Running for Charlie - London Marathon 2017 Week 12 of 16.

M 5 miles (6:57mm), 11 miles HA (6:15mm)
T 12 miles (6:20mm), 6 miles inc. strides & drills (7:08mm)
W 5miles (7:34mm), 15 miles inc. 8X1mile (1/2 mile float) (5:52mm)
T 12.5 miles HA (6:23mm), 6 miles inc. strides (7:13mm)
F 10.5 miles HA (6:13mm), 5 miles inc. strides & drills (7:06mm)
S 33 miles (6:22mm)
S 14 miles (6:35mm)

Total 136 miles (6:29mm)
Core & Drills 45 mins
Total Training Time 15hrs 25mins Vs 11 hrs 35 mins
Aerobic efficiency 940 Vs 966 beats per mile
Weight 139.97lbs Vs 142.34 lbs
Body Fat 10.41% (14.58ls) Vs 11.11% (15.82lbs)
Lean Body Mass 85.1% (119.11lbs) Vs 84.44% (120.2lbs)
Water 64.57% (90.37lbs) Vs 63.66% (90.61lbs)


I keep telling myself that last week's race was a blip. After this week I am now convinced more than ever that it, sort of, was. Thankfully! Ordinarily after a race I struggle to do anything faster at all the following week, but my running has been quicker and felt much better this week. I also had a bit of an epiphany, not in the sense that the Lord came and spoke to me. I am sure He/She has more important things to worry about. I realised that I hadn't been training hard enough! Of course last week and the prior week I am allowed to be a bit gentle on myself as I was under the weather and recovering from a bug but I noticed my average pace for general runs was not as quick as I have run them in the past. Yes they were easier and I am sure I was getting some benefit from them, but I was wasting an opportunity to build my engine in a relatively low stress way. I am pleased  I realised this now as it has given me three weeks to get in serious shape. The average pace of my running across the week has improved from 6:43mm to 6:29mm.I'm not saying that training wasn't going well, it was ok but I was drifting and I don't think I truly committed until this week when I realised I had to really pull my finger out. Thankfully I am fit, so now it's just about adding a bit of icing to the cake I've been baking.


And so to Wednesday's session of 8X1mile with 1/2 mile float which would have been a big no-no generally after a race as I simply wouldn't have been in a state to run that hard. But it went brilliantly well and I felt strong throughout, with the mile splits going 5:27, 5:21, 5:19, 5:16, 5:16, 5:15, 5:13, 5:11 and the 'recoveries' at about 6:30pace. When I did this session prior to Toronto, the average pace of the miles was 5:07 vs 5:16 this time but my recoveries were slightly quicker this time and although I was chuffed with the session last time out ,this one was definitely more controlled with my heart rate not even getting up to marathon heart rate in any of the efforts. It would be great if 5:16s ended up being marathon pace as it would get me in somewhere around 2:18 which would be comfortably under the IAAF World Champs qualifying time. One can dream!!!


Another big factor this week is that the unwanted body fat has finally started to drop off quite substantially and this always gets me feeling better in my running and could be down to the faster pace of my running but also more likely to do with the plant based diet I am on. I'm not missing meat, or dairy, one bit! And I feel much better in myself, my energy levels are higher than ever and it's great getting to make new things in the kitchen. My wife, Hania also seems pretty pleased!

Roasted Sweet Potato, Spicy Vegan Lecho and Spinach, Beetroot, Tomato, Cucumber, Avocado and mixed seed Salad. #plantbased

So to Saturday's long run which was two weeks overdue! I missed it two weeks ago because of my cold but I was keen to run further than I ever have done before and so I set off to do 33 miles. Three 11 mile loops on an undulating course. The first ticked by quite nicely and I felt good with the legs ticking along nicely. The second lap was better and I felt very strong and was running very nicely. It was only around halfway through the third lap that I started to feel quite tired and hungry. I was a touch thirsty by this point too but as it was pretty cold I wasn't sweating a great deal. My watch clocked 33 miles at 3:29:59 which I had thought might be doable without ruining myself. I only lost 4.5lbs in 3 and a half hours of running which was an interesting stat for me to reflect on!

