't run home as I needed my laptop.

Finally got home and headed out about 11pm for at least a half hour.

I use a saying from one of the faster American marathoners when it comes to these sort of days. Get out the door and if you still feel awful after 15 minutes call it.

15 minutes later my stomach felt horrendous and I'd put my foot in a pothole. Run called.

Back to the drawing board again tomorrow.

Training W/C 8th October 2012

This week was a relatively tough one with a hard week at work and also some ongoing achilles issues which flared up after the SEAA XC on Saturday. Despite that I still managed to clock some decent mileage whilst having an "easier" week.

Training Week Commencing 1st October 2012

Monday: rest

Tuesday: rest - still ill

Wednesday: 30 easy w. 6 x short strides AM; PM 70 steady

Thursday: 30 easy AM, PM 87 minutes including 3 laps BP (10:49, 10:49, 10:11 - AVG: 10:36 / 6:03mm)

Friday: 44 easy AM; 53 easy PM

Saturday: 58 wu, SEAA XC Relays (16:05), wd

Sunday: 2 hours to and around Wimbledon Common split - 30 easy, 5, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4 minutes hard with 5 minutes easy between, 35 easy

Despite being substantially better after Tuesday I remained semi-ill all week. Wasn't too worried about running through as the only symptoms were producing prodigious amounts of phlegm.

Not sure if it affected the race on Saturday but I was generally pleased. I thought it was a marginal improvement from my run at the 6 stage. At the 6 stage I was healthy, on my favorite surface and conditions (rain!) and raced really well. Here I was mildly ill, on my least favourite surface and conditions (sun!) and didn't race particularly well. A slightly better performance in overall terms is therefore quite encouraging.

The xc relays were a great day out on the whole and a real pleasure so full credit to Thames Valley Harriers who both organized it and won and especially my friend and former Tortoise teammate Sean Renfer. I know they aren't the best attended fixture in the calendar but they're a great start to the xc season on a mild non-challenging course with a fab atmosphere.

I really enjoyed Sunday's long run/ session which is a much milder version of a Charlie Spedding workout he details in 'From Last to First' (which is excellent). I really struggle to get a decent pace going on my long runs so this is a great alternative. Many runners refer to the long run as a session in itself and this just takes it one step further! The long recoveries mean that by the time you're starting the next rep you've already knocked 5 minutes off your long run. The combination of the recoveries and the relatively short duration and limited number of reps mean you can get some really good quality work done. By doing it on a xc course you're strengthening your legs, not worrying about pace and concentrating on getting the right effort.

Next up are 2 more weeks which should be in the mid 70s finishing with the first Surrey League D2 XC. Bring it on!

Training Week Commencing 24th September 2012

Monday: 30 easy in pouring rain; 58 run home
Tuesday: 44 run into work AM; PM 59 steady home
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: wu, 5 x laps BP increasing tempo (12:26, 11:45, 11:23, 10:23, 10:07 ; 7:05 to 5:48mm; AVG: 11:13 / 6:25mm), wd - not the fastest of runs but picked it up well at the end of a long day.
Friday: Rest, was going to do a shuffle at lunch but decided to celebrate exam results instead.
Saturday: 30 shuffle AM; PM wu, 3 x hill loop at ~MP (3), (16:29, 16:18, 16:13; AVG: 16:20 / 5:58mm ), wd
Sunday: 2 hrs easy at ~7:30mm though starting very slow and speeding up throughout run.

Solid week of running. Not much in the way of sessions but good volume and a sprinkling of faster stuff. Came down with a cold on Friday night and felt pretty awful Sat/Sun.

Training Week Commencing 17th September 2012

Monday: Rest. Woke up with splitting head and running nose.

