Have come down with a really heavy cold with the usual aching body, chesty cough etc which is pretty dam annoying with Bath next weekend which is now looking very unlikely. I keep telling myself its better now than a few weeks down the line but was hoping to have a good burn out at Bath.

Looks like several days of rest and taking an unhealthy amount of lemsips max......joy.

Finally feel recovered after Sundays run after a total day of rest Monday followed by 60mins at a very slow pace Tuesday. Legs felt very good today and set out for 12 mile run averaging miles from 5:55 - 6:20s around the lanes of Rudge and Beckington.

The whole experience of racing that distance Sunday went a lot better than I thought and was a massive confidence booster heading into the final weeks of training knowing that I can achieve what I planned if everything goes well on the day.

Bath half marathon next weekend and looking forward to racing again but not too keen on the race itself as I think the race is well over capacity and getting to the start is a total nightmare aswell as the race itself usually being delayed for some reason or another. The last few years when running the second lap you end up with a very small part of the road usually with water bottles thrown in you direction from the masses running on the other side of the road..you never know they may have sorted it but I very much doubt it! Anyhow the competition will be strong as ever and will be another good test..still deciding whether to have an easy week before it or train through it and have recovery week afterwards....mmmmmmm

Bramley 20

So today was my first run out since marathon training to see how things are going and pleased to say it went well. I planned to run this race in a controlled manor as I didnt want to take a week or 2 to get over it!! Having already ran 50 miles for the week before the race even started the legs felt better than I thought they would and so right from off I was at "goal pace" for marathon feeling good. With the 10 mile race starting at the same time I did have to really stop myself from going off too fast and let loads past in the first 3 miles but still clocking times from 5:40-5:50. Going through 5 miles in 28:44 was on my own until started the second lap when caught the second group going through 10 miles in 57:28. The group of 4 of us stayed together until 15/16th mile when I managed to get a slight gap picking of a few more in the last 2 miles finishing in 8th place. Very pleased that none of my miles were over 6minute miles and actually my last mile one of my faster ones!

My Garmin time for 20 miles was 1:55:35 saying that the finish line was 20.19 miles and going by what a few others said looks like the course was a tad long and official finshing time 1:56:30.

Big mention for Sandhurst joggers who are a very friendly lot expecially Nikki who ran a stormer coming home in 2:27 and for letting me crash at her and Jon's place Saturday night!!

Im now going to go and pass out for a few hours....

Thursday was my tempo run day this week due to work and even though I felt pretty rubbish and the weather wasnt great managed my best time yet. First mile of 5:27 was followed by 5:21 but it didnt feel too great as felt very tired and was thinking of cutting it short but dogged out a 5:18 third mile which kept the spirits up. Fourth mile in 5:35 was finished with a mile of 5:17 which meant a time of 27:01 for 5 miles which was a slight improvement on the previous weeks efforts so got to be happy with that!!

Friday I had the company of my good friend from Cardiff days Matt Dumigan where we ran a steady 55 minutes. Good to see Matt back running after suffering from shin splints twice in 18months who also ran 15:45 at Armagh 5k the previous night on 2 weeks of very light training! Wont be long before we see him back at his best of sub 14:30s for 5k I hope!!

Sun came out to play Saturday morning for a grass session of 1 x 5min, 2 x 4, 3 x 3, 2 x 2minutes with a minute recovery between each rep. Went well with the aim of running at 10k pace/effort.

Today was the usual long run and with Matt coming back from injury I wqent out for 10miles on my own before coming back and running 11 miles with Matt to get in 2hours 15minutes. Felt a lot better than previous weeks longer runs as usually start to struggle at around 1hour 50 mark but managed to hold it together for the entire duration which was pleasing!!

A few races this weekend where a massive congrats must go to former training buddy Joe Thomas who won the European indoor trials 800 meters in 1:47 and managed to get the qualifying time for Euro Champs in Paris. Also Vicky Plummer who broke 70 minutes for 10 miles at the Wiltshire 10 mile road race which was impressive with the howling weather today! Another big performance was Nikki Stanley a good friend who ran 1:31 at Wokingham half marathon earlier today. Nikki has only been running for a year and so this was a big breakthrough and I believe this was followed by a 20:30 5k Satuday aswell!! Massive weekend Nikki...very well done...nice few easy days I hope for you now!!

