Keith: Amsterdam Marathon Report

"I definitely want to show how beautiful the marathon can be. I am the opponent of all those who find the marathon bad: the psychologists, the physiologists, the doubters. I make the marathon beautiful for myself and for others. That's why I'm here." - Uta Pippig.

This for me is what the marathon is about. It has always been my favourite event, the one where you can test your limits as equally as an elite, where tactics can come into it whether you are going for a time or a position, the one where anything is possible and the only race that is truly beautiful to watch when it is executed properly.

So onto the race itself.........

Over the last couple of weeks I had almost felt that the race was coming too soon for me. Not because of lack of preparation, but because I felt I was in the middle of some sizeable improvements. After Maidenhead HM at the start of September I speculated a 3:30/km (5:38m/m) pace, with the assumption that I wasn't quite in that shape yet, but it was reasonable (for me) to assume I could go from a 72:41 HM to a 2:27:42 full condition in 6 weeks.

About a week and a half ago I felt a 5:35m/m pace was within grasp, and settled on that as my target pace for the race as in and around that pace was feeling like MP. The only caveat was the weather, but irrespective I decided to go on feel on the day and take it from there.

The night before I came across an article about the leading Dutch lady and that she was hoping to go for the Dutch NR (2:26:34 apparently, though I've since found out that the record is 2:23, held by a naturalised Kenyan, so I guess the 2:26 is the record for somebody Dutch born?), so in the ballpark of a 5:35 pace. I figured she'd have pacers, so with that in mind I picked her out at the start and off we went.

0-5km (17:40 - though the mat and marker were about 5s apart, so 17:35 really): Sat in that group, as did a lot of others. I noticed that she was breathing very heavily from the off and we were a little off pace. I was feeling incredibly relaxed here and happy to sit and have somebody else set the pace. Coming to 5km I noticed we were off pace and deduced that she wasn't having a good day.

6km-10km: (17:16 - but really 17:21, as above). Just after the 5km we came to the water station and I got hit hard from somebody cutting too close behind me. For a few strides I thought my left hamstring was about to go, but I somehow managed to stay upright, provided a few words of advice to the offender, who didn't even have the decency to apologise. I start to leave some of them behind as I started to drop down to the pace I wanted.

11-15km (17:21) - metronomic. Feeling good. Pretty much solo throughout bar the attentions of an Ethiopian elite woman who was drafting too close for my liking and clipped me 3 times. She then clipped me a 4th time at which stage I expressed my dissatisfaction quite vocally.

16-20km (17:55) - I've now got two elite Ethiopian woman drafting me, and it's the windiest part of the course, so needless to say I am occasionally getting clipped from both sides.

21-25km (17:16) - a group of 7 or 8 (including the eventual second lady) caught us here and I took the opportunity to sit in and leave somebody else do some work for a change. I made a conscious effort to go with them in the hope that we would drop my shadows. We did. Through halfway in 73:58.

26-30km (17:34) - the group starts to fracture. Some pulling of the front. It was a bit windy here too, so I opted for caution and didn't go with those forcing the pace. I end up running solo, but not because I'm flying out the back, just more because I've calculated that some of them are going too quickly and will come back to me.

31-35km (17:34) - 2 begin to drift back and rally when I join them. We briefly act as a group of 3 taking turns doing the work before one drops off. The other guys pushes on, but, again, I sense he is working too hard.

36-40km (17:37) - I'm maintaining my 'control' refusing to push on as this is about getting a job done. I lose 8s in 1km as I hit the only 'hill' coming up from an underpass; it goes on for a little bit. My left hamstring is starting to stiffen from the earlier collision, so I maintain rather than push.

The last 2.195km (7:35) - I hit 40km and realise I could do around 8m/m and still break 2:30, but my desire to race is taking over. I've spotted 6 ahead of me who I reckon I can take, so I get to work whilst keeping an eye for any reactions from the hamstring. I catch the guy who had pushed on at 35km and there's no drafting this time.

He comes with me briefly and we split either side of another target before I push on ahead. Next up is the guy who clipped me early on and I take great pleasure in breezing past him without him reacting. 3 down, 3 to go. I catch the 2nd lady and her pacer and push on, passing both of them without a reaction.

I then catch the 6th of my targets with about 700m to go and he rallies. We're shoulder to shoulder for about 100m and the crowd are going nuts as neither of us are budging an inch. I think 'this is what the surge runs were all about' put my head down and pull out a full on sprint for 60-70m (apparently hitting a top speed of 4:01 per mile!!!), glance back and realise I've put about 15m on him in that time.

I pass the 500m to go sign with breathing room, round a bend, into the stadium to a wall of noise and give the crowd a couple of claps as I round the track, and cross the line with a massive smile on my face.

Job done!

The stats:

Total Time: 2:27:48 - an average of 5:38 per mile (or 3:30 per km).

I placed 31st overall out of ~15000 runners, only beaten by one women.

21 of the 30 ahead of my were Kenyan, Ethiopian or Eritrean, making me 10th European.

I placed 2nd in my age group (M35) for which I apparently win a prize :-)

And 1st Irishman :-)

And possibly my most favourite stats. Out of the 30 runners ahead of me, only 8 closed the last 2.195km quicker than me (though obviously I would have swapped that fact for any of their finish times!).

And what next? Well, my general feeling (backed up by other times) is that the weather probably added about 1 minute to times. I also held back for a long time, partially because I wanted to nail the sub-2:30, and partially because I was cautious about my hamstring after the collision at the first water station. All in all I reckon I have the ability to improve by a very large chunk over my coming marathons.

Keith: October 14th - October 20th

"The key to running a good marathon is to not listen to anyone's advice the last week before the race. That's when people tend to do stupid things that disrupt all the input and training of the previous months." - Don Kardong.

I shall keep this simple and get onto the main event.

Monday: 4m easy, then faster sections of 1/2m (2:35), 1/2m (2:25), 1m (5:07), then easy to finish (10.03m @ 6:45)

Tuesday: am: 8.17m progressive jog-steady (6:55)
pm: 6.15m very easy (7:13)

Wednesday: am: 8.06m jog (7:35)
pm: 4.17m jog (7:21)

Thursday: 3m jog, 3m @ 5:34, jog to finish (7.59m @ 6:43) - feeling super relaxed at pace, even with the wind and rain.

Friday: am: travel.
pm: 4.08m jog to loosen up (7:23)

Saturday: am: 4.08m jog with 4 x 15s strides (7:37)

Sunday: Amsterdam Marathon: 2:27:48. See report (http://russells-vs-amsterdam.blogspot.com/2013/10/keith-amsterdam-marathon-report.html) for more details :-)

Total: 78.55m @ 6:38

Emmet: Final Amsterdam Training Report

The week of the marathon.

On completion of a small 3.3 mile run on Sunday 13th I decided it was time to rest up a bit more.

Further to this I had a physio appointment on Wednesday, hopefully ideal timing before the race. I decided it best not to do any more training until I got to Amsterdam.

Arrival in Amsterdam was delayed Friday due to heavy fog but on entering we swiftly decided to get our bib numbers sorted and back to where we were staying to get fully sorted before doing a bit of a training run.

Unfortunately this training run of 3.3miles on the evening of Friday resulted in my knee problem flaring up again.

A minor physio session on the previous Wednesday told me everything was perfect so this was a bit disappointing.

In my stubbornness I was determined not to leave it get the better of me. I took the decision to again rest/slightly stretch out the area.

I made it to race day and to the start line. But deep down I knew this wasn't to be my day. 2 miles in, again the knee problem flared getting worse by every mile. A mental game plan set in as now it wasn't how quick I could do it rather than the thought of how could I finish it.

I thought to myself that seeing at 2 miles the soreness was minimum but building, I would try to get as much done as quick as possible because I knew the 2nd half would be a problem. I went through 13.1 miles in a  relatively decent time of sub 1hr 42 minutes.

By know knee pain was at its worst and flexibility was at a minimum. My main focus now was to finish.

Unfortunately at later stages I had to stop, which I despise doing, but the pain needed to be stretched out as it was almost unbearable. Stops at 18,20 & 23 miles roughly, had to be done to do this. My last 3+ miles were completed at a very slow pace bit the main intention was to keep going at a constant pace that I could manage.

Although not pleased at all with the time it took to complete a couple of things surprised me. My mentality, resilience and stubbornness helped me to finish. These three attributes to me have never been tested this much before.

3 hours 43 minutes & 12 seconds later it was all done.

968th place in the senior men's category, 3577 overall out of 14 thousand plus race starters is not a bad finish considering all aspects.

Here's hoping to a good recovery and further better things to come.

Please find entailed my running details below:

Results TCS Amsterdam Marathon 2013
Bib number: 1865
Name: Emmet Russell
City: Tipperary

5 km: 24:48 (24:48)
10 km: 48:32 (23:44)
15 km: 1:12:02 (23:30)
20 km: 1:35:57 (23:55)
21,1 km: 1:41:12
25 km: 2:00:43 (24:46)
30 km: 2:27:27 (26:44)
35 km: 2:59:51 (32:24)
40 km: 3:31:05 (31:14)

Net time: 3:43:13
Gross time: 3:51:05
Speed: 11,342 Km/Hour
Distance: TCS Amsterdam Marathon
Place: 968 / Msen

Keith: October 7th - October 13th

Rather than a quote this week I thought I would share a link that is both motivational and demonstrative of the mind-set required to train for a major event which is some way down the road: http://youtu.be/OjqYut-pyDU

Monday: 14.1m steady - (6:58)

Tuesday: am: 3m easy, 7.14m brisk (6:23) - (10.14m @ 6:42)
pm: 6.12m easy-steady - (7:05)

Wednesday: 5m+ easy, then surges of {5,1,2,4,1,2,5} off of 5min steady recoveries, then 5m+ steady, and finished with the last 1.53m @ 5:35 - (20.03 @ 6:38)

Thursday: 8.25m jog-easy - (7:19)

Friday: am: 3m warm-up, then 6m @ ~Mara effort, then cool-down - (6:19)
pm: 6.26m very easy - (7:08)

Saturday: rest day

Sunday: 2m jog, 6m steady, 4.07m brisk (6:21) - (12.07m @ 6:52)

Total: 87.16m @ 6:49


Wednesday's long run: For the 1min and 2min surges the aim was simply to run quicker than 10k pace (averaged 5:07), whereas for the 4min effort and the 2 x 5min efforts the aim was simply to run quicker than HM pace (averaged 5:19). The 5min steady recoveries averaged 6:47. I then finished with the last 1.53m @ 5:35 pace to complete a pleasing last 20m before Amsterdam.

