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



Running for Charlie - London Marathon Week 5 of 16

M 5 miles (8:12mm), 14 mils inc 10.4 miles 3/4 Effort (5:30mm)
T 6 miles (8:17mm)
W 3.5 miles (8:10mm), 10 miles 1/4 Effort (6:57mm) 
T Rest
F Rest
S Rest
S 6 miles (8:00mm)

Total 45 miles (7:13mm)
Core 22 mins
Total Training Time 5 hrs 43 mins
Aerobic efficiency 986 beats per mile


So this week didn't exactly go to plan! As I mentioned on last week's blog, I was due to have a cut back week and then a hard race at the Northern XC on Saturday. Early in the week I could feel the onset of a cold and while I thought I would be able to run through it, I had decided by midweek that the Northern's probably wasn't a sensible idea and would just run easy instead. By Thursday I decided that I actually needed to rest to try and get it out of my system. It wasn't until Sunday that I managed to venture out again and although it was clear that the virus had shifted, I was feeling rather ploddy.


All that said, I had done a decent 3/4 effort run on the Monday where I covered around 10.4 miles in 57 minutes at a fraction below marathon effort again implying that the fitness is coming along nicely, unfortunately that run was probably the nail in the coffin to allow the virus to take hold!


I enjoyed seeing the results coming in form the Northern's with Dave Archer having a standout performance (15th) and his good lady wife, Hatti with a strong run for 2nd place behind Leeds City's international superstar, Claire Duck. Fellow club mates Mike Burrett and Adam Osborne told me of the horrific clay like mud that they had to endure and I am reliably informed that all concerned buried themselves, metaphorically as well as literally.


So back to it this week, where I'll be trying to get the miles and consistency back. There's only 11 weeks to go, I will need to start pulling my finger out soon!


As readers will know who read my last 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 Week 4 of 16

M 1/4 Effort 12 miles (7:11mm), 1/4 Effort 8 miles (6:50mm)
T 7 miles (6:30mm)
W 5 miles (8:02mm), 14 miles inc. 10 miles 3/4 Effort on grass (5:57mm) 
T 1/2 Effort 17 miles (6:22mm), 5 miles (8:23mm)
F 1/4 Effort 12 miles (7:23mm), 7.5 miles including 4X2mins, 2X10s sprints (7:30mm)
S 1/2 Effort 22 miles (6:31mm), 5 miles (8:08mm)
S 1/4 Effort 12 miles (7:04mm)

Total 127 miles (6:57mm)
Core 21 mins
Total Training Time 15 hrs 06 mins
Aerobic efficiency 978 beats per mile
Garmin Training Effect Total 36.6


After Brass Monkey Half last week, I wanted to ensure I wasn't too keen to get back on the 3/4 efforts so only scheduled one for this week and did it on the grass which was somewhat boggier than the previous two times I've done it. It was pleasing that it came in at 5:57mm for a heart rate of 84% Working Heart Rate. I then had a couple of decent runs (17miles and 22 miles) at 1/2 effort (70-75% WHR) on the Thursday (a whole 7 minutes quicker than the previous week!) and Sunday over undulating routes. The rest of the week was largely just easy and recovery mileage.


Lydiard encourages a weekly fartlek to stay in touch with top end speed and does this through alactic sprints in one of the runs. These are essentially all out sprints for 5-6seconds. Any more and you start building lactate which apparently is detrimental to the aerobic conditioning phase. I am a little away from wanting to do a lot of sprints, or indeed really hard workouts so stuck a couple of sprints building up for about 5 seconds before going flat out for another 5. I did these in a recovery run after 4X2mins at marathon effort.


After Saturday's long run I did a 12miler at 1/4 Effort on the Sunday and it was really nice to see that the legs felt great after a mile or so and my HR was ticking along at lowly levels (c65%WHR) with the pace not too shabby.


I am starting to see my body really adapt to this aerobic mileage (aerobic efficiency is down to 978 beats per mile). In fact having taken the pressure off myself a bit, I must say I think I am enjoying my running as much as I ever have. It should come as no surprise really given I don't have a fast twitch fibre to my name so any time spent going much quicker than half marathon pace leaves me a little wrecked which results in me a) not being able to get the mileage in to keep my engine strong and b) really inconsistent racing results at shorter distances. It will be interesting to see what happens at Thirsk 10 miler in March as I plan to keep training pretty similar to as it is now until the National XC, after which it's start to look a bit more marathon specific. The only exceptions will be hard races at this week's Northerns (although that is looking highly unlikely now as I am suffering with a head cold and don't want it to develop into anything more sinister - a long lay off could set me back somewhat) and the National which Lydiard would probably disagree with at this stage but sod it!