As readers will know who read my blog, this year I am trying to help my colleague Jo raise funds for her son Charlie. Charlie suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. The long and short of it is that Charlie needs Spinal Chord surgery and this is not funded by the NHS. So Jo is raising money to pay for the surgery and post-op physio herself. This is a mammoth task as she is looking to raise £85,000 so I would be highly grateful if anyone that reads this blog could consider donating to the cause. I and many readers are incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that Charlie can only dream of and hopefully some of you will help Jo with her efforts. I for one will be running my heart out for Charlie on April 23rd.

Charlie's Footsteps

Running for Charlie - London Marathon 2017 Week 11 of 16

M 10.5 miles HA (6:40mm), 3.5 miles inc. strides (7:43mm)
T 15 miles inc 24mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins (6:00mm)
W 7.5 miles HA (6:47mm), 5 miles (7:08mm)
T 5 miles (7:49mm), 10 miles (6:47mm)
F 10.5 miles HA (6:47mm), 5 miles inc. strides & drills (7:28mm)
S 5 miles (6:36mm), 3.5 miles (7:00mm)
S 20.5 miles including Thirsk 10 (6:24mm)

Total 101 miles (6:43mm)
Core & Drills 19 mins
Total Training Time 11 hrs 35 mins Vs 9 hrs 42 mins
Aerobic efficiency 966 Vs 949 beats per mile
Weight 142.34 lbs Vs 142.3lbs (avge over the week)
Body Fat 11.11% (15.82lbs) Vs 10.86% (15.45lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.44% (120.2lbs) Vs 84.71% (120.52lbs)
Water 63.66% (90.61lbs) Vs 64.06% (91.14 lbs)


A tentative start back this week after missing last weekend due to a cold. In fact most runs until Friday felt pretty bleurgh. My Heart Rate seemed to be behaving itself but the legs just felt like they didn't have much strength. I was still keen to do a session and on Tuesday I did a session of 24 mins, 28 mins, 23 min, 6 mins with the intention of speeding up throughout the session. As it turned out I clearly wasn't fully recovered as there was no 'top gear' and even getting close to marathon heart rate was impossible, so I kept it as high aerobic as I could without pushing myself over the line. The efforts came in at around 5:33mm avge so it was pretty slow and I know that it was sensible that I didn't try to go any quicker. In a way it reminded me of last year's Dewsbury 10k which was just after recovering form a cold. That day, I just really couldn't get to the level of effort I wanted without my legs saying 'no'!


So this week was a bit weird as I had been planning to taper down for the Thirsk 10 on Sunday but as I had missed last weekend's running thought it'd be sensible to just get the training back to sensible levels and train through the race. Of course I planned to give it a full effort if the cold had fully evaporated but I went in no longer thinking of a PB but just to have a solid outing!


There was a very strong wind the morning of the race with gust of over 40mph and it looked like this would be a headwind for the first half of the race so actually made me relax even more about the chance of a PB.


Off we went and I didn't feel too bad initially but it didn't take long before I felt like I couldn't really push to my max. I guess a combination of post-cold race syndrome and fatigue from marathon training meant it was going to be a struggle. I would go through spells of feeling great then 30 second slater would feel like I was coming to a standstill. I was running in a nice group until about 4 miles when I started to drop off the pack and from there just tried to keep going. I was happy that I managed to pick off one guy with around 2.5 miles to go but I was very conscious that John Hobbs of Valley striders was hunting me down so had to keep working to make sure I stayed in front. I managed it, just about! I crossed the line in seventh place in 54:16 and my initial feeling was one of disappointment as I had been hoping this would be my sharpener race for London and give me the confidence that sub 2:20 was on! Of course the pace I ran wasn't even what I hope to be able to run come April 23rd (5:18mm-5:20mm hoped for target) so I felt a little 'meh' about it. It didn't take long for me to come to my senses and realise that a) the conditions were pretty poor (maybe worth 45 seconds), b) I was fatigued from 100 miles in the week, c) I had just got over a bad cold and d) considering Tuesday's session where I couldn't run any quicker than 5:30mm, 5:26s was actually not a bad effort! I also feel like I wasn't quite at max and couldn't 'go to the well' as I have done in previous tune up races. Comparing this to the effort I put into running at the Vale of York Half last year, I should put it down as a tempo run really even though I genuinely don't think I could have gone much quicker on the day. It was nice to catch up with a few running buddies too, especially Andrew Challenger (cool name!) making his return to racing after 10 months and recording a solid time of 53 and bits. I met Andy at Berlin in 2015 and although we didn't run together that day enjoyed some(!) post-race beverages and shenanigans together.