Friday's effort run: The plan was to run 6m at around marathon effort/pace. I ran over a mildly undulating loop in very windy conditions (middle 2-3m were straight into a headwind). I somehow ended up running 33:19 for the 6m (which equates to 5:33 per mile), but I very much doubt that 5:33 per mile is marathon pace.

A good first week of taper; one week to go :-)

Emmet: October 7th - October 13th

Physio session Monday 7th October.

At the time and almost straight after the session things felt good, actually a lot better than usual. I felt things had settled down majorly as a result of the acupuncture, but the next day was sure to show otherwise. The tightness/soreness was back in the knee from the moment I got up & I knew my run that evening wasn't going to be any fun.
I had entered in the local winter league (5km course) and did a bit of warm up and warm down. I ran the 5 miles total & felt very sore doing it at the time and after.

I reckon it was the change of physiotherapist as to be honest I now realise certain people yield better results & it almost felt after doing that run that I hadn't been at physio the night before. No work had been done on my hips, quads or lower back & all the manipulation/massaging had been done around the knee area. This to me was the problem as I feel the work done aggravated the knee more and didn't loosen all the other mentioned areas.

This resulted in having to go for an 'emergency' session on the Wednesday after my Tuesday run as well as my originally booked session for the Friday with little to no running in these days except for the Friday before I went to my physio session.
Friday's session yielded excellent results as i had met with the original physio who dealt with in the company who as an avid runner definitely knows her job.
The knee was still very sore after Friday's very physical session so i decided to belt out a bit of time on the cross trainer instead. 2 days rest after this session then as it was a full working weekend & tiredness kicked in, I just knocked in a couple of handy miles in the evening.

Below is my weeks training:

Monday: Physio.

Tuesday: 5 miles @ 9:00 avg m/mile {general}.

Wednesday: Physio.

Thursday: Rest.

Friday: (a.m.) 6.16 miles @ 8:00 pace (general) + Physio session.

Saturday: 30 minutes (11.2kms) on cross trainer.

Sunday: 3.33 miles @ 8:23 pace.

Total weeks mileage: 14.49 miles.

 

Emmet: 30th September - 6th October

Further to my week off training, with full on use of anti-inflammatories i was not after getting better as i found out after 2 days running.

After Monday's training i felt a little bit groggy and at the time only competed 3 miles, as i feared my knee would act up again and didn't want to push it too much.

Tuesday felt a lot better and as i had decided to register for the winter league, i also in turn decided to complete the 3 mile course; twice; at speed :) I thought to myself that i would rather know as far away from the marathon if my problem had been fixed, but after the 6 miles i felt to be a little sore. Little did i know that the following day i would be in a lot more pain & back to square 1.

A swift decision was made to change physio for a 3rd time as i felt the previous guy wouldn't yield results. And it was this swift choice that is eventually yielding results.

In a nutshell, my increased mileage & quicker training speeds caused more of an inwards roll,in turn twisting my knee inwards and putting pressure on it resulting in all the pain. The problem wasn't stemming from my knee at all as previous physios had stated & even worked on. This rolling, caused my quads, hip and back to tighten up massively. So at physio these muscles and areas were manipulated to loosen them up. I was given certain exercises to constantly release the muscles over the next couple of days. And these i believe worked a treat.

Further to my session i was advised to take three days off and then trash out a 6+ mile run at speed to test the knee which i did.

Another session today {Monday 7th October} to see the what the after effects of my run from Sunday were. The knee was no where near as tight but i was told it was slightly after tightening back up.

Continuous work on it, a part session of acupuncture to settle the area down, knee now strapped up to pull the kneecap back into its original place and I'm almost like a new man.

Further to this i will have one more session on Friday as my last before Amsterdam. And to note i will have to strap the knee up for racing and training to prevent soreness.

All is good, it actually helps to find a qualified person who knows what they are doing.

Below is my weeks mileage:

Monday: 3 miles @ avg 8:21 pace {general}
Tuesday:6 miles @ 7:55 pace {tempo}
Wednesday: Physio
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 7 miles @ 7:48 pace {tempo}

Total weeks mileage: 16 miles.

It has been a very bad few weeks but things seem positive at last, hopefully I can kick on from here.

Keith: 30th September - 6th October

“The long run puts the tiger in the cat.”  - Bill Squires.

Having done a long run on Sunday at the end of last week I wanted to use the opportunity to do back to back runs to test my endurance as the only concern I have had with the Bill Squires approach to training which I have been following is that the long runs are typically only 20m.

The 'test' was a success.

Monday: 34mins steady, then 10 fast / 10 steady / 10 fast / 10 steady / 15 fast, then ~40mins steady to finish - (20.02m @ 6:27)

Tuesday: 6.1m, jog out, steady back - (7:21)

Wednesday: am: 6.01m jog - (7:50)
pm: ~3.8m warm-up, then 3 x 2m (2 lap rec jogs), ~2.4m jog, ~2.8m steady - (16.28m @ 6:59)

Thursday: am: 6.12m jog - (7:47)
pm: 10.02m easy - (7:16)

Friday: am: 2 jog, 4.16m steady - (6.16m @ 7:10)
pm: 3m easy, 3m tempo (16:16), steady to finish - (7.09m @ 6:28)

Saturday: ~3m jog, then 4 x 15s strides, ~0.5m jog, then 6 x {15s hard sprints, 45s float}, easy to finish - (6.06m @ 7:34)

Sunday: 3m very easy, then 7.2m brisk (6:29) - (10.2m @ 6:49)

Total: 94.06m @ 7:01

Monday's long run: More focused on longer surges given that race day is approaching. I was very pleased with this, especially as the 2nd long run in 2 days. The 2 x 10min steady in the middle averaged 6:43 pace, and the fast sections came out as: 10 @ 5:25 / 10 @ 5:24 / 15 @ 5:23.

On Tuesday morning my groin was a little tight, so I played it safe and took the rest of the day off.

Wednesday's track session: I was running this with a clubmate who suggested the session as an alternate to what we had originally planned as I wanted to play it a bit safer given the tightness in the groin, plus I was still tired from the back to back long runs. This inadvertently ended up being a cut-down session as the 2m reps came out as: 10:54 / 10:44 (76s last lap) / 10:29.

Friday's tempo: My usual modus operandus now when racing on Sunday's involves doing some quicker running the Friday before (though usually with a hill session on the Thursday to boot - obviously not done this week because of the track session on the Wednesday). I was quite pleased for the 3m @ around half-marathon effort coming out at 16:16. Before Maidenhead HM at the start of September the same workout came out as 16:44 (and I ran marginally quicker at Maidenhead).

As things developed though, I opted, for various reasons not to race the 10k on the Sunday and just kept a lid on things.

With 2 weeks to go I am in pretty good shape, though, at the same time, there are various things I would like to be better, not least is the fact that my blister* from the New Forest HM a few weeks ago still hasn't healed.

To be filed under 'bloody annoying' is the fact that Amsterdam messed up my entry and have me in the second pen back. Attempts to rectify this are proving fruitless so far despite the fact that the error is the organiser's fault, rather than mine.

* it has turned out to be not so much a blister, but more that I somehow managed to gouge a chunk out of my heel. It's improving, but has made running a little uncomfortable at times.

Still, almost there now, so onwards and upwards.

Keith: September 23rd - September 29th

"Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer." - Percy Cerutty

My recovery after Sunday's Half Marathon pb and victory took longer than I would have liked. I think this was down to two things; firstly the rather major blister, and, secondly, a very tight right quad. I believe the tight right quad was because of having to compensate for the blister from so early in the race, combined with the hilliness of the course.

Still, an 88m week is still not too shabby for a 'bad' week.

Monday: 11.02m jog - (7:48)

Tuesday: am: 10.19m easy - (7:25)
pm: 7.16m jog - (7:48)

Wednesday: off - blister not improving and quad not loosening off, so took the day off to treat/manipulate it.

Thursday: am: 2.4m jog, then 1/2m (2:29), 3' rec, 3/4m (3:53), 4.5' rec, 2m (10:35), 3' rec, 1/2m (2:29), jog to cool-down - (9.11m @ 6:38).
pm: 11.12m steady - (6:45)

Friday: am: 7.06m very easy - (7:33)
pm: 10.17m very easy - (7:34)

Saturday: off

Sunday: 10m jog/very easy, then 12.24m 'brisk' - 6:32 - (22.24m @ 7:03)

Total: 88.07m @ 7:16

This week marks 6 weeks of this new approach (Bill Squires if you wish to find out more - his Speed With Endurance book, co-written with Bruce Lehane, is based on the same principles that brought a lot of success to Boston runners in the late 70s/early 80s) and it has undoubtedly, in that short time, made me a much better runner.

The problem is though that I will only have done a partial cycle of this approach and I am well aware that any new approach will take several cycles before I begin to see the full benefits of it.

At the same time, though I am expecting to run very well at Amsterdam, however, knowing that I have found a method of training that is undoubtedly working for me means I have the confidence to take whatever result I get at Amsterdam, even if it should not be ideal. To paraphrase Percy Cerutty, these things take time, but I know that I am in the process of making great strides (pun intended :-) ) and I sit here with less than 3 weeks to go, happy in that knowledge and looking forward to testing and pushing myself over the distance.

Emmet: September 23rd - September 29th

A very simple week as there is little to no detail involved.

After a trip to physio on Monday, I found out that my knee was very inflamed and it was suggested that I take a course of anti-inflammatories to solve the problem and do no running for the week.

Further to this I was told that if I felt it possible that I could do the equivalent effort {time wise} on the cross trainer as there would be no immediate impact like I was running on the road.

I completed 2.5 miles on the Monday of the physio appointment to aggravate the problem for it to be noticed more. Following this on the Tuesday I completed 30 minutes on the cross trainer. I wasn't too keen on keeping this going for the week as after Tuesday I was a little sore & all my walking in work doesn't exactly help the situation. So I decided that a week off would be safest actually without exercise and more beneficial to my recovery.