I let my core work slip a little this week with only two 10 minute sessions, so need to rectify that a little but total training time was over 15 hours which is where I want to be on up weeks. John Cox, a reader of my blog asked me what core work I do and having spent many more hours watching videos of core work than I have ever performed I thought it was about time I just got something into my routine, so use the 'Viking ABC Core' routine (video below). This is a 10 minute routine so nothing massive but seems to activate all the right muscle groups. The motivation to do core post-run is virtually non-existent so for this to come a regular feature I really must try to keep this up prior to my recovery runs.

As readers will know who read my last 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 Weeks 2 and 3 of 16

W/C 2nd January 2017
M 16.5 miles TM including 2X35mins (6:03mm) , 5 miles (8:17mm)
T 15 miles (7:08mm), 5 miles (7:56mm)
W 6.5 miles (7:50mm), 8.75 miles (7:07mm)
T 16 miles (7:13mm), 5 miles (7:52mm)
F 12.5 miles including 10 miles on grass (6:09mm), 4 miles (7:57mm)
S 5 miles (8:13mm)
S 20.5 miles (7:01mm)

Total 120 miles (7:08mm)
Core 45 mins
Total Training Time 14 hrs 54 mins
Aerobic efficiency 1018 beats per mile
Garmin Training Effect Total 37.9


W/C 9th January 2017
M 11 miles (7:22mm), 7 miles (7:50mm), 4 miles (7:59mm)
T 5 miles (7:53mm), 13 miles inc. 10 miles on grass (6:04mm), 4 miles (8:20mm)
W 9 miles (6:35mm), 4 miles (7:47mm)
T 17 miles (6:49mm), 6 miles (7:35mm)
F 10 miles inc. 7 miles @ 5:30mm TM (5:47mm)
S 10.5 miles (6:59mm)
S 20.5 miles including Brass Monkey Half in 72:09 (6:13mm)

Total 121.5 miles (6:54mm)
Core 52 mins
Total Training Time 14 hrs 49 mins
Aerobic efficiency 991 beats per mile
Garmin Training Effect Total 47.8


A double-whammy due to time constraints last week!


To be fair it's mainly just boring mileage (isn't it always?!) to report with nothing particularly tasty in the way of sessions but I have managed a couple of decent 120 mile weeks building on the first week of 115.


Given the focus is a bit Lydiard style at the moment for the week of 2nd Jan I did two 3/4 effort sessions. One on the Treadmill of 2X35 mins keeping my HR below 85% Working heart Rate and then followed that up with a 10 mile run on grass at 6:09mm. The week also had three other runs of over 15 miles including a 20 miler in Middleton Park. Middleton Park is set on a decent hill and about 2 miles around, so I did 8 laps bringing in a decent amount of vert. (I think that's what the trail runners call it!?!?). Aerobic efficiency was 1018 beats per mile across the week which isn't great but seems to reflect that I am starting at the bottom of the training pyramid again! With a bit of core work I totalled just under 15 hours of training. One thing I have noticed that is quite interesting is the Garmin Training Effect figure after each session which is supposed to give you an idea of what effect the run will have had on your overall fitness. It essentially goes on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being little improvement, 2 maintaining, 3 improving, 4 highly improving and 5 overreaching. The theory is that if you have too many in the 4s and 5's you'll soon be a crumbled heap of running mess! I plan to tot up the total weekly figure to give me an idea of the training load over any given week. It's more data so happy days.


The second week, Sharon Barlow Hamilton had transferred her number to me for the Brass monkey Half Marathon. Sadly she couldn't run due to a stress fracture, a runner's worst nightmare! As I said on my previous blog, at the mo I just want to enjoy my running so didn't want to race it hard and so it would form one of my sessions of the week within my long run. Tuesday saw me run 10 miles on grass again, this time at a slightly quicker pace than the previous week in worse conditions. I then had another decent run of 17 miles at 1/2 effort and a cheeky 3/4 effort on the TM on Friday. Then to Sunday and the Brass Monkey half where I planned to run at Marathon intensity, so for me a touch harder than Lydiard's so-called 3/4 effort. After 5.5 miles pre-race I got myself on the start line. Off we go and I have to say it was a most tedious race from a pacing perspective with every mile between 5:25-5:35mm and I finished feeling very comfortable in 72:09 and 8th place for another good week's training. This was quite a bit quicker than I had thought I would run but as the effort was what I wanted I am very pleased with the result given it's 14 weeks to London.

Finish at Brass Monkey Half - Photo credit Ben McNeilage

The overall aerobic efficiency has dropped below the 1000 mark again which just goes to show that lots of easy and steady running can bring improvements in economy.

I'm now going to have another big week of miles before a slight cut back week, which will include the Northern XC Champs and I will probably run that quite hard.

