Learning to juggle

This past week has seen the start of an exciting new chapter in my life - the biggest and best one yet but also by far the most challenging task that I will have taken on. Last Monday, myself and Moll received our keys for our first home, it is a dream that I have obviously had for a long time, but making it happen with the girl of my dreams is an unbelievably proud moment for me. The next few months (and some) will prove to be extremely challenging however, as we strive to turn this building into our perfect first home together. It is a house that has enormous potential, but there is a lot of work to do before we can realise that potential at this stage.

As such, there will be something of a juggling act to be performed in order to ensure that we keep moving in the right direction and plotting on with the building work and home-making, whilst continuing to grow on the day-to-day work front and build a name for myself in my own right in my trade, and also of course trying to make sure I carry on improving and developing into the runner that I strive to be. It is so important to me that I get the balance right and manage to keep on top of all three - and making time for socialising and spending time with Moll of course too(!)

It is going to be a busy and hectic period for us in the next few months, but I am determined that my running will not suffer due to it. It will be easier to say than do of course, and this first week has left me in no doubt as to the size of the task at hand. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for one reason or another saw me unable to run in the evenings, and so I had to instead set an extra early alarm and get myself back in the routine of an early morning run before work. 

Four times this week I managed to drag myself out of bed at 5:30am and jog through a 4.25 mile route and top up the weeks mileage by 17 miles. This meant that I was able to record a respectable 61 mile week, as opposed to the 44 miles I would have completed without the morning miles. Hopefully the longer time goes on, the easier it will get and the less I will have to rely on these kind of miles, but in the meantime I am going to continue with them and see how we go.

On Monday evening I missed my club night due to picking up our keys and inspecting our new home, Wednesday was spent starting to shuttle a few bits and pieces across and cleaning etc, and Friday I was Moll's plus one at a wedding of one of her friends and we both definitely deserved a night off and a few drinks to celebrate!

So my evening sessions mid-week were just Tuesday and Thursday, and unfortunately a late finish meant I missed out on my usual Tuesday speed session, so instead I did a ten mile progression run at 6:15 pace, and I did a similar 11 mile session on Thursday, but hit it a bit harder and managed to get myself down to an average of 5:56 pace. 

Due to needing to get cracking on the house I missed the first meet of the Crosscountry season at Chorley and instead I did an early morning 9.5 mile steady run before spending the day stripping wallpaper, and demolishing wardrobes with Moll!

Instead of the crosscountry, I ended up running the Stanley Park 5 mile race on Sunday morning along with my dad, as one of the Wesham club championship races. I never really pushed myself too hard as I won comfortably enough by some 4 minutes and ticked over at 5:18 pace as I tried to keep it consistent and controlled throughout. It was a much different performance to Run Preston last week, when I tried to hammer it from the start, as I looked to simply get a workout out of this race and tick over as I had missed some important speed work through the week. I was satisfied with my run and finished in 26:27 and know I had quite a bit in the tank saved for another day. 

I did a longer than normal warm up and cool down to add the run up to a decent long one to finish off the week, before heading off to continue the juggling act with work on the new home afterwards of course...

A final little thing to add this week - a good little video blog for you all to keep an eye out for and to please give a watch for me, it is a new project by a friend of mine Tom Marper, he is a track lad and so his focus is all about the speed work. It will be good to follow his progress under his new coach as he moves to start a new challenge at Liverpool University. Also, as his focus will be on the shorter stuff and speed work, I think it is something different to what this blog offers, and so could be a useful tool for anyone that reads this that is looking for ways of developing their top end speed. Give it a try, he's a good lad and a very fast one too!

The link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXs5Cx3Sgro

Total mileage for the week: 61

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:24     

Total mileage for month of September: 283

Total mileage so far this month (October): 22

Total mileage so far 2016: 2542

Average miles per day 2016: 9.28

Total Wipeout

Following four weeks of consistent training, this weekend saw my return to the race scene at Run Preston 10k. It is a challenging course, with plenty of undulations and a couple of big hills to contend with, but it is a race that has been kind to me over the years and I always seem to perform fairly well there. 

Having ran a pb time there last year a matter of hours after setting a 5k pb the night previous, last year, I decided to really focus on this race this time around in order to really see what I was capable of on  the course.

Due to a clash of events with the northern 6 stage road relays, the front end of the Run Preston field was understandably affected, and as such there wasn't much to really push myself against as we set off, instead I had it in my head that I would have to run it as almost a time trial against myself if I was going to nail a good time. And run it like a time trial I did - as I set off at pretty much 5k pace, making the most of the downhill sections early on in the race and settling nicely into a fast rhythm. 