A very bad week & last couple of weeks is what I have had so hopefully things will be on the up.

Emmet: September 16th - September 22nd

Monday: 6 miles @ 8:26 pace
Tuesday: 5 miles @ 8:46 pace
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Off
Friday: 7 miles @ 8:18 pace {general}
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off

Total weeks mileage: 18 miles.

This week although the mileage is very low { even lower than the last two bad weeks}, I am happy with overall. The reason being is more to do with what has been hopefully sorted out and less focus on the mileage as I am happy to even get that amount in with how I was feeling.

Further on from the 6 miler I completed on Monday, Tuesday was followed by a lot of soreness & Wednesday led to a trip to physio. Although a lot of the pain was worked out of the knee Wednesday, it failed to yield long term results, as by Friday {after 2 days rest}, a completed 7 miler meant i was back to square one again. I had decided, with a struggle to keep a sensible head on my shoulders & rest up for the whole weekend {aside from working}.

I arranged an appointment for today {Monday 23rd September} with a more "sports injury related physio". In his knowledgeable opinion he states, as I thought that the change to a runner of less support, that is more designed for racing & my "adjusting of the mechanics" of this runner {that being the slight cutting of the sole for more flexibility of the runner}, had distorted what the runner was originally made for.

Also over-use of my muscles in this runner entwined with the self modifications is what caused the problem in my right knee. My right leg being the less dominant leg, was affected first by this. This in turn has created a swelling behind the knee & has a requirement of a prescription of anti-inflammatory medication & one weeks rest.

Also a bit of strengthening exercise's for my outer quad is required. This rest does not rule out 'doing my mileage on the cross trainer' so the plan is to do the time on the cross trainer that I should be running for the week.

Hopefully this is going to be the problem solved as its getting too close now for any more silly mistakes.

Fingers Crossed. I can almost reach out & grab Amsterdam it's that close now & one thing for sure I won't be letting go of it!!

Keith: September 16th - September 22nd

"On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, 'Okay, this is the limit.'. As soon as you touch this limit,
something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and your experience as well, you can fly very high." - Ayrton Senna.

Monday: 5m very easy, then surges of 10/1/6/2/10/3/2/1 mins off of 5min steady recoveries, 3m+ steady to finish - (20.1m @ 6:31)

Tuesday: am: 10.19m easy - (7:16)
pm: 6.12m very easy - (7:38)

Wednesday: 2m very easy, 1m steady, 4m brisk (6:33), 1.25m steady - (8.25m @ 6:54)

Thursday: am: 6.1m very easy - (7:33)
pm: 4.4m very easy, then 6 x ~420m hills, followed by 3m @ 6:19, 1.16m @ 5:34 - (11.58m @ 6:53)

Friday: am: 20min jog, 1m fast (4:55), easy to finish - (6.2m @ 7:05)
pm: 10.26m steady - a bit tired but incredibly relaxed - (6:47)

Saturday: 3.6m jog, 8 x 30s stride/30s float (5:38 per mile for the 8mins), easy to finish - (6.16m @ 7:20)

Sunday: 1.27m 'warm-up', New Forest HM - 1st in 72:10, 6m+ easy to cool-down (20.64m @ 6:06)

Total: 105.6m @ 6:48.


Monday's long run was the best long run I've done in this campaign, possibly any campaign. The surges were: time (pace): 10mins (5:23), 1 (4:58), 6 (5:18), 2 (5:05), 10 (5:23), 3 (5:18), 2 (4:54), 1 (5:04) off 5min steady recoveries (6:53 avg, all sub 7). I was very pleased with this.

Thursday's hill session was essentially a repeat of what I done the Thursday before Maidenhead.

Friday morning I had initially intended to also repeat the 3m tempo from the Friday before Maidenhead but felt that I was too tired for it to be productive, though I somehow ended up running a mile in 4:55 instead.

Saturday's 8 x 30/30 workout is one I've run before. A great way to get some anaerobic work in in a short space of time as well as good fun.

New Forest Half-Marathon
Come Sunday I managed to execute a lesson in how not to prepare pre-race as I took a wrong turn on the way, had hassle picking my number up and dropping my bag off, and eventually ended up having just enough time to do a very small warm-up, with a stop in the middle of it whilst I queued for my number.

0 - ~2.5m: I started solidly, but didn't push as I wanted to use the first few miles to warm-up properly. Another runner immediately opened a small gap but it never became any more than 5 seconds. Meanwhile the rest of the field started to drop a bit behind me, which meant that after ~1.5m I was clear in 2nd. In the meantime I noticed that the leader was ever so gradually coming back to me, so I just kept running the tangents and continued to close. As we turned into another road somewhere between 2-2.5m he ran a bit wide and I decided that that was time to go, closed the gap in a few strides and put my foot down (if you're going to pass somebody for position then don't hang around).

~2.5m - 12m: I could feel the gap start to widen and kept pushing. Soon enough I had clear air and kept my head down. The course profile map showed the biggest hill (and there were some nice! climbs) between 9-10m. When it came I used the time I had in hand to take it a little easier up it; I got to what I presumed was half-way up the hill and spent the next few minutes waiting for the rest of it. Eventually I realised that was it and pushed on. I hit 12m in 66:26, a pace that had me on for a pb of about 7s over Maidenhead 2 weeks ago.

12m - finish: I realised I still had quite a bit left in the tank and put my head down and pushed harder, covering from 12m to the finish in 5:44 (a pace of 5:09 per mile), hitting the finish line in 72:10, a pb by 31s on my 2 week old pb, but this time on a tough course that has to be worth somewhere in the region of 60-90s on a flat course.

I ended up clear of 2nd place by 3:18 (the same runner I'd passed at about 2.5m), and now have the privilege of having won both the New Forest full and half marathons (I won the full 5 years ago). A very nice double to have :-)

I was reading a biography of Ayrton Senna recently and this week's quote stood out to me as particularly relevant to my current situation. I am aware that, especially as I am starting to get a grip on my asthma and my back is greatly improved that I am on a very significant upward trend. A lot of this is down to moderation in my training. I am doing less mileage than I have tried to do previously. If I have any issues I opt for the sensible approach to deal with them and am getting closer to consistency in my training and am definitely starting to see the rewards.

With 4 weeks to go to Amsterdam it is all there for the taking if I get the next few weeks right.

Keith: September 9th - September 15th

"I'm never satisfied!" - Haile Gebrselassie.

Never being satisfied is not the same as not enjoying things in the moment. When I finished Sunday's race I was happy, but, like most runners, thoughts immediately turned to wanting to go faster. The beauty of running is that there is always a target to beat, whether it's someone else's or your own.

I recovered quite well from Sunday's race, possibly because of the 10k efforts I've been doing in training meaning a Half Marathon pace is not as hard on my legs.

This week's training.

Monday: 12.2m very easy - (7:38)

Tuesday: am: 5m easy-steady, 5.19m brisk (6:27) - (10.19m @ 6:51)
pm: 3m steady, 2.5m 'fast' (5:49), 1.52m steady - (7.02m @ 6:34)

Wednesday: am: 6.04m jog - (8:02)
pm: Track - 13.1m total with 3m/2m/1m @ ~12km pace off of 3 lap jogs - (6:46)

Thursday: am: 7.03m jog-easy - (7:30)
pm: 4m very easy, 6.07m steady (6:56) - (10.07m @ 7:10)

Friday: off

Saturday: off

Sunday: 5.47m jog - (8:07)

Total: 71.12m @ 7:15

Wednesday's track session was always going to be quite tough coming a few days after a fast half-marathon, but the rain on the night should have made it even worse. I had worked out that my target pace for the (metric equivalents) of 3m/2m/1m @ 12k pace should be about 81s per lap, but wasn't sure if I would be comfortable hitting that without having to exceed the effort.
As it happens, I was lucky to have the company of 2 clubmates, and seemed to be flowing quite nicely.

The targets per rep were 16:12/10:48/5:24. I actually hit 16:07 / 10:42 / 5:08 (through 3 laps @ 3:57, and a wind-up last lap of 71s).

So I basically hit 81s for the first rep, 80s for the 2nd, and 79s for the 3rd (before the quicker last lap). I was quite pleased with that.

On Friday my youngest child was sick, so I was otherwise engaged and running wasn't a priority, then Saturday morning I came down with the same vomiting bug she had. By Sunday I had recovered enough to jog, but there was no way I was even going to try the long run I had scheduled. Luckily though I nailed that on Monday of this week, but more of that in next week's update.

 

Emmet: September 9th - September 15th

This week I will keep information to a minimum as there are a lot of similarities when compared to the previous weeks training.

I've still found the knee to be very sore even with the change of trainers. Although in my own mind and body I can feel the pair of trainers I am wearing at the moment, are slowly but surely correcting the problem I've caused on myself.

Over eagerness earlier in this week caused me to have to take it easier later in the week. I basically went for the sensible option and decided to rest up for the weekend. All running was completed at a slower pace than I had been doing in previous weeks.

Back running today {Monday 16th} with a six miler comfortably in 50:35 yet still slight twinging in the knee but the problem seems to be less problematic.

Below is the weeks training.

Monday: 5 miles @ 8:36 pace {general}
Tuesday:Off
Wednesday: {a.m.} 5.02 miles @ 8;45 pace {general} {p.m.} 3 miles @ 8:07 pace {general}
Thursday: 5 miles @ 8:23 pace {general}
Friday: 7.19 miles @ 8:35 pace {general}
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off

Total weeks mileage: 25.21 miles.

Keith: September 2nd - September 8th

"My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble." - Bill Rodgers

This week I raced for the first time since Berlin 2012. 49 weeks to be precise. More of that shortly, but let's do the training first.

I finished last week with a slight shin issue, but managed that successfully and a light day Monday saw me good to go for the rest of the week. As (per recent) always, the average pace for the run is at the end of each run.