As readers will know who read my last 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 1 of 16

M 10 miles TM (5:47mm), 4 miles (7:42mm)
T 10 miles (7:23mm), 5 miles HA (7:52mm)
W 16 miles (7:25mm), 4 miles (7:50mm)
T 8.5 miles (7:25mm), 5 miles (8:14mm)
F 12 miles including 10 miles TM (5:54mm), 4 miles (8:01mm)
S 20 miles (7:15mm)
S 10.5 miles (7:01mm), 5.5 miles (8:13mm)

Total 115 miles (7:12mm)
Core 45 mins

Aerobic efficiency 1059 beats per mile




First things first, what happened to Ribble Valley? Well, I didn't run. I made the decision about a week before the race that mentally I wasn't in the right place for such a hard effort. Sometimes life has a way of getting you down and I was, if I'm honest, in a bit of a dark place. I had lost a bit of focus on whether running really mattered that much for various reasons and it all seemed a little pointless! Having suffered from the blues many times previously, I knew the fog would lift eventually, I just had to be patient and I would come out the other side. So with decision made, I wanted to enjoy Christmas as much as I could with my wonderful family and get back to training on Boxing Day but with the one condition that I wouldn't be training particularly hard for a while. With that in mind I agreed with Mike that I would just run as I felt but look to build a decent base ala Lydiard. Essentially in the base phase Lydiard calls for plenty of miles, most at an easy-moderate pace with a couple of harder workouts each week but still a lot easier than I would be doing if in training for a half or full marathon. So exactly the type of running I enjoy!


So, this was my first week back and as one can see, a decent amount of mileage was covered without too many headaches. I get a sense of satisfaction from covering high miles so this should help me find my mojo again in the not too distant future. It should also prepare me well for the stresses of the marathon specific phase when it finally comes around. In the meantime, my weeks will follow a similar structure to the above. I plan to run the Brass Monkey half marathon at a sub maximal pace, just to get back into the type of environment I enjoy so much. I suspect I will be running no quicker than around 75 mins albeit I could probably run around 71 all out right now.


It was a tricky decision to forfeit the Yorkshire XC champs this week as I enjoyed it so much last year but I simply don't feel ready for such a competitive race (and I cant trust myself not to race hard!) nor am I ready for it having only done one XC session all winter. I shall be doing one of my harder workouts (mainly 10 miles just below marathon effort) on grass each week to at least bring me back into touch with the surface. I then hope to run at the Northerns just as a bit of a fitness check at the end of January. I will be taking a similar approach with the National at the end of February.


It will then be a move to focus on London which is my main goal for the Spring but with an added personal dimension.


This year I have been asked by a colleague if I will help her with her fund raising for her son, Charlie who suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. Ordinarily I decline such requests as running is something I truly love and don't need a reason to do it! But this case is different, Jo has been a colleague of mine at Raymond James for over eight years and not only is she a great colleague I cant imagine the stress that such a situation must bring on her family. 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

Ribble Valley 10k - Week 6 of 8

M 3 miles (7:43mm), 10 miles (7:10mm)
T 10.5 miles (7:11mm), 6 miles HA (7:33mm)
W 8 miles including 6X10s flat out hill sprints (7:26mm), 6 miles HA (7:27mm)
T 12 miles including XC Fartlek (6:18mm), 5.5 miles (7:23mm)
F 10 miles (7:44mm), 5.5 miles (7:25mm)
S 6.5 miles (HA) (6:54mm)
S 17.5 miles (6:09mm)

Total 100 miles (7:04mm)


Weight 142.8lbs
Aerobic efficiency 984 beats per mile Vs 971 beats per mile

After last week's Stockport 10 I knew I would be a bit tired so decided to run really easily for any day that wasn't a session. This is reflected in the relatively slow average pace of this week's mileage. That said I was obviously keen to pick up the mileage with the Ribble Valley race just over two weeks away.

I managed to get in a couple of sessions through the week with the first on Thursday, following a run on Wednesday with six 10s flat-out hill sprints. It was nice that this session was to be on the grass. My first XC session this season. I would like to race well at the County Champs, Northern's and National, hence why it was about time to introduce some of this stuff again.

After a good nine months of running on the road it was a bit of a shock to the system to be running hard on boggy grass. The session was 6mins, 3X2mins, 6mins, 3X2mins, 6Mins with the plan to run the 6 minute efforts around 10k effort and the 2 minutes around 5k effort. The session went well and showed that the easy running up until Thursday had helped me recover from last week's race. As a road runner it is funny when you first get back on the grass as it is just a lot slower despite the effort! I am hoping that these sessions and the forthcoming races will help toughen me up a bit! Thanks to my darling wife, Hania for the snaps!

