sat at home not doing very much

i went for a run this morning but thats about it, very little to report. i am bored senseless but i know that i have to be like this for the long term good because if i don't rest properly then i wont recover. the way things are though it could be a long process before i'm competing in any sport again. will this mean that i learn to appreciate more when i beat my pb's? probably not because a) my pbs are shite and b)i always want to do better and resting on my laurels is just not in my make up. i am finding it hard to say that i am definitely changing sports-running is almost part of my genetic make up, but i will need to make up my mind one way or the other sooner or later because running and rowing are two sports that are incompatible because the body shapes of the two different types of athletes are vastly different

boxing day blues

went down to watch the races at clevedon today and it didnt' do any thing to make me feel better and it really did nothing for me watching when i would have loved to be competing, but it will only serve to motivate me to get back to full fitness in the long run no matter what sport i choose to pursue when i'm fit and healthy again. for the information of those of you that are interested, kevin heywood won the mens race while the womens race was won by this years world junior 1500 meter bronze medalist emma pallant. i saw mike after the race and he was adamant that i should have a test for glandular fever as he said that the symptoms that i'm describing sound exactly like that. i'm not convinced but i'll do it any way just to rule it out whn the new year comes along. i'm not sure what they do to treat glandular fever but the worrying thing is that a) some of the symptoms are definitely very similar to what i'm carrying eg, pushing myself slightly too hard and being absolutely exhausted or he next couple of days and b) its a long long road back to full fitness from it and i don't know a single person of the many runners i know that has had it and ever been the same again. that is a sobering thought indeed. in fact i'm getting depressed just sat here thinking about it. in fact the more and more i think about it the more and more tempted i am to turn my back on the competitive element of the sport if things don't start taking a turn for the better, because the more and more i think about it he more i think i can get more out of my self doing other sports. only i will have to make a clean break and not mix sports, no matter how painful i find it because i know that if i do that i will end up coming back, which is probably the wrong decision, because when you look at the times i ran when i was at my fittest, (note i didn't say "running well") the unavoidable truth is that i have 100% failed as a runner

merry christmas!

hope you got all you desired...i certainly did and more. did a few easy miles yesterday and that is pretty much the order of the day for the while. what ver it was that got me was pretty brutal as i am still recovering and there is no prospect of any competitive sport for the good while yet. considering my future again, could make a go of it as a rower this summer which would require me to be doing some winter training starting in acouple of weeks when whatever i've had is cleared up. as it is i am refusing to make any plans as a runner for the immediate future. the way i see it is that i have nothing ot lose, but running is a safe option for me. i know i'm a reasonable standard club runner, but that is all i will ever be. i feel as though i have more potential as a rower, or sculler as i'm almost perfectly built for it whereas i'm probably too big to go much further as a runner, so my power to weight ratio is too low. will watch the races at clevedon tomorrow where i will see mike and talk about it with him and one thing i know is that he will be supportive whatever decision i come to

waiting around getting very bored

i'm currently waiting for the results of the blood test and getting very bored. if i was injured i might be saying that i can't wait to start running again, but i'm having good days and bad days and on the bad days i really am struggling to get my self out the door. the good days aren't too bad. some times the day after a 4 or 5 mile easy run although cardiovascularly there are no problems my legs feel like they would after a heavy session, so some thing is not right. the scary thing is that i have been told that if i am anemic it is some thing that i will have to keep an eye on for the rest of my life. mind you though if steve redgrave can win an olympic gold medal with diabetes then my health problem must be manageable. a lot of the top athletes especially females have had similar problems like benita johnson the world cross country champion, but you do have to be careful managing it. i can't be bothered to run tonight i might just go for a swim instead. half of me is saying though that if i am going to give up running and concentrate on other sports then when i've recovered would be the best time to do it.

still shite

after the session i had last night at sneyd park on the hills i have officially given up hope of achieving any thing this year for the winter. i will just train and race and not expect any thing. went to the doctors this morning, nothing exciting to report there except gave 4 samples of blood and that was it. will get the results in a week or so. probably the worst time of year for it to happen to me with the christmas post etc, but thats just some thing that i'll have to deal with. i completed the session last night and whilst it was an improvement on the last time i ran at sneyd about a month ago the reps were still between 10 and 20 seconds down on my best times there. racing tomorrow at burnham-on-sea in a new monthly 5k that the local club have organised. i'm dreading what my time will be but i guess i will have to face the music at some point and just use that as some thing to build on rather than thinking about pb's, much as it pains me to say it. mind you though after the last race at weston i seriously considered chucking all my running gear in the sea and after the cross country on the downs i considered burning it. i am seriously worried that one day after a bad race my temper might get the better of me and it might end up costing me. the more and more i think about it the more i think other sports are the way forward.