Monday: am: 4.07m jog - (8:14m/m)
pm: 6.13m - 2m jog, 2m steady (6:55), 2m+ easy - (7:27m/m)

Tuesday: am: 10.16m - 4m easy, 6.16m brisk (6:31m/m) - (6:56m/m)
pm: 6.08m mildly progressive steady (6:58m/m)

Wednesday: 14.04m easy - (7:21m/m)

Thursday: am: 7.01m jog-easy - (7:41m/m)
pm: 5.5m very easy, 6 x ~420m hills - sprinting the last 100m of the last one flat out, then straight into almost 5m progressive averaging 6:35, but the last mile was 5:42. (Total: 13.47m @ 7:02m/m).

Friday: am: 10.63m - 4m easy, 3m tempo (5:35), 3.63m brisk (6:38) - (6:41m/m)
pm: 6.52m jog - (8:07m/m).

Saturday: 6.08m very slow jog with 6 x ~15s strides - (8:00m/m)

Sunday: 4m+ warm-up, then Maidenhead HM in 72:41 (3rd place and a 19s pb), 3m+ cool-down (Total: 20.55m @ 6:19m/m).

Total: 104.74m @ 7:07m/m.

This week was all about the race on Sunday. A decent (but lighter) hills session Thursday, and then a short tempo on Friday to try dial into the effort required.

Sunday came, and the plan was simple. Do the HM as part of a long run and run it hard. As I hadn't raced for such a long time it was hard to know exactly what shape I was in. Training can give you a good indication, but that's all it is. Throw in that my back, Achilles and asthma are not right and it really was down to how it went on the day.

Maidenhead Half Marathon - race report:

The gun went and I was straight off in a lead pack of 6, feeling surprisingly good (a new situation for me as I normally find the early miles a grind). I drifted to the front of the pack on and off, fighting the urge to push on.

3m came in 16:31. During the next 3m I couldn't fight the urge to push on and went to the front to see who was up for it and who wasn't. This, unfortunately, triggered some slight asthma issues and resulted in me watching as 3 of the group pulled away, leaving me in 4th place as 2 other runners drifted off the back.

6m came up in 33:23 (16:52 for the 2nd 3m) with the asthma having cost me a bit of time. It eased off though and I began to get back in the swing of it, covering the next 4m in 22:05, to move me through the 10m mark in 55:28 (average of just inside 5:33m/m).

At 9m I had caught up with 3rd place and tried to go past him hard with a hard surge. He initially held on, but I could feel him gradually slipping back, and soon I was on my own closing down on 2nd place.

Unfortunately it was really just a case of me roughly maintaining pace (I covered the last 5km in 17:13 - a 5:32m/m pace) as 2nd place slowed a little and the finish line came too soon.

The end result of 72:41 was a 19s pb, which though small, is significant for several reasons.

1) this is the best I have ever felt in a race shorter than a marathon (allowing for the things which are not quite right yet - i.e. the aforementioned back, Achilles and asthma).

2) mechanically this is the best I have felt at this pace.

3) I now know there is so much more to come after this race.

4) I could have used my current physical shortcomings, and the fact that I've not raced for nearly a year to play it safe, but I didn't. As per the quote, I was aggressive and gambled, and I got some reward for it.

The quote itself is particularly pertinent as Bill Rodgers was trained by Bill Squires, and it is Bill Squires' logic that I have been following over the last few weeks since I realised that I couldn't currently do the long tempos so important to the Renato Canova approach.

Having tried a variety of approaches over the years I had felt that the Squires stuff would really suit me for several reasons, but I had initially intended to stick with a Canova approach for this marathon to see how it went, before trying an alternate approach.

As they say though, everything happens for a reason, and this has shown me that my feelings on Squires' approach may well be right. 6 weeks time will tell a lot!

Emmet: September 2nd - September 8th

Not a very good week for me after what previously was a personal best week for me.
Never got out of the blocks really and I seem to have caused a bit of trouble with my knee.
6 weeks out from Amsterdam now so I am treading very carefully so as not to mess things up.
It seems to be what I researched as the symptoms of 'runners knee' which can be caused by a few fairly minor changes. One that affected me I believe is my change of runners, to which for the last while I had been using a runner with less support. Sharp shooting pain behind the knee is the after effect that I'm feeling.

A few days off were needed which still didn't correct it.

Hopefully with slower training this week, in my older runners (nike lunartrainer) I can hopefully correct the problem.

Below is my weeks training:

Monday: 5.05 miles @ 8:38 pace (recovery from previous days effort of 18 miles total)

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Off

Friday: 15 miles @ 7:51 pace (general)

Saturday: Off

Sunday: 4 miles @ 8:59 pace (recovery pace)

Total mileage: 24.05 miles.

Emmet: August 26th - September 1st

After a previously very bad week with the effects and after effects of being run down, I prepared well for the following week. Plenty rest was involved to get the body recovered properly so I could feel the benefits. I have decided to test my capabilities (this being week 1) to see if I can hit a constant 55-60 miles per week.

Week 1 came up trumps, with a personal best week to kickstart it all.

Below is my weeks training:

Monday: (p.m.) 10.03 miles (speedwork and recovery) 2.65 miles warm up. 1 mile @ 6:48 pace. .51 mile recovery (4' jog) 1.01 miles @ 6:49 pace. .51 miles recovery (4' jog) 1 mile @ 6:48 pace. .51 miles (recovery) 2.84 miles warm down.

Tuesday: (a.m) 5 miles @ 8:29 pace (general) (p.m.) 3.01 miles @ 9:14 pace (recovery)

Wednesday: (a.m.) 4.60 miles @ 8:13 pace ( general) (p.m.) 3.43 miles @ 9:09 pace.(recovery)

Thursday: Off

Friday: (a.m.) 5.03 miles @ 8:05 pace.(tempo) (p.m.) 4.01 miles @ 9:04 pace (recovery)

Saturday: 7.06 miles @ 8:21 pace (general)

Sunday: (a.m.) 15.02 miles @ 8:38 pace ( medium long run) (p.m.) 2.82 miles @ 9:38 pace ( slow recovery)

Total weeks mileage: 60.02 miles.

Keith: August 26th - September 1st

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys" - Emil Zatopek.

At the moment as I try to manage my various issues around back, achilles, asthma/asthma meds, etc, it does become quite trying at times. In some ways I am spending some time as much at the mental borders of pain and suffering as at the physical borders. However, really it simply comes down to whether you quit or whether you persevere, and nobody ever achieved anything worthwhile by quitting, so there is no option other than to continue to forge ahead in the belief that once everything settles down I will be in a good place. I view it as building some mental fortitude for when races get tough :-)

Monday: 10.02m - 5m progressive, 5.02m brisk (6:37m/m) - (7:05m/m)

Tuesday: am: 6.41m easy (7:40m/m)
pm: 11.28m - 3m wu, road reps, cool-down - (6:51m/m)

Wednesday: 21.06m - 4 jog, 7 easy, 4 steady (7:07), 2 easy, 4.06 steady (6:57) - (7:27m/m)

Thursday: am: 12.09m - 2 jog, 3 steady, 7.09 brisk (6:36m/m) - (7:01m/m)
pm: 7.02m - 3m steady, 4.02m brisk (6:29m/m) - (6:44)

Friday: am: 6.15m jog (7:58m/m)
pm: 13.04m - 3m+ warm-up with strides, track session, cool-down - (6:23m/m)

Saturday: 0.53m - (8:24m/m)

Sunday: 0.22m - (8:25m/m)

Total: 87.82m @ 7:07m/m

This week showed the yin-yang nature of my training all in one week. 5 days of good running, including a long run, 2 reps sessions totalling 10.75m at 10k pace or quicker, and some faster steady (aka brisk) running. Then, after my first track session of the year on Friday I had some pain in my shin as it turns out I strained the muscle at the front of my left shin slightly (combination of the turns on the track and that I was trying out a heel lift to ease my achilles).

Saturday and Sunday saw two abandoned runs as the shin muscle was cramping. All in all though, if a bad week consists of 87m+ with 2 sessions and a long run then it could be worse (especially as I started off the week very stiff after a lot of gardening and heavy lifting over Sunday/Monday), though obviously it's still not ideal.

Onto the sessions now.

Tuesday's session: road reps of 1.35m (5:19m/m), 1m (5:12m/m), 1.15m (5:20m/m), 1.25m (5:26m/m). The first rep was supposed to be 1.25m, but I wasn't paying attention and ran a bit longer, so balanced it out with a shorter third rep. By the 4th rep though I was tiring a bit, so left the pace ease out and called it a day there.

Friday's session: track reps of 1600m (5:16) - ~4mins rec – 2400m (8:08) - ~6mins rec – 3200m (10:49) - ~5mins rec – 2400m (8:05). I went through 100m on the first rep in 16s (always start too quickly!), and then 80s/lap metronomically after that. The wind picked up significantly during my first recovery, making the following reps a bit slower, though, again, metronomic. The overall total was equivalent to a per mile pace of 5:25m/m (or a 10k pace of 33:39), and, overall, if you assume that the wind on the latter reps balanced out the quicker first reps, then it is probably about where my 10k pace currently is.

Overall my 'speed' is not yet where I need it to be for a sub-2:30 marathon, but at the same time it is not that far away. Certainly, with 7 weeks to go, especially with 3 races due in that time which will bring me on a bit, it is well within range. I just need to catch a bit of a break, and, in fairness, I am certainly due one at the moment.

Still, if I don't get it, it is only running after all and there are much more important things in life (and I know these things all balance out in the end, so I remain positive).

Keith: August 19th - August 25th

"Going in one more round when you don’t think you can – that’s what makes all the difference" - Rocky, again :-)

This is really what my training is about at the moment. I need to keep getting up and back in for that extra round and trusting that things will come right in time. It requires a certain amount of blind faith, but there is a large element of that in running anyway, so business as usual really.

A slight difference in reporting format this week as I have started including average run paces in brackets at the end of each run (m/m = mins/mile).

