Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Race Report

Toronto Waterfront Marathon - 11th place in 2:25:46

I said last week that one of the key elements of a good marathon was 'not running like an arse on the day'. Unfortunately I didn't quite take my own advice on board!

The build up as many readers will know went absolutely perfectly, I almost couldn't believe my luck. I arrived on the start line in the shape of my life ready to do some serious damage to the PB. My main concerns ahead of the race had been the forecast 15mph winds which would likely slow me down a touch. As it happened whilst it was a little breezy the wind wasn't really ever a problem. As we were ferried to the start along with the other elite athletes I was chatting to two-time Olympian Krista DuChene who informed me that the humidity would be the big worry and not the wind. It was already 19 degrees at 7:00am and 90% humidity. I wasn't too concerned given all the Heat Acclimation running I had done and didn't think it would effect the outcome time wise too much given the adaptation I had developed. How wrong was I?!?!?

As the hooter went, we were quickly into our stride and I was running in a group alongside England teammates Kevin Rojas, Steve Bayton and Kojo Kyereme. The pace felt quite quick from the start but I knew it was a slight rise for the first couple of kilometres so didn't think too much of it, but what I did notice was that my heart rate was getting to a high level already. The first 5k split my heart rate averaged what I would expect to see as an average for the whole race. I should have taken stock at this stage and realised that I needed to slow down quite a bit to ensure I had a comfortable race. As anyone that has run a marathon and blown up badly will know even if you are going fractionally too quick, the pace still feels OK and it's not like you're busting a lung. So I kept with it. I hoped that things would settle down and it would start to feel easier. It didn't, I felt sluggish, like there was no upper gear and it just gradually got harder until at 20k I started to slow substantially. As a result this meant my heart rate then dipped as I couldn't sustain the pace because of the fatigue in my legs. It was almost as if my Central Nervous System was shutting down and preventing me from running as hard as I wanted. I have subsequently read that humidity can induce fatigue as a defence mechanism to prevent the body from overheating. Goodness knows how slowly I'd have run if I hadn't done all the HA training! Despite all this I didn't feel particularly thirsty at all during the race so that was one element of the HA that definitely worked.


From here, it was just about getting my head down and working as hard as I could to get to the finish in a respectable effort as possible, focusing on trying to pick other runners off in the second half. I thought of all the hard training runs, the sacrifices my family have made to support me in my endeavours, the time Mike Baxter has spent coaching me and how much everyone back home would be cheering me on. This helped me all the way and curb the thoughts of throwing in the towel (I could have done with a towel given how much sweat was saturating my skin, unfortunately given the humidity there was nowhere for it to evaporate!) when it would have been so easy to do so.


At half way I was in 24th and by the finish I was 11th showing how badly the field was decimated by the conditions. Teammates Kevin and Kojo finished in 9th and 10th respectively with Steve Bayton and Carl Ryde valiantly completing the race despite serious issues along the way. To put this all into perspective, there were only two Canadians (one of which was Rio Olympics 10th placer Eric Gillis)ahead of the first England trio and given it was the Canadian National Champs means that we acquitted ourselves well in a high quality field.The strange thing was although I don't feel I could have gone any quicker given how I raced it, I still felt like I could have kept running for quite some distance. That said I was more than happy to stop running when crossing the line!

Photo Credit: Andrew Paterson - Head down with 5k to go.

 

One other aspect that could have affected the outcome was the impact of jetlag. I felt very lightheaded the day before the race and indeed never felt completely fresh in the days following our arrival as well as struggling to get any significant sleep. It is hard to quantify what kind of an impact this could have had on the performance but it is likely to have played a part, even if quite small.

Full stream of the race - I make an appearance when the ladies race winner overtakes me at 40k (around 3hours 3 mins into the video)