The second session was something that I was dreading a little! I wanted to do a hilly long run with some effort. Based on last week's race and how I generally fair on hills I thought it was sensible to move away from the flat for a change for a more challenging long run. I had planned to do around 17/18 miles but with 5 laps of the local park at c Marathon effort with a couple of minutes standing recovery. The park is set on quite a sizeable hill which means the first mile is downhill and the second mile is pretty much straight up. I was questioning my sanity on the first rep as it felt so hard, even the downhill bit! The legs were like jelly after the second one so I decided I would do one more rather than the full five. I then finished the run with a three mile stretch at a steady pace (5:50s) which felt much harder than it would have had I just run the whole thing on the flat at the same pace. I did find this run very tough and I think I found it tough not because I wasn't recovered or today was a 'bad day' but simply because I tend to avoid hills wherever possible! So in retrospect I absolutely loved it as it feels like hills could be a big chink in my armoury and if I can improve it (along with my ability over the Country) then this will surely make me a better runner so come London next year I will have that strength to get me home those last few miles when it's needed most.

So one more big week, before I start easing off significantly over the following 10 days to freshen up for Ribble Valley.

As a final point I saw the results come in from the Telford 10k and it is great to see hard working athletes such as Carl Hardman (clocked his first ever sub 30 10k!) and others working their socks off to break through new barriers. I am truly excited by what is happening in the sport at the moment and take such inspiration from all athletes working as hard as they can to reach their goals.

 

Ribble Valley 10k - Week 5 of 8

M 10.5 miles (6:34mm)
T 8 miles HA (6:51mm), 6.5 miles (7:19mm)
W 9.5 miles Fartlek (5:56mm)
T 6 miles (7:16mm)
F 5 miles (6:59mm)
S 3 miles (7:22mm)
S 10 mins early AM (8:34mm), 15 miles including Stockport 10

Total 65 miles (6:37mm)
Aerobic efficiency 971 beats per mile Vs 969 beats per mile


So a reduced week of miles this week as I wanted to be a bit fresher for the Stockport 10 on Sunday. That said I still did a decent amount of volume with a good session on Wednesday before cutting the mileage significantly. In hindsight I probably didn't cut the mileage as much as I should in order to be at my freshest but Ribble Valley is the main target at the moment, and I will take a proper taper for that.


The session on Wednesday was 2X1mile, 3X1/2mile and then 8X100m strides. I did it on the treadmill as it was still pretty icy outside when I came to do the session. I felt in control but it possibly was a little too much the week of a race.


We were lucky in that we had pretty much perfect weather for Sunday's race and I felt good and ready to go despite a busy day previously with my daughter Mia's 5th birthday party. I was confident of having a go at trying to break my PB despite it being known as a tough course. Off we went and The pace was quick from the outset but it felt OK so I went with it. As we went through the first mile with me sat in fourth at 5:01 I realised that it may be a tad quick so tried to ease back a little but the legs kept going! Mark Offord joined me and we ran together (through 3 flat miles in 15:21 - not far off my 5k pace!) until five miles when he started to pull away up a big hill. As we reached the top I was really starting to struggle and my legs didn't feel that happy at all! Luckily there was still a target to focus on in the shape of Jack Nixon of Stockport who I could see was slowing a bit. I carried on working but was suddenly overtaken by Chris Arthur of Blackburn. I kept my head down and focused on trying to reel Jack in. And on a downhill stretch I managed to catch him and move straight past. From here it was just about getting to the end. There's a really testing hill between 8.5-9.2 miles which is when you least need it and although I was working hard to try and bridge the gap to Mark Offord, he was too strong for me so I decided to rein it in a little for the last bit knowing that a PB was out of the question. I crossed the line in 5th place in a time of 53:41 which considering the course was not bad especially given I almost certainly went off too quick. Sometimes it's worth it though to find out what sort of shape you're in but I will certainly be a little more conservative at the Ribble Valley.

Last 1/2 mile at Stockport. Photo credit: Alan Williams

I decided not to track my weight this week as I didn't want too many OCD distractions!  I was pleased in that I managed to continue to eat healthily and certainly felt well fuelled for the run given I moved to proportionally more carbohydrates the two days before the race. I'm conscious that I probably do need to get a bit leaner (I really notice it on the hills - but then it does help with the downhills!), but also cognisant of the fact that I need to eat enough to fuel my training. Given London is the main target I think perhaps I will just try and be a little more relaxed about my weight at the moment. I cant be super skinny all year round but will make a big effort to get to around race weight for when the specific phase starts.

This week I'll be getting back to some decent miles and all being well should go past the 4,000miles for the year on Tuesday. I also plan to get my first XC session in on Thursday, providing the legs are back to normal.