Monday: am: 6.18m steady - (7:09m/m)
pm: 13.36m with 3 sets of {3 x ~420m hill} with ~90s between sets - (7:23m/m)

Tuesday: am: 10.02m mildly progressive (7:25 out/6:59 back) - (7:12m/m)
pm: 6.17m steady progressive - ~6:40 pace for the last 3.17 - (6:59m/m)

Wednesday: am: 6.26m steady - (7:02m/m)
pm: 12.09m with pickups of 3/1/1:30/1:30/1/1 mins - average of 5:20m/m for the 9mins - (7:04m/m)

Thursday: am: 10.14m easy - (7:31m/m)
pm: 6.02m easy - (7:34m/m)

Friday: 22.07m with pickups of 1/1/15/1/1/4 mins with 10mins steady at the start/finish and in between, so a total of 93mins (70mins steady, 23mins of pickups) - (6:43m/m)

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: 11.3m - 5m jog, 6.3m steady - (7:37m/m)

Total: 103.61 - (7:11m/m)

I'm pleased with this week, everything considered. As mentioned last week I've had to rethink things in terms of how I run my mileage. At the moment with the mild achilles tendonitis and back issues (see the link in last week's blog for further details) I find if I run too far or too slowly I hurt more. At the same time the achilles (though it is only mild tendonitis) reacts very badly to the longer tempos I would usually do during this phase of training.

As such, I have had to redistribute my training load to ensure the day to day (and run to run) mileage is more manageable for my body, and, also, come up with alternate ways of getting effort in.

Monday's hill session was broken into sets as I wanted to focus on form to try get things 'aligned' (though I still ran them reasonably hard).

Wednesday's pickups was simply to break up the run and to get a feel for Friday.

Friday's surge long run is something I've wanted to try for a while and it worked quite well. The 23mins of pickups averaged 5:29m/m (target was 5:28-5:33) and the 70mins of steadies averaged 6:51m/m (target was simply sub-7 pace). Overall in the 93mins I covered 14+ miles @ 6:27 pace, so not a million miles away from a longer tempo in terms of duration and pace, but much easier on the achilles.

All being well, next week should see a similar distribution of mileage across days, but with some different sessions.

Emmet: August 19th - August 25th

Always what seems to happen after a week with a good result (previously the pb half marathon) or any other racing week for that matter I find that my immune system gets very very run down.

Along with a busy working week mileage was very very minimal.

Hopefully this lack of mileage and lot of rest, although not ideal will in turn help my recovery and allow me to crack in a few high mileage weeks. Disappointed is an understatement at the moment.

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Off
Friday: 5 miles @ 8:16 pace.
Saturday: 5 miles @ 8:15 pace.
Sunday: Off

Total weeks mileage: 10 miles.

Emmet: August 12th - August 18th

As previous great weeks have shown, the following week ( i.e. this week) always show a decrease in mileage.

Not a bad week overall with 37.1 miles in & a new half marathon pb on a bad day.

As for the half marathon, I should have easily broken the 1 hour 30 mins mark, but a stitch from mile 1 until the end, and excessive heartburn caused by the most minimal change in a pre race dinner, prevented this from happening.

All in all a pb is a pb, so onwards and upwards from here.

Below is my weeks training:

Monday: 7 miles @ 7:58 pace (tempo)
Tuesday: 4 miles @ 8:43 pace (recovery)
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Off
Friday: 8.45 miles @ 8:16 pace (general)
Saturday: 4.63 miles @ 8:49 pace (recovery)
Sunday: 13.1 miles @ 6:59 pace (race) & new pb - 1:31:28

Total mileage: 37.19 miles.

Keith: August 12th - August 18th

"it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." - Rocky in Rocky Balboa.

I'll save the full quote for another time :-)

This though, pretty much sums up things currently. A week that started promisingly with Monday's long run feeling incredibly fluid and comfortable ended poorly.

A couple of longer periods driving on Friday meant I felt too stiff to do my planned evening session, so I opted to leave it until Saturday, when, as it turned out I was still too stiff. By Sunday morning, my left ankle was too swollen to put my shoe on properly.

So, really, it's another 'hit' to my training, but...... I am still moving forward as I believe I may be finding an answer to some of the increasingly frequent little issues I've had over the last year+ - see this other blog for details (http://russells-vs-amsterdam.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/keith-managing-my-back-problems-and.html).

As for the training itself.


Monday: 24.14m with 18m @ 6:21 per mile.
Tuesday: am: 12.44m easy.
pm: 8.16m easy.
Wednesday: 15.3m with 20 x 1 min fast/1 min easy (average 5:16/7:26).
Thursday: am: 10.92m easy
pm: 11.15m easy.
Friday: am: 6.17m jog.
Saturday: off.
Sunday: off.

Total: 88.28m

So to take the positives from the week........ Well it was actually a marginal increase on the previous week's mileage, plus I did have one good big workout (long tempo), and I was quite pleased with the pace for effort on the fast minutes on Wednesday's light workout.

The most positive aspect though is the contents of the blog linked above. If this is truly the cause of my problems then I should hopefully see improvements over the coming months, though, apparently, it will take 6-12 months for all the symptoms/related problems to disappear.

With 9 weeks to go to Amsterdam, my attention has turned to working out a change in the structure of my training that will make for a more even load and hopefully allow me to be consistent week on week. It was only about a month ago that I felt I was in pretty close to sub-2:30 marathon shape so hopefully if I can get my training right over the coming weeks I can at least get back into that kind of shape by Amsterdam.

It will be require me to walk a fine line though to get in the appropriate training whilst keeping my body in the game. I shall blog some more on my thoughts on this with next week's training.

Keith: Managing my back problems and a warning on Asthma medication.

After seeing significant improvement in my back problems following several osteopath treatments I then had a bit of a relapse. At the time I couldn't figure out what the cause was, but guessed it to be down to a number of things, one of which was the hilliness of the terrain where we were on holiday in Salcombe (I only done two 5m runs, but they gave me incredible DOMS!).

Additionally, from shortly before we went on holiday I had been dealing with a mild case of Achilles tendonitis, that I presumed was a side effect of my back issues.

When I returned I had an osteopath session, which confirmed that my back had indeed, unexpectedly, deteriorated significantly. Positively it responded very favourably to that first session.

My osteopath also commented on some extreme swelling in my lower legs. It would appear that the cause of the swollen legs may well be due to two causes - the first is my asthma medication, which I discuss in more detail, below, and the second appears to be a reaction/intolerance to chillies that has developed relatively recently (as those who know me will know, I really love chillies, so this is annoying to say the least :-( ).

A warning on Asthma medication.

I have been on a high dosage of an inhaled corticosteroid for a number of years, occasionally topped off with an oral corticosteroid if my symptoms were particularly bad. It appears to be only recently that the effects of longer term usage of inhaled corticosteroids has become sufficiently apparent to be more readily noticeable, though it has not, as of yet, worked it's way down to the relevant medical personnel in the front line (at least in my experience).

I have had discussions twice within the last 18 months or so with an asthma nurse about some of the side effects I felt were due to my medication, but these were dismissed out of hand as they weren't referenced on the literature. It turns out long term side effects don't appear to get listed on some medications, so if you are being prescribed something that you are likely to need to take for a while, do look into it a bit more closely than just reading the leaflet.

After the previous osteopath session I decided to try go without my steroidal medication to see what effect, if any, it had. Additionally, as I am due an asthma review shortly I figured it would be a good time to see if the medication was still necessary to manage my asthma.

At the same time, I also began to look around for some information on the long term effects of inhaled corticosteroids. What I found was eye-opening to say the least.

Amongst others, the ones relevant to me were (from what I found and what my osteopath told me), along with my thoughts:
1) Weight gain/inability to lose weight - for a runner this is a major issue, particularly if the cause is not something you can control. I first noticed this last year before the Berlin Marathon when my weight was considerably higher than normal several months out and I found it particularly difficult to get to anywhere near racing weight.

2) Swollen lower legs due to water retention - at it's worst this can make running painful and will, additionally, inhibit recovery due to increased muscle damage.

3) Swelling in the lower back region - this will affect running in a number of ways, including the fact that increased pressure on the lower back area will reduce the amount of power and drive available to the legs, something I have most definitely noticed.

4) Delayed wound healing - traditionally I have normally healed from cuts and scrapes much quicker than average (my wife nicknamed me Wolverine because of how quickly I generally heal), but this has most not been the case over the last while. Definitely a case of (wh)Y Man?, rather than X-Man.

5) Symptoms of thyroid problems due to adrenal suppression - my GP actually ran blood tests because I was exhibiting some symptoms of thyroid problems, but my thyroid function was ok, which is, apparently, consistent with a steroidal cause.

6) Sleep issues - I have been having more and more broken sleep over the last 6 months or so, and could not figure out why.

7) Raised blood pressure - only slightly, but in itself it was unusual as my blood pressure was always on the lower side of the standard 120/80.

8) Tendon/ligament (i.e. connective tissue) related issues - see below for more on this.

From my initial understanding, the problem with steroids is that they accumulate in the body over time, and, I guess, when they eventually get to a high enough level the symptoms become more and more noticeable. I suppose at some stage the accumulated steroids reach a kind of critical mass and that's when you start to experience the kind of things like tendonitis and see the other symptoms occurring on a more frequent basis. My osteopath gave me some very enlightening examples/explanations of this last night.

What I had noticed is that I was having problems running a lower volume of running than previously, irrespective of the pace (in fact, the slower I ran the more issues I had, possibly due to the extra time on feet combined with the swollen lower legs).

Even more noticeable is that I am less able to manage even the volume of training that I was managing just one year ago. Bear in mind here we are simply talking about quantity, not quality, though I am, additionally, less able to recover from quicker running, so it's not even as if it could be down to an increase in quality work making me more tired.

So, the question is, where to go from here?

Well from a health perspective, there is no option other than to avoid the steroid based medication. I am hoping that I can manage my asthma simply by using my relief inhaler, combined with some other changes that I am currently looking into (specific foods, exercises, etc).

From a training perspective it is simply a case of finding the best training based on my current circumstances and then running as well as I can from that. I suspect this will require a better ratio of number of runs to total mileage, as well as a more even spread of mileage across days to try and ensure I don't do considerably more on one day than the next.
Likewise, the quality runs I do will have to be carefully managed to ensure I am getting the best out of my training without putting an unnecessary load on my body. This will mean, for starters, having to stop the longer tempo runs that I so like and respond very well to.

Additionally, some of my quality running will very much have to be unplanned (i.e. if I feel good on a given day then I take advantage of it).

All in all though, if things are as they appear, as I improve I should be able to increase the volume of my running in both quantity and quality terms over time as my body rights itself, so fingers crossed!