taking it easy

for the past couple of days i have been feeling absolutely exhausted. there is no question that there is some thing wrong with me, well physically at least i am used to people telling me that i'm slightly mad. all i have managed to do for the past couple of days is steady running, i just haven't had the energy to run hard. did an hour steady this morning thats the longest i done since wednesday. apart from that my life has been work, read books and sleep. went to the doctor on wednesday and he agreed that i need to be referred to the nurses for a blood test, where they will check me for everything. i may try and do the session on the tuesday night just to make the results look worse than they actually are, becqause obviously there has to be a cut off point where they refuse people treatment and its an all or nothing scenario, in that if your iron or ferretin levels aren't low enough than all they will say is to take the boots multi vitamin and iron tablets, which i am already taking any way and really they aren't strong enough for what i need.

maybe its just a phase i'm going through but i keep on having dreams that im going to take up triathlon over the summer instead of the track, but with the winter i'm having i don't know if i'll be strong enough by the time summer comes along. i'm hardly doing any long runs as i just feel so tired at the moment. another dream i had recently was that i found a fifty pound note on the floor and every time i picked it up another one appeared in the same place. and i also dreamed i pulled celine dion in a bar in london, but i think that is quite likely to stay as a fantasy

unbelievably bad

after producing arguably the worst performance of my life at weston on thursday i consulted my coach mike via the phone and from what he has seen of me and the symptoms that i am describing he is almost certain that i'm anemic. this means that i currently have a lack of iron in my blood and/or my haemoglobin/ferretin levels are low, which consequently means that i have a lack of oxygen in my blood. a course of iron tablets would sort it out but to get the right ones at the right strengthyou would have to be prescribed them and prescriptions of course mean referals and blood tests and it may even mean that i have to take some time off training in order for my body to replenish it self although i sincerely hope it wont come to that. weston was a bit of a disaster, i mean i even got beaten by a woman for godssake, some thing that has never happened to me down there before. at 30 minutes and 30 seconds that is the second slowest time i have run on that course. and frankly if i had known i was going to run that badly i wouldn't even of bothered getting out of bed in the morning and i would have stayed there all day as the whole race was just a waste of time. so priority number one now is to get healthy again before i start thinking about running fast times, as they will not come if i'm anemic. only then will i start to think about what times i will be aiming for by the end of the winter and not before.

i am though using the spare time to look for races and there is a 5k and a 4 miler coming up in burnham on sea before the end of the year so i will be entering them. the 4 miler will be 5 days before the clevedon boxing day 4 so it will be perfect preparation for that race. the only difference though is that all competitors at burnham have to wear a bell around their neck, which will probably start to irritate me but if it does i will find some way of discreetly disposing of it, probably in a bush half way around the course!

prom run tonight

legs are still a bit tired from the time trial i did on tuesday night, but may be thats not such a bad thing as most of my bad races have been run on fresh legs. a bit strange really but true all the same. i remember the last time i did one of these races i was knackered at the start from having to sprint round my round in the morning to get to bristol in time for my mate jocks funeral, but i still finished within 4 seconds of my pb! then on sunday there's the bmc 4k cross country championships on bristol downs. this is the second longest running cross country race in britain behind 'the national' and used to attract quality fields to match a race of such history. however since the iaaf decided to do away with the short course race at the world championships interest has declined as people have decided to concentrate on the longer event in order to secure their place on the team for that. sad really but thats the changing nature of the sport in which we compete and we have to go with it or the sport will die. i have huge doubts over the competitive benefits for the sport of mass participation marathons etc as they have produced a generation of joggers who aren't interested in competing properly and are only looking to get round. but the problem is money talks but london marathon and great run, the two big race organising companies aren't interested in re-investing in the sport that sustains them and this is one of many reasons why gb is struggling to compete against the top european nations let alone the likes of kenya and eithiopia. aside from that we have also produced a generation of youngsters in this country that are frankly bone idle and expect things to be done for them and they're too frightened of hard work

i managed to push through the pin barrier last night

i hope this isn't yet another example of me doing it in training but not in a race. did the 4k loop round coombe dingle which i managed in 14:17. well some one said they measured it to be exactly 4k, but i expect that to be some what of a mis truth, i reckon 4.1 is nearer the truth. not sure what my fastest time round there is but i reckon it's faster than that. will get a better idea when i do the weston race tomorrow night. the time works out at 3:34 per kilometer, which equates to about 17:50 over a 5k and i just know i'm faster than that at the moment. we'll see though.