I arrived at 2 miles at 4:55 pace, and was absolutely flying. I had probably set off a little bit too quickly, but I was concious of the fact that the second half of the course was much tougher and had plenty of uphill sections, so I wanted to be 'ahead of the rate' and with a bit of time to play with when the going got tough later on. What I hadn't factored in for was what I was about to be faced with just half a mile later, as the course dipped through a section of puddles and across to the river side, for a section of uneven terrain. I was still going strong at 2.5 miles and sub 5 minute mileing when disaster struck...

Coming around a bend and through a gate, ahead of us was two dog walkers with their 3 dogs in tow. The dogs were let loose, and I heard Shane Cliffe on lead bike asking them to put their animals on leads as runners were coming through. The response from the male owner was "its ok he won't get them". Famous last words. 

As I came around the bend, the dog charged across me and wiped both legs away from underneath me as it came across. I had no time to react and by the time I came to realise what had happened I was face down in a puddle of mud, with cuts and grazes to my hands, elbows, hips, thighs and hips. I couldn't believe it. 

Looking through my splits on my tomtom app, it looks as though my time on the ground cost me approximately 7 seconds.

At that point, you are faced with a split second decision, to either dust yourself down and crack on, or chuck in the towel. I was well ahead of second place, and despite my injuries was confident I could maintain my advantage. So I cracked on. In fairness to Shane, he was brilliant with me and calmed me down as I was all set to head charging off like a nutter in the aftermath and had turned he air blue with a tirade against the dog walkers (sorry to anyone that heard that!!) Shane got me to get my head together and refocus on the race. A look at my watch (I hadn't until that point) told me that I was on 5:06 average pace, and still on target for a potential pb.

I slowed through the fourth mile and Shane helped me get through that difficult patch by talking me through and giving me a target to chase. Mile 5 was back up towards where I needed to be, but I knew by this point that the damage to the time had already been done. A little wrong turn coming into the final mile out of Avenham Park didn't help matters, but I wasn't too bothered by that stage! I slowed through the finishing straight and enjoyed my moment, as I crossed the line in around 32:26 to win by some three minutes from the next runner. All things considered I am really pleased with the time I managed to post and the performance I maintained in some adversity.

Well done to all of team Wesham that came out and ran at one of the best local events on the road racing calendar. Both my mum and dad had good runs in the 5 and 10k races respectively, and well done too to Graham Vickers, Paul Carter and Stuart Topping on his comeback to racing after a lengthy battle with injury this year. Great going guys!

This week's training had gone relatively well, with a fast paced run on the Monday at the club as I managed to string together 7 miles at sub 6 minute pace after a slower 4 miles on my own before the club meeting.

Tuesday was another great session with the Preston Harriers youngsters on the grass, with 4 sets of 3x2 minute reps off a 30 second recovery. I have thoroughly enjoyed these sessions as something different from the usual track work over the last month - especially with so many pacy runners to train alongside.

Wednesday was a short recovery run, Thursday was a progression run of 10 miles, and I gradually worked my pace down to below 6 minute mileing for an average pace of 6:10 for the whole run.

Friday and Saturday were both steady 45 minute runs as I rested up for Sunday's race.

Total mileage for the week: 64

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:40

Total mileage so far this month (September): 244

Total mileage so far 2016: 2481

Average miles per day 2016: 9.29

Resting up

This week I continued my recent training block aimed at seeing me hit peak condition in time for my next bout of races in the coming weeks.

Over the last five weeks I have ticked over nicely averaging in excess of 70 miles a week, with lots of training miles and a bit less racing of late. This week was another training week, with a good rest period over the weekend after a weekend getaway with Moll.

We have had a big and busy few weeks since we got back from our summer holiday, and so this weekend we took ourselves off to Newcastle for a much needed break and re-charging of the batteries. We couldn't have picked a better time to go as far as the weather and atmosphere was concerned - albeit the football was a bit of a let down!

Saturday was therefore my rest day, and I took the opportunity to go on a bit of an indulgence and let myself have a good few pints and lots of food without having to worry about training for a change. It was great to escape with Moll for even a short while, and it was a great weekend. We even got to see some film making, as the cast of Transformers were in town filming for the next of the series of films. Thanks Moll!

In terms of training, I had two real sessions again this week, in addition to lots of steady running and a reduced long run on the Sunday.