Emmet: August 5th - August 11th

A lot better than the previous week, a bigger long run was the focus of this week.

Happy with this week, everything seems to be back to normal so I'll keep it short and sweet.

Monday: 7 miles @ avg 8:29 pace (general).
Tuesday: 5 miles @ 8:10 avg pace (tempo) / (p.m.) 3 miles @ 8:40 avg pace (recovery) .
Wednesday: 7 miles @ 8:20 avg pace (general).
Thursday: off.
Friday: 24 miles @ 8:45 avg pace (long run).
Saturday: 4 miles @ 9:01 avg pace (recovery).
Sunday: off.

Total weeks mileage: 50 miles.

Great week, 30 miles better than last week.

Keith: August 5th - August 11th

“I learned, for example, that running injuries can be caused by being female, being male, being old, being young, pronating too much, pronating too little, training too much, and training too little.” - Amby Burfoot

This week was less than ideal, but well managed all things considered. I have, unfortunately, had a slight relapse to my back problems. I initially thought that the poor reactions from my body on some of my recent runs were just an after-effect of the cold I had picked up, but as the cold left my body I began to realise that there was something else up.

An osteopath check-up confirmed what I feared. It actually appeared to be a significant setback, but some excellent (and painful!) work from my osteopath seems to have arrested and reversed a large part of the problem. It will still take a few more sessions I fear to get back to where it was a few weeks ago, but I am confident that it will happen.

As to the cause(s), I have an idea, but cannot say for certainty. As per the quote, injuries can be caused by many things.

Training over the next few weeks will be about maximising what I can do whilst managing the situation.

On to this week.......

Monday: 21.07m easy.
Tuesday: am: 6.43m easy / pm: 12.05m - first 8m easy, steady for the rest.
Wednesday: off.
Thursday: am: 11.13m easy / pm: 8.33m easy.
Friday: 6.13m jog.
Saturday: 11.51m steady progressive - 9m @ 7:09, 2m @ 6:19, last 0.51m @ 5:40.
Sunday: 7.02m easy.

Total: 83.67m

As can be seen from Saturday's run, my back began to improve post treatment (Wednesday evening). I was pleased with my reaction to the run, so hopefully I can push on from there.

Mileage was deliberately kept a bit lower with the aim of setting myself up as best as possible for the last 10 weeks, which is where I get to grips with the marathon specific training.

Keith: July 29th - August 4th.

This will be another brief report.

Basically, the plan was that, coming back from our family holiday in Salcombe, I would be quite refreshed and ready to push on.

The reality however was that I came down with a cold that heavily affected this week. Still, better now than later.

Monday: 13.11m steady.
Tuesday: 6.15m easy.
Wednesday: sick.
Thursday: 6.16m easy.
Friday: 11.2m progressive from easy to steady (last 2m averaged just sub-6m/m).
Saturday: off - planned.
Sunday: 15.17m steady.

Total: 51.79m.

I'm still not fully recovered, but a lot closer than I was. Fingers crossed that I can push on from here.

Emmet: July 29th - August 4th

You would think with the weather cooling and taking a break for a week would show some benefits , but it didn't seem to for me.

A too quick paced start to the week & trying to catch my tail abruptly stopped what didn't even potentially feel like a possible good week.

Although still feeling a little run down still {mouth ulcers & general tiredness after a very busy working week}, it doesn't excuse the quality or more lack of quality in this week.

Fingers crossed that this week and further weeks yield the results I have been hoping for with previous efforts.

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 6 Miles @ 7:57 avg pace.
Wednesday: A.m. 4 mile recovery @ 8:38 pace. P.m. 5 miles @ avg 8:21 pace
Thursday: Off
Friday: 5 miles @ avg 9:00 pace.
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off

Total weeks mileage: 20 miles.

Massive reduction. Massive improvement needed.

Keith and Emmet: week ending July 28th

A belated blog to cover both of our lack of training for this week.

In my case it was planned as we were away for a family holiday, and, after several months of solid training I figured it would do no harm to have a proper break ahead of marathon training, so I only ran 3 x 5m across the week (though one of them did include 2 quick 1/2 miles - 2:34 and 2:27).

Unfortunately I caught a summer cold/virus right at the end of the week which was to have a sizeable impact on the next week's training.

Emmet, unfortunately, suffered from a similar virus which prevented him doing any training at all across the week.

Keith: July 15th - July 21st

The plan this week was for a cut-back week, but I was struggling with the heat in a big way. I couldn't quite figure out why I was having so much trouble with it until a comment from a friend about pollen levels made me realise that I hadn't been using my asthma inhaler over the last while. I started using the inhaler as a pre-emptive measure, and sure enough the next run was much better.

Unfortunately it was a case of too little too late as the next day I suffered probably the biggest asthma attack I have had since I was diagnosed. I suspect this was partially cumulative but also partially triggered by some maximal effort (see below).

Monday: 8.3m easy.
Tuesday: am: 5m+ easy, 4m Time Trial (21:22), 1m easy.
pm: 6.05m easy.
Wednesday: 13.18m jog.
Thursday: 14.42m steady / pm: 750m bike sprint.
Friday: 6.15m steady - aborted 1m effort after about 350m.
Saturday: 2.04m jog.
Sunday: off.

Total: 60.25m.

So Tuesday's time trial was supposed to be around 10m race effort, but it may well have been a touch quicker. Either way it was still a good effort, especially as the route included two decent hill climbs.

On Thursday we had Wattbikes in work as part of our work sponsorship of the RideLondon event with a 750m sprint challenge. As it was all for a bit of fun I decided to have a go, despite being about as far away from possessing a fast twitch fibre as it is possible to be. I guess having a go shortly after a 14m+ steady run was never going to make for a fast time, however even at that it was still particularly slow. At the same time, there was no faulting my effort as I pushed quite hard.

In hindsight, probably a bit too hard. The next morning I planned to do another test effort - 1m hard, however it was obvious straightaway that I was immediately struggling to move properly as my chest got tighter and tighter. I shut down and finished up.

As the day progressed things simply got worse and worse and I ended up with, as mentioned, probably the biggest asthma problems I've had since I was first diagnosed.

Saturday morning showed things were no better so I turned around just after the mile mark and came home.

I will be one of those looking for a change in the weather over the next week or so to hopefully help me get back to normal, but better to encounter these problems now than in a few weeks time.

Emmet: July 15 - July 21st

Similar to last week the hot weather continued & I started to feel it just a little bit more.
Overall my weeks mileage is pretty similar to last week although it is a little bit less productive with no long run & a failed attempt @ a high tempo pace half marathon distance due to the weather being too hot and what felt like lack of power in the legs.
Hopefully the weather will cool a little bit next week to allow for more productive mileage and a bigger increase.

Monday:5.1 miles @ 8:54 pace {general}
Tuesday: Off.
Wednesday:10.31 miles @ 8:19 pace {Tempo}
Thursday: 5.00 miles @ 8:27 pace {general}
Friday: 6.00 miles @ 8:19 pace {general}
Saturday: 8.05 miles @ 8:29 pace {general}
Sunday: 5.76 miles @ 8:37 pace {recovery}.

Total Mileage: 40.24 Miles.

Emmet: July 8th - July 14th

Very hot week & living in Ireland never helps our capabilities :-) but with a good plan in order I managed on Friday my longest run of the year so far. Left at 7.40 am, 3 water stations, 23 miles & 21°c later it was done.

Although the complete tiredness of the legs never allowed me a recovery so had to rest all weekend.

All in all still pleased with this week.

Below is my training for the week:
Monday: 7 miles @ 8:20 pace (general)
Tuesday: 7 miles @ 8:31 pace (general)
Wednesday: 6 miles @ 8:28 pace (general)
Thursday: Off.
Friday: 23 miles @ 8:59 pace (long run)
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

Total mileage: 42.15 miles.

Keith: July 8th - July 14th.

"I train for good luck" - Arturo Barrios

Monday: 3m easy, 13m progressive @ 80% (6:12 per mile), 5.17m steady - 21.17m.
Tuesday: am: 7.2m steady, 2.91m tempo (5:33 per mile) - 10.11m.
pm: 6.12m easy.
Wednesday: 15.28m steady.
Thursday: am: 4m+ easy, then 8 x {340m+ fast, 340m+ jog}, ~2.7m steady - 10.27m.
pm: 6.15m easy.
Friday: 6.18m jog/easy.
Saturday: 20mins warm-up, then 3 x {10mins @ Half-Mara effort, 3mins recs}, cool-down - 10.43m.
Sunday: 1m easy, 3m steady, 6m @ 80% (6:06 per mile), 2.57m @ 90% (5:46 per mile) - 12.57m.

Total: 98.28m.

I wanted some quicker running during Monday's long run again, as per last week. I started outdoors, but quickly realised that the heat of the day was not conducive to quicker running. At this stage I decided to divert to home and use the treadmill based on the logic that I could have as much water as I needed to hand, plus I could sponge myself down if I got too hot.

As it happened, I completely forgot to take into account that, as our treadmill is situated in the conservatory, it is incredibly humid, and it's location means that it gets the main heat right throughout the day, but magnified.

All in all, I'm sure that it will count as good heat training/acclimatisation!

As the week progressed, I kept with my aim to get either a little bit of effort or an endurance run in most days, with a good finish to Tuesday morning's run, and then a very pleasing set of grass reps on Thursday morning.

The reason for the random distance is because I used some local playing fields and was working on a 'run one, jog one' approach, so half of the field comes in at just over 340m.

I executed them with very good control (which is not to say that I wasn't running hard, as I was), and the equivalents splits for 400m would have been about 68s, 67s and then the rest at 66s, bar one @ 65s.

A family day trip with a late finish on Friday meant I left my planned session until Saturday morning instead, which, despite the accumulated fatigue from the last two weeks of quicker paced running, went quite well again. The 10min reps started on the road, and then progressed to grass, where the surface, as it always does (at least for me), meant a slight slowing in pace for effort, but, particularly at this stage, it is the effort that is important.

Sunday then saw a solid finish to the week, with my legs responding quite well when I looked to wind up the pace a little.

