Jog On...

The day arrived after 18 weeks of "sort of" committed training since Christmas week I was race ready, I could have been in better shape but its been a long 18 weeks, and by the end of the race I could tell I could have done that little bit more. We (me and my wife) arrived in Brighton on the Saturday, collected our race packs, did a little bit of shopping in the expo and ended getting my name printed on my shirt, if I ever needed support it was going to be at mile 16+... so I got this done.. I didn't want to hang around to long on my feet on Saturday so did the social "hellos and hows sales going" with my mates at Runbreeze & 2XU and then off to check in at the Premier Inn in Crawley. (which was about 25 minutes away) I decided to get out of the hussle and bussle of 16000 athletes and not have to worry about parking fees and queueing all night for a restaurant table. It also was far cheaper than staying in Brighton too. I slept great for...

03/09/12 - Free Run After a weekend off of feeling a little under the weather I decided to get in a hard run on the treadmill. This is just want I needed to get out the funk I was in. It was hot in the gym so I was sweating buckets, thank god I had the gym to myself, as I sure I would have scared most people away from a man cover in sweat going like the clappers on the treadmill. It was like a river was running off my head, thank god I remembered a towel but this seem to do nothing. When I finished I did wipe the screen and rails down, but I hope they clean the machines often! YUK! I cranked the treadmill to 8 minute mile pace and stayed there for the full 45 minutes/ Somehow this feels tougher than running on the road, but I suppose to can vary your pace on the road but still clock in the <8 minute mile pace. It was a tough one and by the end of the session I could feel it in my lungs, the burn... a good burn! Another quality hight tempo session done! Session Details...

21/05/12 - Rest Day 22/05/12 - Rest Day 23/05/12 - Open Water Swim (North Dock, Llanelli) What a lovely evening to do some open water swimming, the sun was shining and the water was.. well... warmish. I was reliable told its the warmest it had been all year, so I was happy to get in and get some meters in. I've been testing out some goggles, so tonight was a mask pair, you probably cant see them from the photo above, but I'm the head with the orange swim hat on the right. This was a great session, to get me back into the open water scene, 50 meter warm up, then then sprint 20 strokes, 10 recover, then sprint 30 strokes and 10 recovery. To finish we did zig-zag sprints, about 100 meter sprints with 30 seconds recoveries. My arms were really heavy after this session, but its a good pain! Session Details Duration 01 00 00 Distance 2000m 24/05/12 - Free Run (Llansamlet, Swansea) Its hot out there and I'm wearing black, no the best choice of colours fo...

I had a master plan for this event and I stuck to it all the way and it worked out for me really well. I submitted a time of sub 01.40 and this was my aim, to finish the event at the 01 40 00 marker which meant I had to do an average pace of 7.30 min miles. Easy enough so you thought... But I through a spanner in works but stopping to do a wee at mile 5 on the side of the road. The event was very popular, I was one of 18000 runners, at the start I was taken over by a giraffe and a Darlek to start with. I was keen not to let the adrenaline kick in and stick to the pacing I had chosen for the duration of the race, it definitely paid off. I had loaded up on my pre race meal of porridge and lucozade sport, I forced it down as my nerves had kicked in after 20 minutes of waking up, I find this happening most of the time before races, but I do carry on putting myself through it so I must like it. I did some light stretches at the start line, my normal warm up strategy and drank a li...