Monday was my stock, steady 11 miler, and then Tuesday saw me back at Cottam for another grass session with the Preston Harriers group, and we got a good session in despite the stormy weather and threatening lightening overhead towards the end of the night. We did 20 minutes of effort in terms of volume.

Wednesday was an hour long easy run at 6:40 pace. Thursday was supposed to be my tempo run, but working on a bit meant that I couldn't meet up with Rob Affleck for our usual session. Instead I decided to do something a bit different. I chose to turn my usual 10 mile loop into a fartlek exercise, with a 15 minute warm up leading into 7 x 4 minute efforts off a 1 minute jog recovery, and finished off with a 10 minute cool down. The session was a big success, as I completed the 10 mile loop in under an hour, inclusive of all the easy running, and hitting an average pace of 5:11 on each of my 'efforts'.

Friday was a steady ten miler, Saturday was obviously my rest day and Sunday was a 15 mile long run, at a slightly quicker rate, ticking over at 6:11 pace on average throughout.

Total mileage for the week: 64

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:26

Total mileage so far this month (September): 180

Total mileage so far 2016: 2417

Average miles per day 2016: 9.30

Reigning it in

After a bumper week of sessions and races the other week, this time out the biggest decision I had to make was which races not to do for once. Everyone who knows me will know how much I love racing. Usually I have to admit I am guilty of probably racing too much.

As I'm slowly gaining experience and getting to know my body that bit more, I'm starting to learn signs of fatigue, general tiredness and when to reign things back in a little bit.

I will always race as often as I can, because that's just who I am and what I love to do. But hopefully, now I am starting to plan things a bit better and actually put together more of a structure to help me stay in the best possible shape for when I do race. Instead of racing just for the sake of it, I am trying to be a little more sensible and selective of the ones I do choose.

In the past I have tended to peak a little bit too soon when I have been training towards specific races, for instance last year I was flying up until two weeks prior to Leeds Abbey Dash and I had a shocker on the day - with hindsight, back to back halves in the October had killed my speed throughout November and December. Also earlier this year it was a similar case as I felt leggy at Cheshire 10k having done the Blackpool interclub a few days before. So this time I am going to try and be a bit cuter about things as I target some more pb's before the end of the calendar year.

As a result, this week I took the decision to give the final interclub race of this season a miss, as for me personally it was something of a dead rubber - with the individual championship already in the bag and the Wesham men's team already cut adrift of any hope of winning the team title. That meant that I was able to have a proper speed session on the Tuesday and keep up with my tempo on the Thursday, as I look to build towards the winter season.

I also decided rather reluctantly to cancel my plans of taking on the Langdale Half Marathon this weekend, as I questioned my own judgement about my priorities and reasoning behind wanting to do that race. Although it is one that I have looked at a number of times in the past and is a challenge that I would love to do one day, I decided that the timing was just a bit wrong for me right now. As I had intended on doing Langdale, I also missed the North West Road Relays which was a shame as I do love the team events.

Having felt tired at the beginning of the week, I did a steady 11 miles on Monday, before having a very enjoyable speed session on the grass with the Preston Harriers youngsters on Tuesday, with a 10 minute tempo, followed by 7 x 2 minute efforts off a minute recovery. Considering how tired my legs had felt the day previous, I was delighted with how this session went.

Wednesday was a recovery run, followed by an 8.5 mile tempo run on Thursday at 5:25 pace. Again I felt surprisingly strong towards the end of this run, and managed to increase the pace to below 5 minute mileing in the final mile. Hopefully this shows that my endurance is in a good place as I am feeling stronger as runs go on.

Friday was again a shorter recovery run, with Saturday intended to be my long run day this week. However I felt weak and decided to instead just stick to an easy hour of running and delayed my long run to the Sunday. I ran without looking at my watch and just let myself find a natural rhythm and pace, free from the pressures of timing. So I was shocked to find that I ran 6:10 pace average throughout my 16 mile loop to complete another strong week of training.

I would like to take a moment to congratulate the Wesham women's team on their series victory in the Interclub, earning local bragging rights over the other clubs for the year. Hopefully one day our men's team can follow suit...

Total mileage for the week: 72

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:25

Total mileage so far this month (September): 116

Total mileage so far 2016: 2353

Average miles per day 2016: 9.30

A slog

Following on from a busy previous week, which had been stacked with races and sessions, perhaps unsurprisingly I had been feeling the effects of all that work through last week.