This week the mileage is a bit lower, but still within what I consider my optimal range (see last week's post), but that was deliberate as I fine tune what I can do with that optimal mileage range.
My average pace has dropped from 7:26 per mile for June, to 6:54 per mile last week, and 6:44 per mile this week, and I feel better and more lively for it, which fits with my experimentations over the last few years.

However, I know that I need to have a down week occasionally as well, especially as I return to this more steady general running, so am trying a 2 weeks up, 1 week down, approach. The down week will not, necessarily, see any less volume, but will see a sizeable reduction in intensity.

The first two weeks of this approach have been quite pleasing as I have approached it in a progressive manner, rather than just 'dropping' it on my body and expecting it to adjust. Last week, out of 102.9m, just under 21m of it was quicker running, and the rest was steady or easy. This week, just under 32m was quicker running, with ~10m of that averaging 5:22 per mile, and the other (just under) 22m of quicker running being more marathon specific.

In future weeks I would hope to see the volume of quicker running pick up a bit more until I reach the optimal level of quality to go with my optimal level of quantity, but, as with everything, progress will be dictated by how my body responds.

Certainly though, it is a good start to the change in training approach.

Keith: July 1st - July 7th

"You find out by trial and error what the optimal level of training is. If I found I was training too hard, I would drop it back for a day or two. I didn't run for five days before the sub-four-minute mile." - Sir Roger Bannister

Monday: 5 easy, 5 steady, 10.21m @ 6:19 per mile (20.21m).
Tuesday: am: progressive steady surging any uphills - 1st 5m @ 7:00, last 5.12m @ 6:28 (10.12m).
pm: 6.07m easy.
Wednesday: am: ~4m easy, 2m Time Trial, 2m jog, 6 x ~420m hills (with jog down recoveries) @ 5k-5m effort, 5m steady, 1m+ easy (17.52m).
pm: 2m jog, 3.18m easy (5.18m).
Thursday: pm: Steady run, surging the uphills @ ~ Half Mara effort - 8 hills for 2m+ (10.53m).
Friday: am: easy with 6 x {15s stride / 45s float} (6.19m).
pm: Progressive from easy to steady with 3 longer pickups totalling 2.18m @ 5:46 per mile - hot! (13.5m).
Saturday: rest.
Sunday: 13.58m progressive steady - last 1.58m @ 5:58 per mile.

Total: 102.9m.

This was a good solid week with some form of quicker running every day. In all honesty, this is possibly the best I have ever felt at the end of a 100m+ week.
The only thing really missing was a longer reps session, which was what I had originally planned for Friday, but between the heat in the afternoon and feeling a bit tired (lack of sleep) it was better to just leave it. Ideally next week will see similar, but with the addition of some longer reps.

Wednesday's 2m Time Trial was at ~5km race effort and I was pleased to hit 10:20 for it (5:10 per mile - equivalent to a 16:03 5km). For me, given my conversion to marathon from the shorter distances, that means I'm pretty much knocking on the door of 2:30 shape, but with 15 weeks still to go.

Mileage/optimal training level:
The more eagle eyed may notice that the effort level of my general runs is different this week.

Previously I would run easy, or jog, if I wasn't doing a session. So what's changed?

As some of you will know, I have experimented quite a bit with my training over the last few years in terms of volume of running, paces, types and volume of effort runs, etc, etc.

The early parts of this campaign have served to assert two things about my training.
1) My optimal mileage range seems to be roughly in the 95-110mpw range (+/- 5mpw); this is (considerably) lower than I thought (especially as my highest weekly mileage was 148m), but then again this was never about hitting numbers just for the sake of it.
2) I react better to running my general runs a bit quicker and throwing in unplanned efforts (in addition to planned efforts) as and when my body thinks it's a good idea.

I've found that slower running to try to hit bigger mileage invariably doesn't work for me as the extra time on feet deadens my legs and hinders attempts at getting some good quality work in (plus I tended not to hit the mileage I aim for because of the same fatigue).

Over the last few months or so I have seen the effects of this as my rate of improvement has tailed off. Conversely, I have come out of this first week running a bit quicker with my legs feeling more lively than they have done in quite a while, which tells me I'm going in the right direction, so hopefully that should kick start some improvements over the coming weeks.

Emmet: July 1st - July 7th

And so it happened, the unplanned and unexpected week.
Unknown to myself at first my body was starting to feel the effects of two very good previous weeks.

Very sore/stretched heels led to a very sore week. Presumably the effects especially of the racing on the previous week.
Although by my previous standards not a bad week still. :-)

Below is my training for the week.
Monday: 11 miles @ 8:37 pace (general)
Tuesday: 4 miles @ 8:13 pace (tempo)
Wednesday: 4.01 miles @ 9:05 pace (recovery)
Thursday: 3 miles @ 9:54 pace (again recovery)
Friday: 4 miles @ 9:19 pace (grass recovery)
Saturday: 4 miles @ 9:36 pace (grass recovery)
Sunday: off.

Total weeks mileage: 30.01 miles

Emmet: June 24th - June 30th

This week is a very short and sweet week in writing as it almost went to plan.

Aside from not feeling in good condition on Friday (general tiredness presumably from being back to work) the long run was shortened significantly in the morning time. Although evening time led to me feeling minutely better, resulting in a 5km race and a new pb.

Below is my training for the week:

Monday: 12 miles @ 7:51 pace. (medium long run)
Tuesday: 4 miles @ 9:04 pace (recovery)
Wednesday: 3.01 miles @ 8:40 pace (general)
Thursday: 4.13 miles @ 9:35 pace (recovery)
Friday: (a.m.) 15.39 miles @ 8:44 pace (long run)
(p.m.) 0.5 mile @ 9:13 pace (warm up).
3.1 miles @ 6:23 pace (5km race - 19:45)
1.5 miles @ 9:23 pace (warm down)
Saturday: 4.65 miles @ 9:30 pace (recovery)

Total weeks mileage: 48.28 miles.
A minor decrease on last weeks mileage but still in around my mileage target. All is required is a little more focus to get the long run fully sorted in the coming weeks.

Keith: June 24th - June 30th

“You must listen to your body. Run through annoyance but not through pain.” - Dr. George Sheehan.

This week I, unfortunately, ended up with a monster of a migraine. I do suffer with them occasionally, but it is a long time since I had once quite as bad as this. Some things you run through, some you do not. This one was one you do not (not that I could have even if I wanted to).

Monday: 25.01m easy.
Tuesday: am: 6.11m jog.
pm: 12.23m jog.
Wednesday: 6.5m jog.
Thursday: off.
Friday: off.
Saturday: 7.46m progressive steady run (last 0.46m @ 5:30 per mile pace).
Sunday: am: 2m jog, 3m easy, 6.35m steady (11.35m).

Total: 68.66m

So obviously a considerably lower volume week than I'd intended and no quality sessions at all, but not much can be done about it.

Emmet: June 17th - June 23rd

Holidays gave me plenty of time but nothing to do so I decided to test my capabilities this week and came up trumps in a sense.

Originally I had planned a build on Monday & although this increased a little bit i decided not to do what I had originally planned.
The more I thought about it I realised it is my longest run that will help me most so i decided to aim for an increase on Friday instead.

This week I've peaked in a sense that I've never ran 50 miles in a week ever before.
Although I've hit 50 miles this week it was my plan to reach 50 miles 12 weeks before Amsterdam.
It's a great feeling to have hit 50 miles {mentally} so at least now i know I'm capable of doing so but from next week on I aim to do it right {i.e. Monday's medium long run & Friday's long run need to hit the right targets}.

Still all in all a very productive week.

Below is my training for this week:

Monday: 7 miles @ 8:09 pace (General)
Tuesday: 4 miles @ 8:22 pace (General) A.M.
3.04 miles @ 8:29 pace (Recovery) P.M.
Wednesday: 5 miles @ 8:52 pace (General)
Thursday: 3.05 miles @ 8:48 pace (General) A.M.
3.00 miles @ 9:21 pace (Recovery) P.M.
Friday: 20 miles @ 8:49 pace (Long Run)
Saturday: 5 miles @ 8:50 pace (Recovery)

Total weeks Mileage: 50.11 miles.
Increase on previous week: 12.89 miles.

Keith: June 17th - June 23rd

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson.

Though there is a certain amount of luck required to run your best marathon on any given day, in reality you make your own luck by putting in the work beforehand. It really is as simple as that.

Mon: 24.04m easy
Tues: am: jog with 6 x {15 stride, 45s jog} - 8.16m
pm: 3m warm-up, then 12m progressive tempo (avg 85%) - 6:03 per mile, short cool-down (15.58m)
Wed: rest.
Thurs: am: 1m jog, 1m easy, 9.77m steady (11.77m)
pm: 8.14m jog
Fri: am: jog with 10 x {15 stride, 45s jog} - 8.21m
pm: 3.2m warm-up, 5 x {5mins @ LT  / 5mins steady - 5:30 and 7:00 per mile average respectively}, 3.2m easy (14.54m)
Sat: Progressive - 2m jog, 5m easy, 3.6m steady (10.6m)
Sun: 3m warm-up, 6m @ 5:46 per mile (estimated current Marathon Pace), 3m+ cool-down (12.37m)

Total: 113.41

Another solid week.

Tuesday's tempo was mildly progressive. The first 2m were @ 80%, the next 8m @ 85%, and the last 2m @ 90% (5:50 per mile). All in all, it felt good, despite it being quite muggy.

On Wednesday I had my latest osteo treatment, and, as has happened before, due to the manipulations, my legs felt very heavy and stiff over the following days (was like this until after Saturday's run). Due to the initial stiffness I took Wednesday as my rest day this week. The good news is, though, that I'm apparently almost back to normal (at least in that respect :-) ).

Friday's session was looking to work between 10m-HM effort and to get the body used to recovering at a pace quicker than a jog. Today, with my first attempt at this type of run and I was quite pleased with how it went, especially as I was still stiff from Wednesday. Over time, as this becomes more marathon specific the quicker section will become closer to marathon effort and the steady section will also get quite a bit quicker.

Come Sunday morning, I decided to do something I usually don't and ran to pace. I had estimated, based on the other effort runs during the week that current Marathon Pace was about 5:46 per mile. This pace felt about right for marathon effort, despite it being a bit windy and that I was wearing a little extra clothing.

With 17 weeks to go I feel like I'm getting things lined up nicely for a very good end result.