Tuesday: wu, 8 x road 880m (2), wd - (3:01, 2:55, 3:04, 2:57, 3:02, 3:00, 3:03, 3:00 ; AVG: 3:00 / 5:29mm)

Wednesday: 30 steady AM; PM 45 easy

Thursday: 42 easy AM; PM 80 mins @ 7:12mm w. 4 x 0.97m pick ups (6.5 steady running recovery) (5:22 (168), 5:13 (171), 5:20 (169), 5:16 (171); AVG: 5:18 / 5:28mm)

Friday: 44 easy AM; PM 30 easy at lunch

Saturday: 73 easy

Sunday: wu, SEAA 6 stage relays, wd

Felt strong on Tuesday's session. Was running well in reserve and it was just nice to tick over feeling good after poor sessions last week. Was running into the wind on the odd reps and with the wind on the even ones.

Thursday was another good session when I was very tired after a long day at work. Long term keeping the pace of the faster sections constant and really pushing the recovery could make this a really effective session.

Still need to find out the time for Sunday's race. I felt fairly strong and was moving well in horrible conditions but just not fit enough yet.

Overall volume was a little lower than planned but still a good step up in the context of the last 6 months.

Training Week Commencing 10th September 2012

Monday: 45 jog testing hip flexor. Seemed fine. Bit unpleasant going past tooting common crime scene.

Tuesday: Aborted track session as was running abysmally and struggling at what is usually a comfortable pace and just did a long warmdown. 30 wu, mile, km, 600, 600, 35 wd

Wednesday: 41 run into work AM; 61 jog PM

Thursday: wu, 6 x ~mile (60) (5:44, 5:43, 5:43, 5:34, 5:31, 5:21), wd - good session on a stretch probably just under a mile. Did first 3 with Hayley then for the last 3 ran with her for a couple of minutes then pushed on. Much better than Tuesday and stride felt really solid.

Friday: 31 gradually speeding up over run.

Saturday: wu, 2 x 3.5 mile tempo off 60 seconds {2 laps BP}, wd (20:15, 20:46, AVG: 10:15 / 5.51mm) AM ; 33 easy + d + s PM

Sunday: 1:43 long run with middle hour at low 7mm.

Really struggled this week and not totally sure why. Apart from Tuesday I felt okay but just seemed to have lost about 20 seconds a mile. Bit confusing as although I had an easier week for the exams it shouldn't have affected me that much.

Thursday wasn't a phenomenal session but felt like I was getting a good aerobic effort in. Saturday I was struggling more with my legs which felt tired.

Part of it might be the effect of starting work again which always shatters me for the first week back.

Need to keep on working and get a few more solid weeks in and see if that helps.

Training Week Commencing 3rd September 2012

Monday: Flew to Portugal with flight at 6.45 in the morning so no morning run; PM 60 run along the cliffs quad feeling sore on steep downhills.

Tuesday: 60 run around acoteias AM; PM wu, d+s, 7 x ~2/3rd mile ( 3:50, 3:30, 3:46, 3:25, 3:45, 3:30, 3:47) wd - easy session with Hayley on acoteias with each rep two laps of the small grass loop at the bottom with a slight incline each lap. Alternating steady with tempo laps. Quad a little sore on the last couple.

Wednesday: Rest AM; PM 73 run mostly along cliffs. Sweating everywhere and very annoying not to have a shirt to stop it stinging my eyes.

Thursday: 45 jog AM; wu, d+s 5 x mile off 60 (6:02, 5:58, 5:56, 6:01, 5:56) wd - hilly and tough work underfoot as a mix of pine needles, sand and grass. Felt strong pacing Hayley around.

Friday: 30 jog with d + s AM; PM 90 run starting on acoteias, then onto the roads then a final two laps of acoteias.

Saturday: 40 jog on the dusty road AM; wu, 10 mins @ MP -tweaked a hip flexor going up a steep hill which fairly instantly let me know it wasn't going to let me carry on.

Sunday: Rest day. Traveling back. Hip flexor still a little sore but might be due to the massage. Think it'll be good to jog on tomorrow.

Great week of training really getting the volume back to reasonable levels. Was just getting back ready to do more serious sessions with a couple of light leg stretchers during the week but the tweaked hip flexor put paid to that. It seems to be settling down now on Sunday evening so hopefully I'll be back jogging tomorrow. And back to work and studying for my next exam in November...