Photo Credit: Karen Newton. Trying not to be hunted by John Hobbs

As I inferred last week when I'm ill I seem to put on weight rather than lose it so it was a bit of a relief that by the end of the week it had returned to where I was pretty much.

I now have three weeks of big training to put in to get in serious shape and condition before tapering off. I'm somewhat relieved that I don't have any races now until London as I can just focus on my training. I know come the big dance I will be ready to go.

As readers will know who read my blog, this year I am trying to help my colleague Jo raise funds for her son Charlie. Charlie suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. The long and short of it is that Charlie needs Spinal Chord surgery and this is not funded by the NHS. So Jo is raising money to pay for the surgery and post-op physio herself. This is a mammoth task as she is looking to raise £85,000 so I would be highly grateful if anyone that reads this blog could consider donating to the cause. I and many readers are incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that Charlie can only dream of and hopefully some of you will help Jo with her efforts. I for one will be running my heart out for Charlie on April 23rd.

Charlie's Footsteps



Running for Charlie - London Marathon 2017 Week 10 of 16

M 9 miles HA (6:37mm), 5 miles inc. strides & drills (7:33mm)
T 20 miles inc. 30 mins (3:00), 4X5mins(2:00), 30 mins (5:45mm), 6 miles (7:37mm)
W 9 miles HA (6:45mm), 6.5 miles (7:58mm)
T 11.5 miles (7:04mm), 6 miles (7:02mm)
F 7 miles HA (6:42mm)
S Rest (lurgy)
S Rest (still lurgied)

Total 81 miles (6:45mm)
Core & Drills 38 mins
Total Training Time 9 hrs 42 mins
Aerobic efficiency 949 beats per mile
Weight 142.3lbs (avge over the week)
Body Fat 10.86% (15.45lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.71% (120.52lbs)
Water 64.06% (91.14 lbs)


A bit of a frustrating week this week as I felt like I was starting to get nicely fit but then came down with a cold which meant the weekend off running. So my mileage wasn't anywhere near as high as I wanted and I didn't get a long run in. I guess it's that time of year though with the change of the season where colds are in big supply and avoiding one is very tricky. I suppose I can be grateful that it is not the week of London and would much rather have a cold now than then! Every cloud.


Apart from that I managed to get in a decent session on Tuesday morning. this is traditionally the big marathon session that I do a couple of weeks out from the target race so doing it this early would be an interesting experiment. I was not expecting the resultant paces that came out and although it wasn't as quick as pre-Toronto, it was almost certainly more controlled with the 30 minute efforts coming in at 5:25mm avge and the 5 minute efforts coming in at 5:09mm. It did demonstrate to me that I am quite fit though, especially this far out.


Weight seems to have stayed pretty stable despite dropping a bit of body fat. This seems to happen as an adaptation to the HA runs I do where my body seems to hold onto more water. Perhaps this is due to the increase in plasma volume that HA runs are supposed to induce?!?! I didn't however weigh myself over the weekend as I wasn't running so may well have put some weight back on as seems to be the case when I take some time off running. Most folks seem to lose weight when they're ill, but not me!

So far from ideal at this stage of the game, but it is now Thursday of week 11 and I was back running on Monday which was a relief although most runs have felt a bit bleurgh since then. I am supposed to be doing Thirsk 10 on Sunday as a tune up but yet to make a decision on whether I'll race.

As readers will know who read my blog, this year I am trying to help my colleague Jo raise funds for her son Charlie. Charlie suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. The long and short of it is that Charlie needs Spinal Chord surgery and this is not funded by the NHS. So Jo is raising money to pay for the surgery and post-op physio herself. This is a mammoth task as she is looking to raise £85,000 so I would be highly grateful if anyone that reads this blog could consider donating to the cause. I and many readers are incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that Charlie can only dream of and hopefully some of you will help Jo with her efforts. I for one will be running my heart out for Charlie on April 23rd.


Charlie's Footsteps

Running for Charlie - London Marathon 2017 Week 9 of 16.