Keith: June 10th - June 16th

Top athletes, and top coaches, MUST HAVE THE MENTALITY OF AN EXPLORER : they have to go in a DARK AREA, still unknown, in order to give new stimula for overtaking their current limits. With a conservative training there is no stimula, and at the end there is no training - Renato Canova (Italian coach of a multitude of top, mainly Kenyan, runners).

Ok, first things first. This week was supposed to be week two of my 'hill' phase, however I had a bad reaction after the first session, the previous Friday, as my back stiffened up after it, and it was still affecting me up until I managed to loosen it off during Tuesday's 80% run (see the linked explanation of paces: http://russells-vs-amsterdam.blogspot.com/2013/06/keith-training-paces.html).

The end result was I had to rethink my plans for the next couple of weeks as I can't afford the possibility of loosing time or getting injured from it.

Monday: 23.06m easy.
Tuesday: am: 8.19m jog with 6 x {15s stride, 45s jog}.
pm: 20mins warm-up, then 12m @ 80% on a mildly undulating loop (6:12 per mile), 5mins cool-down (15.22m)
Wednesday: 20.12m jog.
Thursday: am: 8.22m jog.
pm: 3m warm-up, then 3 x 3mins 'fast'/3mins steady, then, on a treadmill: 3m/2.5m/2m tempo with 0.5m jog recoveries on a treadmill, cool-down (15.71m).
Friday: am: 5m jog, 2m easy, 3m jog (10.08m).
pm: 6.62m jog.
Saturday: 3m jog, 10.24m steady (6:34 per mile) - (13.24m).
Sunday: off.

Total: 120.43m

So, a good weekly volume. On it's own the biggest mileage I've done in years, however....... the swap of rest day from Saturday to Sunday (Father's Day lie-in :-) ), meant that I ran for 7 consecutive days (i.e. including the previous Sunday), for a total mileage of 133.99m, which is up there with some of the biggest weeks I used to hit before my knee accident over 3 years ago.

I was particularly pleased as I seemed to get stronger as the week progressed, and, indeed, I have been feeling stronger week on week (bar the food poisoning week) for the last few weeks which bodes very well for when I get to doing the 'proper' work for Amsterdam in about 10 weeks time.

Tuesday's 80% run was pleasing. It was very smooth despite the stiffness in my back and the pace was more than acceptable for the fact that it was both windy and quite humid.

For Thursday's workout the initial plan had been for 10-12 x {3mins @ 10k-HM effort / 3mins steady}, but the wind was so ridiculous (mid 20mph range with gusts in the high 40mph range) and affecting the quicker running so much that when I was passing home at the end of the 3rd quick rep I decided to go in and get on the treadmill to be able to get some effort in without being buffeted by the wind.
I then proceeded to run:
3m @ 10.6mph (16:59 - 5:40 per mile), 1/2m jog,
2.5m @ 10.7mph (14:01 - 5:36 per mile), 1/2m jog,
2m @ 10.8mph (11:07 - 5:33 per mile).

Overall, including the original 3 x 3mins, the quicker running added up to 9.08m @ an average of 5:38 per mile, which is probably about current Half Marathon effort. Basically one big-ass session!

Recovery from it was good though, as indicated by the steady portion on Saturday morning feeling nice and relaxed.

All in all a pleasing week. As the quote indicates, sometimes you have to be willing to take a chance to improve. Though I have done this mileage, and more, in a 7 day span previously (personal highest weekly/7-day mileage is 148m), it exceeds my biggest week since my knee problems in early 2010 by over 15m.

Add in the large treadmill session at the end of the week and I take it's safe to say I have begun to regain my mentality to explore my body and it's limits. Additionally, being several years older, and more experienced, I think I have the perfect balance as I now have a very good understanding of what my body tells me in reaction to what I ask it to do and it should allow me to work harder and get the best result I can (longer-term, not just Amsterdam) from whatever small amount of talent I have.

Emmet: June 10th - June 16th

"Miles make champions, not speed" Arthur Lydiard.

After the few previous good weeks training I decided that I needed to start a building plan to capitalise on this.

Main points over the next few weeks is to build Mondays and Fridays runs to 13 & 23 miles respectively.

This week started with a build on Monday.

Below is my training for this week:

Monday: 6.2 miles @ 9:13 pace (general)
Tuesday: 4.16 miles @ 7:43 pace (tempo)
Wednesday: 3.03 miles @ 9.08 pace (recovery)
Thursday: 3.26 miles @ 8:38 pace (general)
Friday: 16.56 miles @ 8:36 pace (long run)
Saturday: 4.01 miles @ 7:59 pace
Sunday: off

Total weeks training: 37.22 miles.

Increase on previous week: 2 miles.

The build is on :-)

Emmet: June 3rd - June 9th

After the previous weeks training went to plan I hoped to emulate it as I hope every week to do so yet rarely see it come to fruition.
This week was one of these weeks!!
And to do it in the temperatures of 20°C and above was an extra bonus.

Some training I have now hopefully set in stone for distance and pace{roughly} is Tuesday-Thursday's & Saturday's.
This mileage will never change but paces may increase slightly.

At least now my main focus is to build a Monday medium long run to 13 miles & my main long run day on Friday to be built to 23 miles.

Below is my training for this week:

Monday: 4.03 miles @ 8:03 pace (tempo)
Tuesday: 4.02 miles @ 8:50 pace (recovery)
Wednesday: 3.12 miles @ 8:35 pace (general)
Thursday: 3.10 miles @ 9:14 pace (recovery)
Friday: 10.00 miles @ 8:35 pace (medium/long a.m.)
P.m. Runs: 1 mile @ 8:29 pace (warm-up), 5miles @ 7:21 pace (tempo/local race), 1 mile @ 9:15 pace (warm-down)
Saturday: 4 miles @ 9:27 pace (recovery).

Total weeks mileage: 35.27 miles
Total days running: 6 days.

Keith: June 3rd - June 9th

"Hills are the shortcut to success" - Arthur Lydiard.

I have now started the hill phase of my training (in so much as you can say that one hill session a week makes it a phase). My plan for Amsterdam is to simply do one hill session a week for 7 weeks (along with other efforts). In future build-ups I will increase the number of hill sessions per week and reduce the period I do them over, as well as increasing the intensity within each session as well, but it is something I want to do in a very controlled manner.

Monday: 13.15m very easy.
Tuesday: am: 8.19m jog.
pm: 3m easy, 10m hilly and steady (6:36 per mile), 2m easy (15.05m).
Wednesday: am: 6m jog.
pm: 17.07m easy, mildly progressive.
Thursday: am: 8.24m jog.
pm: 3.5m easy, 3m tempo (5:37 per mile), cool-down (8.77m).
Friday: am: 4m+ jog, then 4 x {280m uphill, turnaround jog, 280m downhill, turnaround jog}, cool-down (7.53m).
pm: 5.5m warm-up, then 6 x {0.22m uphill, 0.28m jog, 0.22m downhill, 0.23m jog}, cool-down (14.33m).
Saturday: rest day.
Sunday: 5m jog-easy, then 8.56m progressive steady - last 1.5m close to marathon effort (13.56m).

Total: 111.89m.

I started off the week quite easily as I was still feeling the effects of the food poisoning, so what should have been a long run on Monday was simply a medium and what should have been 10m @ close to Mara effort on Tuesday was kept to a steady effort instead.

Thursday's tempo effort would have been a time-trial effort if I felt good, but as I didn't..... The pace of the tempo showed continued caution was the right call because I would have expected to hit closer to 5:30 per mile for the effort, though the heat, wind and poor choice of course for the tempo (twisty, etc) would have accounted for some of the slowness, but my legs definitely were still not right.

Friday again, because of not being fully recovered, I split the session in two. This is my (current) variation of the Lydiard hill session. Going uphill the focus was on maintaining good form and a decent knee lift, whereas going downhill the focus was on striding out and getting a decent leg turnover.
This was good fun, and in the afternoon I was definitely feeling a bit better than on the previous day's tempo, though still a bit away from 100%. I covered ~4m of hill efforts across the day (obviously split evenly between uphill and downhill).

All being well, next week should see some better quality sessions and a little more mileage, so, fingers crossed!

I shall also blog at some stage, separately, on training paces, for two reasons - firstly, I have had some questions on training paces, and, secondly, with 19 weeks to go, my training will become more structured from now until Amsterdam, and I tend to use terms of effort, rather than race pace.

Keith: May 27th - June 2nd

So after having a good week last week I was looking forward to following it up with another one this week.......

And then I made the mistake of getting a takeaway which included some free food poisoning.....

Monday: am: 11.3m jog
pm: nothing - away for the whole day (bank holiday).
Tuesday: am: 8.19m jog.
pm: 13.47m easy - cut short as the effects of the food poisoning began to kick in with a vengeance.
Wednesday: off.
Thursday: off.
Friday: off.
Saturday: 6.15m easy.
Sunday: 9.22m progressive from jog to steady.

Total: 48.33m.

A few days of no running and I'm close to being back to normal, but still not feeling 100% so the next few days will be very much a case of play by ear. It's just as well there are still another 20 weeks to go to Amsterdam!

Emmet: May 27th - June 2nd

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail - 'Benjamin Franklin'.

Previous weeks have seen slight increases in mileage and my own general training. This week I've decided my goal was to get a week of my original plan completed.

It took a bit of extra effort and because of the weather being so changeable an extra dose of strong mentality (for me).

Below is my training for this week:

Monday: 4.03 miles @ 8:41 pace (recovery from previous Sunday)
Tuesday: 3.01 miles @ 9:55 pace ( still very slow but legs still felt a little tired from previous week so thought the need to keep it simple and think longer term)
Wednesday: 3.06 miles @ 8:34 pace (minimal tightness, back to some form of normality).
Thursday: 3.03 miles @ 8:06 pace.
Friday: Long run 13.00 miles @ 8:52 pace.
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 4.01 miles @ 8:17 pace.
Total mileage this week: 30.14 miles.
Total mileage with Aoife: 1mile.

Very productive week, midweek runs are low but steady and at the moment am happy with that, although the aim is to constantly increase my long run then start the focus on decreasing my long run time each week when I get to a constant level of long runs.