I managed to still get out and run every day, and put together two decent sessions, along with my long run as planned - so I got my intended workload done, albeit it was pretty hard going.

Monday was my usual steady club-night run, then on Tuesday I changed my speed session for the week to a fartlek run, in order to try and freshen things up a bit and also to try and allow for me to be able to run without the pressure of worrying about hitting certain paces or timings. I did a two mile warm up to start, and a two mile cool down to finish, alongside 7 x 1200m of effort off a 400m jog recovery. It was a surprisingly successful session, considering how leggy I felt during the warm up, and for the whole 10 miles total distance of the run I managed to average out at 6 minute mileing.

Then, after an easy recovery run on Wednesday, I did my weekly tempo run with Mr Affleck on the Thursday and we upped the distance once again, this time ending up with 10 miles at an average of 5:30 mpm pace. The most pleasing aspect of this session is the consistency of the pacing throughout the run - we had targeted running the ten miles in approx 55 minutes, so couldn't have paced it much better!

Friday was another easy 7 mile run, followed by my long run on the Saturday where I managed to get in 16 miles at 6:25 pace, having grown into the run from feeling very lethargic and only going through half way at 6:35 pace and cranking it up through the second 8 miles. I completed the weeks workload with a leggy hour of running on the Sunday, clocking a final 9 miles.

A final note for this week - a huge congratulations to my mum on winning her first running trophy tonight at the Wesham summer handicap race! She has come a long way since joining the club just over 12 months ago. It's obviously where I get my running genes from!

Total mileage for the week: 72

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:24    

Total mileage for the month of August: 300

Total mileage so far this month (September): 44

Total mileage so far 2016: 2281

Average miles per day 2016: 9.27

High volume

As we are nearing the end of the summer season, I had targeted one final assault on the 5k distance before the winter, that race being the mid Cheshire 5k in Kingsley on Thursday night. One of my main ambitions is to get to a sub 15 minute standard for the distance. Having already ran 15:07 and 15:08 this year and knowing that I am currently going along quite nicely, I fancied a crack at that target this time around.

A look at the results from a previous race on he same course back in April showed that there was a potential for some really quick times. 4 runners went sub 15 and a couple recorded low 15's in that one. I was hoping to get in amongst a good strong pack and get pulled around to a fast time.

Unfortunately, there wasn't the same depth of quality at the front end this time around however, which made it more difficult to hold the necessary pace. The first mile of the race was pretty much bang on target as we went through in 4:50, however the pace dropped drastically in mile two - which was an uphill mile, but was disappointing non-the-less as the pace dropped to 5:10 for the mile. The final mile was back down to my targeted pace, with the downhill section seeing me record a 4:47 mile. Sadly the damage had been done in mile two however and I was left finishing off with a still respectable 15:19. 

The good thing about the race was however that I managed to record an unexpected victory, running home as race winner by 7 seconds. Also, pleasingly, I found myself feeling incredibly comfortable throughout and I felt that I could have kept the pace up for another few miles - which bodes well for my next 10k races if I can maintain my current form and fitness.

Mid Cheshire 5k is a race that I would highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a good quick, PB potential course. It is a 4K loop, with an added kilometre down to the finish after he first loop is complete. It is similar to Chrisleton 5k for anyone that is familiar with that course.

The first half of the week had been something of a rest for me as I had tapered down a bit ahead of the 5k. On Monday I had done 9 miles at 6:14 pace, and on Tuesday I did a makeshift speed session down in the country lanes, as I was unable to make the track. I did a reduced volume of effort to save myself for the race day, settling for 6x800 off 60 seconds rest and doing them all in an average of 2:30. On Wednesday I took the day off completely (well I still worked of course, but you get what I mean!)

Post-race I did a steady 10 miles on Friday at 6:32 pace, and decided that due to reduced mileage this week to have a go at Lytham Hall Park Run on the Saturday to give me a little bit more volume for the pace work instead. I enjoyed the course despite the twist and turns, it is a four lap course and so there is quite a lot of overtaking involved. I took the run as a bit of a hard tempo and averaged out at a tad under 5:30s to finish in about 16:10ish.

On Sunday I was racing again (!) as I did the Great Eccleston 4 mile road race, simply because is it a part of the Wesham club championship fixtures, and also to try and show support for the local scouts and Alam Taylor the organiser being a member of our club too.