Training Week Commencing 27th August 2012

Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: wu, 8x800 off 80 (2:43, 37, 37, 37, 39, 38, 34, 28) AVG: 2:37
Wednesday: 30 minutes easy
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 45 jog - had an odd bit when really struggled to breathe when tried to run hard AM; PM rest - was planning an easy jog but after I got back my left quad had a really sore patch (the proverbial 'dead leg') so decided that given the morning I would ease off.
Sunday: 45 run - felt much better than yesterday but kept it relatively easy due to still sore quad.

Tuesday session was deliberately running easier. Session felt really good and big sign of the progress made over the past 2 months that I can call that easy.

This week was exam week with 5 professional exams so any training was a bonus. I thought doing university exams were hard when I took them but in comparison they were actually pretty easy. The sheer amount of work I can end up doing on the intensive course is pretty shocking.

I don't know how many who read this still have to do exams or are already done but in training terms they are killers. Not just because your training gets disrupted but because of the mental and physical toll.

Last time around I tried to do a couple of races immediately afterwards. I was awful. Went off at a normal pace for the first km and then died a death in a 5km and then in a half a few days later went through 8 miles at a similar pace to the 5km before the same thing happened.

So I've taken it much easier these last two weeks and can now ramp it up again.

Quad issue is annoying but should be fine in a few days. As you'll realize I'm incredibly cautious about injuries having spent so much time injured in the past 8 years.

Now off for a week in the sun in Portugal. Week with Hayley at Stella Maris hotel on the coast at Albufeira. I've been once before at 18 and it was a great two weeks with lots of fantastic running along the coast.

Training Week Commencing 20th August 2012

Monday: 45 going from easy to steady. Quad felt steadily better through run.
Tuesday: 55 easy, mostly with Hayley around Wandsworth. Quad marginal improvement.
Wednesday: 46 run around Common. Quad felt okay but bit niggly.
Thursday: 50 run home from office
Friday: Rest + climbing
Saturday: 65 minutes easy
Sunday: 41 run

Easy week as being careful with my quad. General trend of improvement but with exams next week having more energy for studying is helpful.

Week Commencing July 16th 2012

First one in a while - sorry about that. Life + injury when I took a tumble.

Update and Brockwell Parkrun

Apologies for lack of blogging recently but some injuries have been my despair and with a bit more going on at work time for blogging has been at a premium.

Last week I ran Reading Half and paced my girlfriend round her first half. I was really hoping to try and run something fast here but with my ankle playing up after the Surrey County Champs I just haven't been able to put in anything like the training I would need to do to run at that level. As it was I really enjoyed pacing Hayley around and enjoying the atmosphere of the event. Considering my longest run in months had been about 8 miles easy running a full half (if that's not an oxymoron...) was a bit of a challenge and I felt it in the last 3 miles.

This week I went to the Brockwell Parkrun 5k which is only a couple of miles from my house but for one reason or another I rarely manage to get to. The start was relatively slow with a group of 4 or 5 of us running together for the first few minutes. We were probably running well outside 18 minute pace to give you an idea. At the top of the hill (yes - two significant hills at Brockwell!) it had slimmed down to just me and one other guy. I just touched the accelerators a few times and the other guy came with me. I then put my foot down and managed to get a small gap and then started running hard. As we came through the end of the first lap I had a gap of about 30m. I then tried to ease off but annoyingly given my current fitness even easing off a bit I don't recover at pace like I used to. I pretty much cruised in for the rest of the race for a comfortable if slow win in 17:09 by about 30 seconds.

Big thanks to the Brockwell organisers for putting the race on. I hope to now be a regular at this and the Dulwich Parkrun which starts shortly.

As to training - well, my main aim is just to avoid getting injured. Everyone who knows me is well aware that when I'm not injured for 6 months or so I start getting faster. My training at the moment is therefore pretty minimal and will likely remain so until I feel considerably stronger and have built my body up a bit more. In the meantime I'm combining cross-training on the exercise bike with harder running to try and reduce the likelihood of spraining anything. Generally my muscles seem pretty resilient but my tendons go at the drop of a pin.