The Experience
It would be remiss of me to not discuss some of the other aspects of the experience of racing in Toronto. I was incredibly lucky to get the call up to run for England in this event and am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. The race was arranged as a development event with two main purposes. Firstly rewarding achievement (i.e. how folks had done at the EA marathon champs at London this year or other recent results) and secondly to give the athletes experience of a championship style race and all that goes with it with a view to them possibly going on to compete at major games in the future. Experiencing the travel, staying in the same hotel as all elites, eating together, press conferences, elite athlete briefings, etc.) was just brilliant and I take my hat off to the organisation of the race as well as England Athletics. All things considered it was a great success and I have come away from it with so much more knowledge than I had before. I somewhat naively thought I knew everything there is to know about marathon racing and prep but once more was humbled by the magnificence of the distance. Kevn, Kojo, Steven, Carl and I were joined on the trip by Charlotte Fisher (Team Manager) and RobMcKim (Team Coach) who provided valuable insight and guidance throughout as well as having an incredibly positive post-race debrief where we picked away at what went right and what went wrong. I had such an incredible time on the trip and am so happy I got to meet all involved. It was a sheer privilege. It is also clear that England Athletics are keen to really develop marathoning in the UK and with people like Charlotte and Rob involved I am very excited about mine and my fellow athletes prospects.


What was I worth on the day?
Having now had time to reflect on the race, I don't think I was ever worth quicker than a 2:23 on the day with more sensible pacing given the conditions and course (which I suspect is around 90s slower than Berlin). So to come in with a 2:25:46 is still OK and bearing in mind the humidity could have made 3-4 minutes difference, I was almost certainly in something around 2:18 shape! That may sound like wishful thinking but it seems to make sense to me given the quality of training I had done in the build up.

What will I do differently next time?
Not a lot to be honest, I am very happy with how my build up went and the blend of different types of training which got me to the start feeling primed and ready. I will almost certainly have a near identical build up next time. I do think however I will review my carb loading strategy. I will certainly deplete again but have a more moderate diet in the two-three days before the race with much less carbohydrate than I did prior to this race. I don't think I need as much as the recommended 10-12g per kg b/w per day during the load phase given I do the vast majority of my training fasted and so am quite well adapted to burning fat as fuel.

What next?
I am taking the next couple of weeks easy before getting back into proper training with a couple of 10 mile races planned, including the Northern Champs at Stockport in December. I'll then have a pop at a 10k PB at the Ribble Valley around Christmas before moving my focus to the Cross Country. Marathonwise for 2017 I am currently tossing up Manchester and London. I would quite like to do Manchester and treat it as a race rather than a PB attempt, but I am being drawn back to London given it is the EA champs and I am keen to support that. Hopefully in the not too distant future EA may consider moving the champs to another race, such as Manchester or Yorkshire - two quick and well organised races.

Overview of Build Up to Scotiabank Toronto Marathon 2016 and final target!

I thought I would put a blog together to surmise my training over this marathon build up. I find this is helpful as a bit of a personal pep-talk to give me confidence ahead of the race. I think it is important to reflect on what has gone well and what I have done differently which will help me secure an improvement in performance come race day.

There have been a few differences to my training this time around which I think have contributed to slightly different adaptations. These minor changes will hopefully pay dividends in Toronto tomorrow. Of course the race is still to be run and there is a lot that can happen before and indeed during the race but suffice to say I feel I have got here in the shape of my life. I feel a PB is on the cards and can go in with a huge amount of confidence that I have a good race to come.

Confidence is one part of the battle, getting to the start line unscathed is another and then not running like an arse on the day is probably the most important bit!

I started this specific block on the 1st August with the intention to run the Yorkshire Marathon on 9th October. This would give me eight weeks specific build up with two weeks taper. Naturally that changed to the Toronto Marathon on getting the England call up. It didn't really mean much had changed from my original plan other than an easier week easing back into my training post a half marathon PB in September.

Mike and I had put together a plan that would hopefully build upon recent successful marathon campaigns. Below I have gone into the elements of this specific phase that have been different to previous campaigns.

Heat Acclimation runs
I introduced these after reading some very interesting research on the topic on how the body adapts to heat stress. The research suggests that it can help increase blood plasma volume and VO2max as well as making you a more efficient sweater so your body retains more sodium. This has a beneficial impact, certainly where the marathon is concerned as it means you have less requirement for drinking during the race. I do plan to drink during the race but I will only do so to thirst and as it is unlikely to be roasting hot on the 16th October, I should be ok! I have done most of these on my recently acquired treadmill, just because it is a more controlled environment. I can keep the pace very exact so don't have to worry about hills or wind. It also has the benefit of not many folks seeing me dressed up like an arctic explorer going out for a run on a 20 degree day! I really do feel these have brought me on a lot. My heart rate is lower for similar paces so I am becoming more efficient and I do believe the HA runs have been a key aspect of this.