next week when i go back to work i will start doing the weight training again, but it will be leg weights only this time. i have a book on weight training for runners tucked away at home some where and i intend to consult it. the problem with the upper body stuff is that i bulk up too easily but any thing on the legs is bound to be beneficial. my legs though are still sore from the pounding they took last night to do any thing hard today. i've been out once today already and i will again tonight but recovery runs can some times seem harder than the sessions themselves and that was certainly the way it felt today

went out on a steady run last night

was running down unlit roads, thought i'd be ok, until my headlight battery went half way through the run, so i couldn't see where i was going! this was along a 60 mph road, so it was a little bit scary really but thats not going to be enough to put me off. training tonight at coombe dingle, don't have any idea what the sessions going to be but i'll go up there for a nice hard run out. i get annoyed with my self though because i always seem to save my best performances for training and i can go in to a race feeling just as fresh and not perform. why? well if i had the answer to that i wouldn't be sat here typing this but worst of all it seems to affect the races where time matters as they represent the best chance of gettting a fast time. i'm still anoyed with my self for this sunday as within a few minutes of the coughing fit coming on i felt fine again. but then if i had finished the race i would have done a shit time, just for the sake of finishing, which to me is not the objective of shorter races like 10k's or 5k's. marathons or half marathons yes, but not shorter races. looking ahead i will run weston on thursday evening which is a race very similar to brighton only it is 5 miles not 10k and it is a 2 lap course not one. there will also be a 5k on tuesday and a 4k cross country on sunday (did i mention this yesterday?) i'm cramming these races in now because shortly every thing will be winding down for the festive season and then there will be nothing til the traditional boxing day races in clevedon apart from the avon and somerset cross country champs on the first weekend in december, where hopefully i will repeat my gold medal winning performance of last year. that was the team gold not individual which seems a long way off at the moment

bad day at the office

it was just a bad day at the office yesterday, something that was translated in my failure to finish the brighton 10k, brought on by a coughing fit. not something that happens very often when you're running but i seem to remember commenting last week that i'd been struggling with a cold in the days leading up to the race. while i'm here i'd also like to take the opportunity to say thanks to jon and rosie for putting up with me for the weekend. i'm wondering whether or not recent poor performances were caused by some sort of physiological problem and i'm going to get some blood tests organised to try and determine whether or not that is the case. it has been mentioned before that my iron levels and my red blood cell count were very low even when i was running quite well earlier this year.

there are more races coming up such as the weston prom run on thursday evening and the bridge inn 5k on the following tuesday, plus a short course cross country race in bristol so i could possibly be quite tired by next week!

i'm sticking to my promises

twice a day so far this week-even if yesterday morning was only 20 minutes. mind you though i "sessioned" in the evening at coombe dingle so its ok. i did flunk the last 2 minute rep (the session was an up and down the clock session 6 minutes, 2mins recovery, 4 mins, 1:30 recovery, 2 mins, 1 minute rcovery, then the same but in reverse, followed by a 2 minute rep at the end). my legs were still in the process of recovering from the ultra tough wiltshire 10k on sunday. two huge hills in the middle and start of the race put paid to any hope of a fast time. i was running 3:36 ks comfortably til then. until i was confronted by these monsters. one of them was bigger and steeper than the hill that john martin and that other "runner" scott roberts lived on in brighton (or rather scott still does) and the other one was about the same. the bigger one was steeper than that and by the time i had it out the way it was a question of just holding on. that and the wind meant you weren't gaining much on the down hills. but weather permitting brighton is a chance of a fast time and i intend to take it

no more pissing about

no excuses now. its time for me to start knuckling down and get serious about training in order to get my self fit for winter. i've two weeks off work nowe and i plan to be out running twice every day apart from saturday sunday and monday due to travel arrangements. i did the wiltshire 10k yesterday mostly as a training run, but ran an exceptionally hilly course in 40:19. it sounds slow but the hills were probably worth 2-3 minutes alone and you didn't make the time up on the down hills. in total there was probably 2.5k worth of climbing, including some sections of the course where the gradient must have been 1 in 3 or 4. this is a bit of a wake up call really though that i need to get my act together. i've already been for an 8 mile run this morning and will do another 4 or 5 tonight. that will be the staple diet through the week and next week as well. of the rowing machine now got too much going on running wise to allow for distractions. i've been trying to find the date for the bourton on the water 10k, but even though it is supposed to be in february or march next year they still haven't advertised it on the bourton road runners website. this is the course that consistently comes up along with the leeds abbey dash when people talk about courses with pb potential and i have missed out on it for tha last two years because i got the information too late and i am determined not to let that happen again