M 9 miles HA (7:32mm), 5 miles inc. strides & drills (7:45mm)
T 18 miles inc. 4X18mins (5:49mm), 5 miles (7:39mm)
W 8 miles HA (6:41mm)
T 12 miles (6:46mm), 6 miles inc 3X30s strides & drills (7:49mm)
F 9 miles HA (6:34mm), 5 miles inc. 6X15s strides (7:36mm)
S 30 miles (6:26mm)
S 12.5 miles (6:49mm)

Total 120 miles (6:45mm)
Core 42 mins
Total Training Time 14 hrs 14 mins
Aerobic efficiency 997 beats per mile
Weight 142.6lbs (avge over the week)
Body Fat 11.5% (16.40lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.11 (119.94lbs)
Water 63.1% (89.98 lbs)

For any regular reader, apologies for the elusiveness of my blog the last few weeks. I ran the Liversegde Half Marathon about three weeks ago and the following week's training was shelved as it took my legs ages to recover! I also thought it would be worth having an easy week before getting on with the marathon specific phase. Unfortunately it meant I would miss the National (and indeed the whole XC season for one reason or another!) but it was the right decision as I do think another hard effort may well have burnt me out and scuppered London.


I had planned to use Liversedge as part of my long run as a solid effort but in the end got drawn into a decent race. I was sat in fourth place at halfway with the leader out of sight and second and third about 60 metres up the road. At this point I would have been happy with 4th place as I was feeling quite fatigued from the week's training and the conditions were horrendous. I just wanted to go home and have a warm bath! All of a sudden I found myself catching Tristan Learoyd of New Marske to go into third place and before long I had caught and overtaken Adam Peers of Wakefield to go second. Ian Harding was currently in first place and out of sight. I don't think I'd seen him since the fourth mile. As we turned to make a mile long drag up hill I could finally got a clear sight of him and as I was buoyed by getting myself into second place, I set about trying to reel him in. I cautiously closed the gap and caught him at 11.5 miles and went straight past. It was then just one foot in front of the other to take the win. I ran a time of 71:30 which was incredibly pleasing as it is a very very testing course with c1000ft of elevation.

So I then basically had a week off, and got back into things two weeks ago feeling fat and unfit! I knew that the fitness wouldn't be tfar away though so just concentrated on getting some miles in. The first week I did 108miles and then last week I upped that slightly to 120 with a session of 4X18 minutes off 3:00 and  along run of 30 miles.


The session went well averaging 5:28 pace for the efforts which was a little surprising given I'd not run that fast since the half marathon a couple of weeks before. It was hard but comfortable and to be doing that sort of run eight weeks out was very pleasing.


The 30 miler was a bit of an early start as I take my youngest to ballet on Saturday mornings and wanted to get it out of the way before the rest of the weekend. So the alarm went of at 3:45 and I was out the door by 4:20. The run went really well and I felt strong the whole way. I ran without fuel or water as I genuinely believe running like this helps get your body fat burning and is a key specific part of marathon training. I didn't carry any water, basically because I find it a bit of a pain and I had made sure I was well hydrated in the couple of days before the run. I took in a hilly course and covered the 30 miles in 3:13 the same time it took me to do my first marathon, but feeling a million times more comfortable! It was pleasing to get that one done by just after 7:30 on a Saturday.


I'm back on tracking my diet and weight and thanks to the recommendation by Martin Cox of a book called Proteinaholic by Dr Garth Davis have gone virtually 100% plant based. I haven't eaten meat in over two weeks and only very little dairy. I must admit it is early days but I feel fantastic and my recovery from training has almost certainly improved. The weight has also dropped off despite eating like a vegetarian king! I started at 149.6 lbs and 12.9%BF(19.3lbs) after my run on Monday 20th February and on Sunday 5th March I was 143.8lb and 11.6%BF(16.68lbs).  Below is a chart I have put together that details my weight pre and post-run along with bodyfat percentage. An interesting thing that I have noticed is that after a Heat Acclimation run my body fat is much lower than after a regular outdoor run. You can see this with the peaks and troughs. The main thing is the trend lines for Body Mass and Body Fat are trending down!

As readers will know who read my blog, this year I am trying to help my colleague Jo raise funds for her son Charlie. Charlie suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. The long and short of it is that Charlie needs Spinal Chord surgery and this is not funded by the NHS. So Jo is raising money to pay for the surgery and post-op physio herself. This is a mammoth task as she is looking to raise £85,000 so I would be highly grateful if anyone that reads this blog could consider donating to the cause. I and many readers are incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that Charlie can only dream of and hopefully some of you will help Jo with her efforts. I for one will be running my heart out for Charlie on April 23rd.


Charlie's Footsteps