Increased modulation
This is key to Renato Canova's philosophy. His training is so focused on specificity (as all training should be but rarely is!). In a nutshell, given the rigours of the marathon that means that there a lot of big monster volume, high intensity sessions. Not long slow miles which is quite frequently the norm. He is a massive proponent of fast long runs, split progressives and sandwich sessions ala Steve Way. As a result Canova insists that all other running is done at a pace that truly allows the athlete to recover properly before the next big one. I have tried to ensure throughout this specific block that my moderate and easy runs are easier than previous campaigns. I think this has played a part in improvement as well as more enjoyment of nailing the big sessions.

Fartleks and more top end speedwork
Another important aspect of Canova's philosophy (and indeed Mike Baxter's) is that your top end speed should never be too far away. Not that I've ever really had any but it is something that we have consciously included more of in this phase. As a result, I actually feel that I could run PBs at all distances at the moment! I may well do a marathon build up for a 5k in the future!

Hill Sprints
I have tried to include these every other week or so. Hills are good for building strength and stimulating fast twitch muscle fibres in a relatively low stress way. I always find it interesting after doing a few hill sprints how much easier faster running feels in the days that follow. Hopefully there is some cumulative effect that has been built up over the phase.

Special Block
I was keen to include a so called special block this campaign (essentially two tough sessions in the same day). Firstly as Canova uses them and secondly I was confident that my body would cope with it given how well I was recovering form other hard workouts. It was definitely tough and the coupe of days afterwards I was basically a zombie but just a week on I felt a big boost to my fitness. That should hopefully stand me in good stead for the race.

Fitter at the start of the Specific Phase
It had been a goal of mine and Mike's to hit the specific phase fitter than I ever have before and in better 10k shape at the start of the campaign. In most previous build ups I have been chasing fitness gains in the early weeks when I could have been focused more on the specific elements of training. i.e. ensuring I was hitting the sessions as planned and feeling comfortable doing so. So previously while I have managed to hit a lot of the sessions I wanted, these have often been at the cost of being a little too stressful, meaning recovery from them has been harder and I had generally felt more tired. In hindsight I think we achieved that quite handsomely. I ran well at the Great Yorkshire 10k which although wasn't a PB I think was worth about 35 seconds quicker than my PB given the difficulty of the course.

Consistency
This is probably the trump card to be honest. I have been lucky in that I haven't been injured or suffered any significant colds or viruses throughout this campaign and as a result have managed to streak together 114 days worth of running (if I get to race day without a day off!) with some good weeks of building miles before one cut back week half way through the phase. August was my biggest mileage month ever at 518 miles and this was followed up with a 456 mile month in September, despite it including one week of 69 miles that had a mini-taper and half marathon race. For the 9 weeks before taper I averaged 112.8 miles per week, much more than I have achieved before (98.2mpw pre Berlin '15, 101.3mpw pre London '15 and 101.3mpw pre York '14).

Target for Race Day!I have tossed and turned with this in my mind over recent weeks. I know I am a lot fitter than pre-Berlin and I was convinced following that performance that I was in sub 2:20 shape had it not been for the stitch (I have mentioned the stitch before, right?!?!). The sessions I have been doing have implied a marathon pace of something around 5:15-5:16 per mile which would bring me in at something around 2:17:40. Interestingly this would also mean running two half marathon PBs back to back. Now that is a little bit of a daunting prospect but doesn't entirely scare me! Having said that I have to reflect on what I am likely to be served with conditions wise tomorrow morning. It does look like it is going to be a little windy and possibly quite warm (thank goodness for all that Heat Acclimation!) so it may not be as quick as I would wish for, in an ideal world. In a nutshell what this means is that I will just as ever run as well as I can on the day, and hope that the group that I am setting off with which plan to split in around 69:30 can keep it together for a long time. Hopefully I will be strong enough to pick up the pace a little in the second half to get towards low/sub 2:19 but if not I will be close enough to be able to hit my A-Target of 2:19:59.

Target split times for an even sub 2:19 are:
10km - 32:56
Half way - 69:30
30k - 1:38:50
35k - 1:55:18
40k - 2:11:46
Finish - 2:18:59.

Target split times for an even sub 2:20 are:
10km - 33:10
Half Way - 69:59
30k - 1:39:32
35k - 1:56:07
40k - 2:12:43
Finish - 2:19:59

See you on the other side.