sorry its been this long

the last time i tried to update this space the computer went balls up and that was that. i'm slowly but surely getting back to something resembling the shape i was in last winterbut it feels like a long hard slog. on a more positive note my times on the concept 2 rower are getting quicker and i am definitely in the brighton 10k. 6:41.3 is the latest time for 2000m meters. if it gets much quicker than that i will definitely be taking up rowing or sculling. i'm only running once a day at the minute, but thats a deliberate ploy. twice may get you fit but it also burns you out if you're not careful. maybe once the brighton 10k is out of the way and we are heading towards christmas and the less important races i might use that time to put in a bit of mileage but certainly not before then. trained at coombe dingle last night and again tomorrow and twice last week. in fact it seems that all of our sessions have been on the grass rcently and whilst that may be better for your joints just running laps of the same circuit all the time isn't good for your motivation. hopefully i will be staying with jon and rosie before the race in brighton in a couple of weeks time all being well. the latest update on ewan and kellis baby from scotland is that he has now started attempting to eat people! i am also laying down this challenge to jon martin and scott to enter the brighton 10k-if the entries are still open

having a hard time

i've been working hard this week, probably too hard but its all good fun. my schedule this week has included a long run of about 16 miles, where i had a proper bink. not the sort most of you would think of, but its where you're body starts to feel tired due to lack of energy and it makes you feel temporarily tired and nauseous. i have also done a hard 2000 meter effort on the ergometer (down to 6:49 now) which was preceded by a steady state run of about 7 miles, twenty minute threshold run last night and tuesdays session was 4x1 mile at aztec west which were all under 5:40. the quality of the group i am training with is definitely getting better with a lot more people attacking the front of the group, but it is almost exclusively a male group now, so there's no body to take my fancy romantically unfortunately. and it also means i'm now near the back of the group despite running faster times than i was running 2 years ago when i was at the front of the middle, if you can make sense of that. although i don't feel as fit as i was this time last year i still feel some pb's over the longer distances, hence the reason i have attempted to enter the brighton 10k although i don't know if it has been accepted as the cheque hasn't been presented yet and i did leave it a bit late. some people i know would be able to get elite entries but i fear i'm not quite at that standard-yet.

tonight will be a hard effort on the ergometer but no running, possibly followed by a game of snooker with one of my work mates. we're starting up a mini league for pill spdo of about 4 or 5 people. my snooker skills need polishing though and i have no pretensions of being the next rocket ronnie. finally our previous manager has been moved on from portishead as his lies and slimy behaviour have finally caught up with him. i was one of the first to find out and i had an urge to remind him that what goes around comes around as he packed his bags and left. i'm sure you all recall this is a reference to his many failed attempts to get rid of me, but i resisted this as i thought if i did say it it may come back to haunt me. he's now at bristol south delivery office in hartcliffe where if he behaves as he did in portishead, not only will they string him up, they'd queue up to kick away the stool, so hopefully for his sake he's learnt his lesson!

fit but not running well

my concept2 rowing times have improved but my running hasn't. my 2000 meter time is now down to 6:52.6. there's a bit of competition going on with another guy from the gym who does similar times over 2000. he's done 6:54 but i reckon i will go much quicker given time and training. my mind though is still in a bit of a quandry about which direction to go in. doing both sure is hard work though as it means i'm doing 4 hard sessions a week plus a long run of about 13 miles on a saturday evening, meaning that i am consuming a lot of food and don't have a lot of energy for much else at the minute. i will be doing my first race on sunday when i enter the portishead 10k (or 5k)multi terrain run on sunday morning. knowing the course as well as i do there's no chance of any pbs as the terrain is just too hilly, so it will be all about position. obviously i will keep you all informed on here as to how i get on. watch this space...

looking around

i've been looking at websites for the two rowing clubs in the bristol area and they're both as informative as sports club websites usually are-not very. i've done some hard erg sessions since then, 5x500 meters yesterday and some steady running and rowing. nothing spectacular but i still don't feel like i'm training for any thing at the moment even though the first race is only a few weeks away. i've really got to try hard to break this mindset. maybe i do need some form of a fresh challenge to keep me on my toes a little bit?