It was a small turnout, and is a low key event, but it was a nice gentle rolling course and I was able to run at my own pace without any pressure as I took a comfortable win in 20:32, with an extra lap before and after to build up the run into a longer effort of 12 miles to round off the week.

Total mileage for the week: 60

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:34

Total mileage this month (August): 274

Total mileage so far 2016: 2209

Average miles per day 2016: 9.24

Each to their own...

Wade Van Niekerk

Adam Peaty

Maddie Hinch

Usain Bolt

Mo Farah

Nick Skelton

Jason Kenny

Laura Trott

Michael Phelps

Simone Biles

Max Whitlock 

Andy Murray

Alistair Brownlee

These are just some of the dozens and dozens of names that roll off the tongue when you think of the brilliant performances that we have been fortunate enough to have witnessed in Rio these last two weeks in the Olympic Games.

They are all champions of their sport, Gold medalists, and now household names. Some of them already had been for a number of years, others have become heroes overnight. A few of them will probably be back to defend their titles in Tokyo in four years time, for others this is the pinnacle or their swan song.

What each and every one of those athletes - and the rest, there are far to many to name them all - are a part of though, is yet another exceptional Olympic legacy. For Team GB, the representatives have lifted a nation. Throughout 2016 we have been a country which has been divided, split almost down the middle by a political mine field. What these Games have done these past two weeks though has been quite incredible. For once, the news has been full of positive, uplifting news. It has allowed us to banish the negativity, for a fortnight at least. The overpaid, underperforming footballers have been overshadowed and hopefully shamed somewhat by the stars that are shining bright out in Rio.

It is a fact of sport though, that not everyone can be victorious. Anyone that witnessed Adam Gemili missing out on a bronze medal in the men's 200m sprint by 0.003 of a second, or Lutalo Muhammad's agonising last second defeat in the men's taikwendo final and his heartbreaking interview in the aftermath, will understand the fine margin between success and missing out on that elusive Gold medal.

I hope that those that found themselves unsuccessful this time are able to use the failure as a fuel for future success, and are able to find positives to take away from the Games too. They deserve to because of all the effort and dedication that they have already shown to get to the level they are at.

Not everyone can be an Olympian of course, just like not everyone can win a race, or complete a marathon in under 4 or 5 hours. Success means different things to different people, we shouldn't judge ourselves against others, but against ourselves and where we are, where we have come from and where we aspire to get to. We have to make the most of our own abilities, and of our own opportunities that we are afforded. Hopefully these Games can inspire more people to take up sports and to become the best that they can be.

My blog is my own little way of recording my personal progress, of logging where I am at each week, of stating my targets, of monitoring my success and failures. It is my way of summarising what I have done, of analysing any improvements that I have made, or that I need to make. It is also where I like to collect my thoughts and to give my personal perspective on matters concerning the sport that I love.

Not everybody likes that, or gets it, and I understand that - each to their own - but I would like to think that people can at least respect it.

I found this on a running group that I follow on Facebook (the irony of moaning about people writing about their boring running hobby on a social media page for runners wasn't lost on me...) and it made me chuckle, but I thought I would reply - not that they will be reading anyway though of course...

I enjoy writing, I always have, and I'm not about to stop just because it bores the odd person here and there. My advice if you don't like it, don't read it - please just scroll on when it pops up on your timeline!

This week's training included a steady 12 miler on Monday, followed by another easy 10k on Tuesday. I had to move my usual speed session to Wednesday this week due to work commitments on the Tuesday evening meaning I didn't have time to do a proper session. 

Instead on the Wednesday I managed 8 x 1000m off a 90 second jog recovery around the cycle track at Cottam Sports Arena, as the track was out of bounds. I didn't really get any serious speed up, averaging 3:10 per kilometre, but at least it was a session to tick over with until next week. It also acted as a good tough run the day before my Thursday tempo session, with this week being the second week in a row that I have had to double up with back to back sessions. Thursday's session actually went quite well as I managed to hold 5:30 pace for the full 9 miles of my tempo, a sign that possibly my endurance is improving and I am getting more used to running on tired legs.

Friday was a recovery run of 8 miles. I changed my long run day to Saturday this week in order to give myself an extra 24 hours recovery from it before a mid-week race planned for next week, despite some atrocious conditions of howling wind and rain I managed to complete my planned 18 miles at a healthy average pace of 6:22. Sunday was an easy day with just 7 miles at 6:44 pace.

Total mileage for the week: 77

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:20

Total mileage this month (August): 214

Total mileage so far 2016: 2149

Average miles per day 2016: 9.26