Scotiabank Toronto Marathon - Race Week

M 7 miles HA (7:24mm)
T 6 miles HA (7:11mm)
W 6 miles inc. 2 miles at MP (5:53mm)
T 5 miles HA (7:26mm)
F 4 miles inc. 2X2mins at MP (7:17mm)
S 2 miles (8:09mmmm)

Total 31 miles (7:06mm)
Aerobic efficiency 953 beats per mile
Weight 138lbs Vs 138.8lbs last week
Body Fat 8.7% (12.06lbs) VS 9.3% (12.93lbs) last week
Lean Body Mass 86.78% (119.75lbs) Vs 86.1% (119.48lb)  last week
Water 67.8% (93.56 lbs) Vs 66.7% (93.11lbs) last week


As one can see this was a proper taper week with much reduced miles with only a couple of efforts throughout the week to remind the legs what was coming pace wise.


I mentioned last week that I would carb deplete (Sunday-Thursday AM) which I knew from experience that it would mean feeling pretty rank and my runs feeling extra tough in a glycogen depleted state. This is how runners of the 80's used to do it and it seemed to work quite well for them and as I've had some good race experiences off the back of it, I thought it was worth doing again. My food intake was largely made up of fat and protein which resulted in me losing a bit more weight (the weight recorded above is the average Monday -Thursday as I decided not to take my scales to Canada (maybe I'm not that obsessive after all?!?!) although I did take them down to Gatwick for one final carb depleted weigh in (so maybe I am?!?!). It's really interesting being on a carb restricted diet as you literally shed fat! Of course in a glycogen depleted state it means your body has to work harder at any given intensity to oxidise fat as fuel and as such my aerobic efficiency went down significantly Monday-Thursday but this was to be expected and while I would have let it bother me in the past (so much so that I have tended to bin the HR monitor in race week) I feel more confident these days that elevated HR is bound to happen in this state so wanted to continue to record it as my experiment of one continues.

I drove down to Gatwick on Wednesday with Steve Bayton and Carl Ryde ahead of our flight on Thursday  morning and it was good chewing the fat regarding all things running. :-)

Thursday morning, it was back onto carbs with the plan of 10-12 grams of carbohydrate per kg of body weight, so aiming for 620-750 grams of carbohydrate per day. I had sliced up my trusty banana soreen (and packed an extra couple of loaves) and packaged handy 80g bags of plain cornflakes to snack on during the flight. We landed Thursday afternoon and I didn't feel too jaded but did go to bed at 8pm local time, which was still equivalent of 1am back home!

I went out for a run early doors with Kojo Kyereme and Kevin Rojas on Friday morning and the difference with glycogen in my legs was incredible. My heart rate was trickling along as if I was asleep and even when I raised the effort to around marathon pace my heart rate was at very efficient levels.

Friday we went to the Expo and felt a little like celebrities as we mingled with the other Elite Athletes including 10th placer at the Rio Olympics, Eric Gillis at the official press conference. I also met Tim Hutchings who finished 4th at the Olympic 5000m final in 1984! To say I was excited is a little bit of an understatement, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat! Tim is commentating on the race which will be streamed live on the Canada Running Series Youtube Channel. Tim is a brilliant commentator and it would be nice to see him cover more events on the BBC as his knowledge and clear passion for the sport is absolutely first rate. Tim even sounds like he prepares for the events he's commenting on....


The forecast unfortunately wasn't looking too kind for Sunday (a stiff breeze as well as a bit of rain and being unseasonably hot!) which was a little frustrating as it was forecast for good conditions on every other day of our trip. Anyway of course we could only race in the conditions that we found ourselves with on the day but it did mean that the strategy would change a little. It would be important to get into a group that were hoping to go at the same sort of pace for as long as possible! From looking at the start list and chatting with various other runners it seemed that there should be a fair number going off at a similar pace so that would be helpful to share the workload if conditions did end up being crap!

The carb load has gone well and I'm going to start easing off now (c24hours to race!) as I do feel a little full and don't want to hit the start line too bloated. There is a danger with all the lovely free food to overdo it, and I was perhaps guilty of tucking away a bit too much yesterday so today will have to be a lot lighter. One more day of discipline and I can go a bit crazy for a couple of weeks. I may even have a pint!