back down to earth with a bang

after thinking my winter training programme had got off to a reasonable start guess what? i've had my first bug of the year already and we've hardly got started. but this time i've been in work due to the new manager we have at portishead delivery office who to be honest truthful and straight is a cunt. he has already docked several colleagues pay for calling in sick and put them on statutory sick pay even for just one day. i can't really afford to lose a days pay even if i will get it back some time a bit further down the line. several people are also owed money for thins like door to doors, and overtime and people are being put on conduct code like my self (3rd time already) for honest mistakes or refusing to do over time as we're not being paid for it, rather than what it shuould be used for which is deliberate acts of dishonesty, eg stealing mail or bringing mail back to the office without informing management prior to commencing delivery. we've all been emailed a copy of the letter that the union sent to him and his manager following a crisis meeting where people could air their grievances that the manager didn't turn up for, although one suspects it was more to do with him not wanting to face the music over the scandalous way he treats people. any one who wants to have a read of this is welcome to as i still have it on email, i will send it on to you. thats my work rant over

i think i picked this bug up after training on tuesday on the downs, i felt rough afterwards, whic is nothing untoward, but the evening afterwards alarm bells started to ring when it took me 60 mins to complete a course i would usually do in 55 and it got progressively worse from there on in until i had a sore throat etc and all the other classic cold symptoms. i'm still giving consideration to my future as a runner though by the way, especially the course i will take through the summer season as i wont be running track this yearonly training on it. i've been doing a fair bit on the concept2 rowers, which has helped to keep a bit of variety in the training though and as i get more competent i may enter some competitions, it just depends on how things pan out. but the first priority is to get this bug out of my system before racing begoins in earnest, which for me will either be the portishead 10k or the clevedon road relays btoh on the 28th of september, just depends which one takes my fancy. take care, bye

winter is back with a vengeance...

or should that be winter is still here? the weather is terrible as it has been all summer, running un the downs we have been slipping and sliding about all over the place-can't really wear cross country spikes up there because of the dogs and the members of the public who don't seem to understand what "excuse me" means til you're right upon them. we've been running some long efforts, just vaguely measured out circuits in a bid to get ourselves up and running for the season. we're not working too hard at the moment as it is very hard to maintain high levels of fitness for 9 months of the year. i was supposed to run the cardiff 10k on sunday as my first race, but i woke up and my back was hurting and i ran a 13 miler the night before so the legs were a little bit sore. but mike pointed out to me that training at this time of year is more important than races you have plenty of time to race get fit first as it wont do your confidence much good if you run slow times.

here i am

i'm currently waiting in the airport departure lounge for a flight up to scotland to go and see young isaac smith, the most recent addition to the smith familly only 3 months ago. i did an 8 mile run last nitght followed by a 2000m row in 6:59.2 on the concept 2 rowing machines. see www.concept2.co.uk for details of where that would place me in the national rankings. at the moment the plan for next year is this. ditch the track in the summer, do the winter as usual ie road races and cross country and have a go at rowing over the summer season. i've had a gut feeling for quite some time that i could be quite good at rowing so now is the time to test that theory out. the seasons are different and i think the two sports could actually complement each other quite well. it looks like i could be doing more weight work over the winter ass well in an attempt to keep injuries at bay as i currently have a strain on my right groin, which funny though this sounds i think i picked it up in amsterdams red light district last year. enough said about that i think. while in scotland i am hoping to visit loch ness and the highlands as well as meeting the new baby

I'VE BEEN SUSPENDED FROM WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as of 7 am today i am suspended on full pay by royal mail, pending a meeting tomorrow. this came about as a result of my refusal to do overtime as the little boy in charge of the office is throwing his toys out of the pram and refusing to pay people when they work over their time. i followed procedure exactly, by informing the management that i wasn't prepared to work over my time, before i commenced my delivery. several people have already put in grievances against this guy including some of the most ardent non strikers. i will be putting a formal grievance in for intimidation harrassment and victimisation. add on to that this morning when he attempted call me in to the office for "an informal chat" he attempted to deny me my right to have a recognised union rep present, and by law he has to give me 48 hours notice for any disciplinary meeting again something he attempted to deny me. when i refused to go in to the meeting, as i was instructed to do by the union, he suspended me on full pay. having spoken to the union i have been assured that if i am sacked the office will be walking out in sympathy, as the point at issue is that this guy thinks he can do what he likes to who he likes when he likes. a member of the office who shall remain unnamed has now started a petition to get the guy out of the job because he just treats people like dirt. the fact that i called him a fucking wanker after i got suspended may work against me