This may mean ultimately I don't run as fast as I can but I've also taken the view that a) I'll never be a world-beater and b) what makes me happy is running (relatively) fast on a regular basis with good friends. So if I can get to the state where I can year around run around 32 minutes for 10k I'll be quite happy. Obviously I hope that just being uninjured will get me running faster anyway!

A big part of this is doing a lot of running untimed without distances, paces and without tracking weekly mileage. Controversial I know but a lot of my injuries seem to have come from chasing mileage. That's not necessarily from mileage itself but not being willing to ease up when my body is telling me so because it'll hurt my weekly mileage. The knowledge that a week of easy running (or just cycling) won't slow me down much at all should be a big help.

Right - that's about it. As always any thoughts or opinions more than welcome. Training diaries back up soon.

Best,
Bryn

Training Week Ending 13th November 2011

The next entry. It's good going back over this stuff and reminding myself what I did previously and the change in the past couple of months.

Week ending 13th November 2011

Monday: 8 odd miles with chasers easy
Tuesday: track session, 4x400 fairly relaxed then 3x800 with long recoveries in 2.19,2:17,2:21 with last one slower as got boxed in.
Wednesday: 4 miles recovery as got home from work early; pm: 12x14 second hard hillsprints as part of a 8 mile run
Thursday: rest
Friday: 9 and a bit miles at 7.34mm - bit of doms from hills
Saturday: am: 3 miles recovery jog; pm: 2.7 disjointed warm-up then 5.34 mile surrey league xc.at ham which was muddy but flat at 5.31mm and top 30 place, 2 mile wd
Sunday: 20 miles at 6.33mm along towpath.

Mileage: 68-ish.

Summary: Solid week with some fast relaxed track reps, hill sprints, a second decent xcrace in a week and a long run I'm still a bit astonished by. Mileage was a slight increase and as long as the trend is upward I'm not overly bothered. DOMS from the sprints shows that's still an area to work on and I've only got one vote season in although I've been better with foam rolling. Definite progress though which its what I need!

Training week ending 6th November 2011

Training week ending 6th November 2011

Monday: day before exam, did 8 odd miles with chasers averaging 6.45
Tuesday: am 4 recovery miles after exam pm: track session of 7x600 average 1.45 off 3ish minutes rec
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 3.5 mile tempo at 5.29mm
Friday: 5.25 miles at 7.45mm at 11 pm after arriving in mansfield gone 10.
Saturday: am 4 mile v. slow shakeout with sam pm: national xc relays 5k leg in 18.02team 60th.
Sunday: 18 miles averaging 7.15 mostly over wimbledon common. Felt relaxed. Pickedit up over last 6 with 2 sub 7, 2 6.30 and 2 sub 6mm.

Mileage 65 ish

Summary: solid week considering I had an exam. A track session where I finally went over 400m at 72 pace, my first tempo back sub 5.30, my first truly muddy xc I enjoyed and ran well in in years and my first 18 mile run since thames 20 this year.

Training week ending 30th October 2011

As we're into the new year and I've managed to keep a regular training log for a while I've decided to transfer some of the entries over here, one week every other day until it's up to date.

Would really suggest people sign up to googleplus as that is the best thing I've found so far to blog training but for the moment will run them in tandem.

Training week ending 30th October 2011

Monday: 8.3 miles easy
Tuesday: 8.3 miles steady
Wednesday: 8.3 miles MP progressive starting at 6.20 and finishing at 5.36. 6.02 average.
Thursday: 2 wu, 3.5 tempo @ 5.32 w. Sean, 2wd
Friday : 5 easy @ 7.30
Saturday: 4 w.u. , 10k xc ( ran crap), 2wd
Sunday: just short of  14 miles at 7mm at enjoyable pace over Wimbledon Common with Sam, James and fortunately Andy once we reached the common who took us on a tour.

Weekly total: 63 miles

Summary: A tough week revising for the exam from hell but managed to get a fairly solid week in. I was surprised at how well the tempo went given that had been a neglected area in recent weeks. Unfortunately the race itself was truly horrendous withme struggling from the get-go. it was fairly obvious I was far to stressedto make a decent hash of it though and happy to write it off as a weird one. Annoyingly as as it's the sort of course that suits me down to the ground.