Scotiabank Toronto Marathon 2016 - One week to go

M 9 miles HA (6:48mm), 5 miles (7:20mm)
T 9 miles HA (6:24mm), 5 miles inc. 4X2mins @103.2%MP (6:51mm)
W 7 miles HA (7:06mm)
T 14 miles with 16 KM's of alternating KMs (5:25mm)
F 7 miles HA (7:21mm), 5 miles (7:19mm)
S 7 miles HA (7:23mm)
S 11 miles including 15X1min(60s) (6:10mm)

Total 80 miles (6:41mm)
Aerobic efficiency 924 beats per mile
Weight 138.8lbs Vs 139.6lbs last week
Body Fat 9.3% (12.93lbs) Vs 9.3% (12.98lbs) last week
Lean Body Mass 86.1% (119.48lb) Vs 86.13% (120.23lbs) last week
Water 66.48% (92.25lbs) Vs 66.70% (93.11lbs) last week


So into this, the first week of taper and a big reduction in miles as I look to freshen up ahead of race day in a week's time. The hay is in the barn as they say after a decent build up so I was keen to ensure that I didn't do anything too stupid but it was also important to keep a bit of faster stuff in there to keep the legs ticking over.


I chucked in a few two minute efforts in an easy run on Tuesday and felt very strong, but the main sessions of the week were on Thursday and Sunday. The first of which was a session of 16 kilometres alternating pace each KM. Abel Kirui did this about 10 days out from the World Champs in 2011 (and no doubt 10 days before his victory in Chicago yesterday ;-) ). I decided to make a rare trip to the track for this one to make sure that there were no discrepancies with GPS and so I had a true understanding of the pace I was running at rather than think that my watch was just being incredibly flattering which I think it has a tendency to do some times! This is a big favourite of Canova as overall you end up running at a decent pace for a reasonable length of time, but experience pace much faster than you plan to run in the race. This should have the impact of making race day pace feel easy. The plan had been to hit each 'on' KM in about 104.5%MP (c5:10 pace or 3:12.6 per km) and each off KM in about 93% MP (c5:50 pace or 3:37.5 per KM). I managed to surprise myself averaging 3:06.4 per KM (5:02 pace which is 107% of PB Marathon Pace) for the 'on' efforts and 3:35 per KM (5:46 pace or 93.5% of PB Marathon Pace) for the 'off' recoveries. Looking back at the session I realised I had run each 'on' KM quicker than my 5k PB pace and I did eight of them with quite fast recoveries. This continues to confirm that I am in really really good shape so should help build my confidence.

Then to Sunday, which would have been race day at the Yorkshire Marathon had it not been for the Toronto call-up! Big shout out to Paul Martelletti, Scott Harrington, Jamil Parapia, James Watson, Charlie Wartnaby, Philip Eccleston, Franco Pardini, Darran Bilton, Simon Spears, Steve and Karen Head and long time chum Tom Watson on battling out his first marathon. I managed to go and watch a very small part of the race with my daughters which was great fun watching rather than running for a change. It certainly helped whet the appetite for next week.

 

Instead of the marathon, which would have been an ill-advised taper run(!) I ran a session of 15X1minute with 60 second jog recoveries. The plan was to try and keep them just under 5 minute miling. I did this quite nicely without straining and they averaged 114% (4:39mm) and I even had to ease up for the last 10 seconds on a few as I was running so strongly.

So I'm nearly there. The carb restricted diet started on Sunday and will continue until after my run on Thursday morning. No doubt I'll have some hairy low glycogen runs with elevated HR and generally feeling rubbish over the next few days where I start to question everything about my ability to deliver in the race. That and of course stressing about whether it'll be windy or not!

Aerobic efficiency went down a little bit, but I have seen that before as I get closer to race day. It is more often than not due to the reduced miles and feeling a little fresher rather than a sign of anything I should be concerned with. Weight has dropped a fraction.

I have started to put together an overview blog of my training block which I will put out later in the week, detailing some of the subtle differences I have made this campaign. I actually found it quite therapeutic putting it all down as there are actually quite a lot of differences which seem to have had a positive impact in my running. Of course it could all go horribly wrong between now and the race, but hopefully not! I'll also declare publically what my target is so anyone that wants to track on the day can see how I'm doing to target!

