I thoroughly enjoyed watching the marathon yesterday – both men’s and women’s races were very enjoyable, in different ways. One of the things I really enjoyed was watching Emile Cairess (2:06:46) & Mahamed Mahamed (2:07:05) storm through the field, over the last few miles to come 3rd & 4th in what proved to be 2nd … Continue reading London Marathon 2024 – tiny differences
Above was a year ago today, where Heartbreak Hill was true to it’s name and utterly broke me. I’ve always amazed when I look back at the picture and can’t see a deeper grimace – at the time when Amrit ran past me it was possibly the worst I’ve ever felt in a marathon. It … Continue reading What a year on from Boston has taught me.
My first ultra, part of my training for Snowdon UTS 100 in May. 52k Endurance Life Sussex My goals – to understand fuelling, pacing, practice using poles and the experience of being on my feet for substantially longer than I have been before: Pre race context – Had a hip strain Jan 29th to Feb … Continue reading Endurance Life 52K
I bought this great model of a foot recently – it’s a lot of fun to play around with and get a better feel / understanding of how the bones in the feet move and the knock on impact this has on the muscles / tendons that are attached. One of the areas I’ve been … Continue reading The foot & achilles
Over the last 7 week marathon build – and the last 4 weeks of my running recently I’ve stuck to a pretty similar set of warm up routines, fuelling, dependant on the type of run I’ve been doing and the outcome for the runs that I’m looking for. Time / patience / comfort all play … Continue reading Warming up – The differences I’ve used in last cycle (breath & tools)
Some time ago I came across a really fascinating article (https://medium.com/running-with-data/perfect-pacing-at-the-london-marathon-95f09db2ac5c) written by Barry Smyth, a data scientist from Ireland. At the time the article wasn’t stuck behind a paywall, so to summarise what Barry did as the introduction outlines was: An analysis of more than 215,000 London Marathon runners during the period 2011–2016; How … Continue reading The Marathon calculator
As brutal as Boston was, Valencia was beautiful from a personal and professional point of view. I’ll add my thoughts on the personal first, then the professional. I’ve never paced a marathon well – this was my 7th. Too often I go off too fast – this being the case for the last 2, London … Continue reading Valencia – Beautiful
Week 11 – Solid progress 9/10 week Best week to date – in terms of embedding some pace, feeling good and running well. Monday 20/11: Speed sharpness – this feels like it has really helped over the last couple of weeks. Executed a lot more proficiently than last week. Same run – train to Herne … Continue reading Valencia 11/12
Week 10 – Solid progress 8/10 week Getting closer now, last long workout in the bank and time to taper. So volume gradually dropping whilst maintaining intensity to avoid any feeling of flatness Monday 13/11: 30 mins of Yin Yoga, slow and easy stretching out of body followed by cyclic hyper-ventilation day. 4 rounds of … Continue reading Valencia 10/12
Week 9 – Another 8/10 week 4 full weeks of 100k – getting a little creaky / cranky from time to time, but as always with running consistency is what makes the best inroads into fitness/ pace and performance. Monday 6/11: Rest, very welcome after the long run the day before. Rest day = Cyclic … Continue reading Valencia 9/12