Hello there, been a few days since last update due to working and just couldnt be bothered!!

Monday morning was 6 miles fartlek which was basically 2minutes hard and 1 minute steady with it pissing down until I stopped when the sun came straight out....typical!!!

Tuesday was a day off work and finally a day off running which was good to actually do a few other things for a change and get some things been meaning to do for ages finally done!!

Today was a steady 12 miles along the cycle path which went fine apart from the legs feeling actually worse for the first few miles after a day off!!

This weekend have the company of a good friend from uni who is also a very good runner so will be nice to have some company and get my ass kicked!!!

Working 8-4 again today ruined the really long run as was too dark to go too far from home and I cannot be bothered with running too many loops around town so an easy 60mins was done today. That took this weeks millage to 65 which was lower than I wanted but work got in the way this week really struggling with the shift changes but still a solid week overall.

Next week is my "recovery week" but when I say recovery week I dont mean not running much at all, it just means lowering the millage again slighlty and including a total rest day as on the 20th I have a 20 mile race in Bramley which will end a very high millage week.

Today was the Longleat 10k which is a very tough course with loads of hills. A good turn out of Frome athletes which is what you would expect being so local and some decent results:

Keith Penny (S) – 40:03, Ted Sprules (V55) – 41:04 (1st V55), Dan Berryman (J) – 44:27 (4th J) , Chris Bone (S) – 44:29, Marcus Gaffney (V40) – 50:43, Kirsten Anderson (S) – 51:31, John Boulton (V50) – 52:21, Zoe Boulton (S) – 57:09, Stacey Burgess (V35) – 55:33, Sophy Bryan (S) – 57:33, Mandy Aston (V50) – 57:47 (5th V50), Emma Evans (V35) – 58:58, Catharine Dowling (S) – 1:00:38, Anne Porter (V50) – 1:02:15, Jo Johnson (V35) – 1:02:22, Kate Wareham (V35) – 1:04:56, Liz Davis (V40) – 1:05:33, Gemma Bull (S) – 1:08:02

Long day...Was up at 5:45am for a cup of tea before a steady 5 miles before starting work at 8am then when got home at 4:30 had to have a power nap for an hour before out the door again for a meduim paced 8 miles. Body was fine and felt really good tonight which is usually the case if I can get out for a jog in the morning but must say I am rather tired now! Looking forward to a day off running next week....

After a tired 11 miles wednesday, yesterdays run was much better and just shows what a difference a day makes!! Did 10 miles smack on 60 minutes feeling controlled over pretty hilly router and against wind for a fair few miles.

Todays run was just over 11 at a pretty easy pace, didnt bother to take my Garmin today as was important to recover and not get worried how fast or slow im running. Was a pretty bleak day with the wind and rain but got it done which was the main thing.

Been reading about marathon training and its intresting what different athletes and coaches suggest...Frank Horwell's training has been the basis of many top coaches and athletes over the year and well worth a read.. http://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/advice_frank70.html

There are many other articles from him on this website regarding anything from 800 meter training to diet. Also recommend the 5 pace theory which was adapted by many like Peter Coe when training his son Sebastian Coe.

Tired tired tired

Felt very tired today but still managed to slog out a 11 miler before work averaging 6:30-40s per mile.

Was asked to play football the other night from a few friends havent seen for a while and when I said no the usual response of "ahh your a runner, you can play for a few hours" come out. This gets rather annoying sometimes as people who dont understand running and "proper training" dont realise that after a run its a struggle to walk around sometimes let alone add another physical activity such as football as you are always knackered and just trying to rest up as much as possible before the next days training. Any "non-runners" who disagree with this are welcome to join me for a weeks training aswell as carry on working fulltime.... come on...will be funny...for me anyway ;)

Very easy 40minutes Monday to loosen up the legs after Sundays long run and today managed a grass session before work:

1 x 5minutes, 2 x 4minutes, 3 x 3 minutes, 4 x 2 minutes with 1minute recovery inbetween and a few strides afterwards.

Being on late shifts again struggling to get as many miles in as would like but felt pretty good during the session today and was good to get a grass run in and protect the legs a bit.