I would like to say a massive thanks to Russ Chew of Bang & Olufsen in Manchester for very generously sending me a pair of BeoPlay H3 earphones. Russ enjoys reading my blog and he kindly suggested that I may want some for my easy runs and warm ups. The earphones are absolutely brilliant with such clarity of sound and of course I feel a little cooler now I have a proper pair rather than those tinnie white things that I have had for a number of years! Handily these ones come with a number of different sized ear pieces meaning if like me you have asymmetric ears you can mix and match accordingly to make sure the damn things don't keep falling out! I will say I only ever started blogging as I found it a good mind dump to record what I was doing and how I felt my training was progressing week to week. It certainly wasn't planned to use it to try and get free stuff, so it was a lovely surprise when Russ messaged me. Thanks again.

 

Scotiabank Toronto Marathon 2016 - Two weeks to go

M 12 miles (6:44mm), 7 miles HA (7:08mm)
T 9.5 miles HA (6:24mm), 7 miles (7:28mm)
W 9 miles (6:46mm), 9 miles Progressive Tempo (5:45mm)
T 12 miles (7:06mm), 7 miles HA (7:25mm)
F 10 miles (6:33mm), 6.5 miles including 7X1min @103.5%MP (5:13mm) off 60s (7:03mm)
S 8.5 miles HA (7:09mm), 4 miles (7:07mm)
S 21 miles including 30 mins, 4X5mins, 30 mins (5:33mm), 7 miles (7:04mm)

Total 130 miles (6:39mm)
Aerobic efficiency 917 beats per mile
Weight 139.6 Vs 139.4lbs last week
Body Fat 9.3% (12.98lbs) Vs 9.39% (13.08lbs) last week
Lean Body Mass 86.13% (120.23lbs) Vs 86.06% (119.97lbs) last week
Water 66.70% (93.11lbs) Vs 66.43% (92.60lbs) last week


The last week of big miles this week with again two main session days. The first of which was Wednesday. Mike wanted me to do a moderate hour in the morning which I did but then follow up with  a progressive tempo run of 9 miles in the evening starting at 88%MP(6:03mm) and building the pace to finish at 106%MP (5:06mm). So it would be a decent chunk of miles in one day with some (for me) very fast running towards the end. I had spent six hours driving in the car and it was also very windy so I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. I nearly chickened out and did it on the treadmill, but I knew Mike wouldn't have been best chuffed with that! In the end, it went perfectly and I nicely progressed through the paces, only really feeling like I was going all out towards the last half mile. Mike reminded me that the last two miles (which came in at 5:06 pace) work out to be around 15:45 5k pace, a time which I only bettered twice in the summer and this right at the end of what could be considered a tough day's training! Happy days! This session did remind me why I don't like hard sessions in the evening though, as I struggled to stay asleep and woke at 2:30 wide awake. I did a bit of work then went for my morning run at 4:25 which is early, even for me!

Sunday's run was the final 'Steve Way' session of 30 mins, 4X5mins, 30 mins with the plan to be 100% MP for the 30 minute efforts and 106% of MP for the 5 minute efforts. Last year before Berlin I managed to hit 5:26 pace for the 30 minute efforts and 5:06 pace for the five minute efforts. As it happened 5:25 ended up being my marathon pace on race day so it was an excellent specific session. This time of course my aspirations time wise are similar but my PB hasn't moved on much so the plan was really to hit pretty much exactly the same paces as I did last time and hope that it felt a bit easier! The session really couldn't have gone any better, in fact I surprised myself. The first 30 mins came in at c100%MP (5:24mm) feeling very comfortable, then the 5 minute efforts came in at 106.8%MP - 109.2%MP (5:03-4:55mm) and then the final 30 minutes came in at 104%MP (5:12mm) although I suspect this last 30 mins was pretty optimistic as the GPS signal went a touch skewiff towards the end of the effort. That said it was probably still around 5:15s and HR only averaged my Marathon HR. I finished the session feeling good and when I have done this in the past I have felt a little brutalised by how tough it is. I didn't feel that this time, so I can be confident that I am in much better shape than last year. After Berlin I was convinced I was in sub 2:20 shape was it not for the stitch in the last 7k so this has got to give me extra confidence that I can go in there positive that I'm going to achieve my goal.

Weight hasn't changed (I guess this must be race weight!) but I have lost a touch more fat so that's nice. Aerobic efficiency has taken another big step forward at 917 beats per mile.

Sunday brought up my first ever 100 day streak and marked the end of the specific block (the 9 weeks mileage is below). Now it is just two weeks to race day so I will start with a reduced week of miles before tapering heavily the week of the race.