on the running front i have decided i would like a go at multi sports and i'm also going to have a go on the concept 2 rower tonight at the gym to see how i get on with that. i was swimming last night in (no tuesday sorry) the pool and my front crawl stroke although it is a bit laboured towards the end of the session it started to feel a bit more natural and at some very brief points i actually felt quite fluent with it. maybe its some thing i could be quite good at. i'd never thought of it that way until now but i'm starting to reconsider now...a little pause for thought methinks...

on holiday

i'm on a break from training at the moment. still doing some running but not as much so i'm making time for other things like playing tennis and hopefully love. nothing going on there at the minute but i have a good feeling that some thing positive could happen on that front in the near future. i am also using my time away from the sport to give serious consideration to what comes next in my sporting career. the way i feel at the minute i feel like giving up running on the track completely except for training on it and maybe taking up some other form of sport completely. other sports have been mentioned such as triathlon or duathlon have been mentioned. a certain person who shall remain nameless saidthe fact that i was (apparently) considering quitting the sport altogether was an acknowledgement that he was a better athlete than me...not so and if its all down to quitting before your time than he is the worst athlete in living memory (did precisely 6 hrs and 5 mins of running before saying his tendon hurt) every part of me hurts some days but i never let it stop me.

martin greenwood mentioned the possibility of me becoming a boxer but thats just a non starter. i have too much to give to risk getting my brain mashed. if you asked me right now though which seems like the most likely option i would put my hand on my heart and say that i honestly don't know. another option that i've given serious consideration to is rowing as i have done some very good times on the concept 2 indoor rowers so maybe that might be my path to fame and fortune as an olympic champion...that may be four years away but the hard work starts now...

and finally...

that last planned race of the season is upon me, a bmc 1500 meter race at exeter where the target for me is to run under 4:30. i'm back to training once a day now though as i have been carrying a few niggles in my legs particularly my hip flexors which at one point last week were quite painful to stand up on. if i run sub 4:30 then obviously i will have to raise the bar next year and hopefully aim for sub 4:20. been watching the london grand prix which i videoed last weekend and its nice finally to get through an athletics meeting without mention of dwain chambers and drugs cheats and finally be able to appreciate the many things that are good about our sport.british athletcs is in good shape now after a lean couple of years and there are two events where we could potentially take all three medals. the mens tripple jump with philips idowu, nathan douglas and larry achike all hitting 17 m plus form at the right time. the womens marathon is the other with our paula being the outstanding favourite along side mara yamouchi 2:25 pb and liz yelling 2:28. there are a few faster runners than those two but a lot will depend on how peoples bodies cope with the pollution and smog in beijing.

the mens 100 promises to be some thing special with 4 outstanding contenders in asafa powell, usain bolt tyson gay and xavier carter (if he decides to run) and if any of those slip up you have nesta carter, michael frater and kim collins to name but a few who are all capable of running 9.9 something. but soon the talking will be over and the walikng will start....

going to visit the new boy

a few weeks from august and the olympics, i am now planning my summer holidays, including a visit to scotland to visit ewan and kelli and their 3 month old son isaac. as ever its frustrating that the end comes at such an inconvenient point as i still feel like i am improving and i haven't reached the point where everything running-wise starts to become a bit of a chore...or at least not yet any way.

i just hope that i can hold on to it for long enough to be able to run sub 4:30 at exeter on tuesday. many of my training partners are starting to drop by the wayside with less to train for now that a lot of the major championships are done and dusted with only the big one left in beijing.

there is one bmc grand prix left but with there being qualification standards to attain i think i might be giving that one a miss. i will however be doing the training probably up until the point that the group breaks up for the summer and will quite probably be the first one back when the new season starts in late august, as i have to make sure i'm fit for the cardiff 10k on september 7th the north somerset relayson 14th september and the 20th of september is the midland road relays. important races even this early in the year so staying fit over the break is critical

dwain chambers....

....is it the right decision? please text me with your opinions...personally i think it was the right one. why? whereas at the world indoors they made a special case of victimising him by making one rule for him and one for the other drugs cheats in the team like carl myerscough, the life time olympic ban applied to all british athletes and personally i think there should be a longer ban and a life time olympic ban for ALL athletes of ALL nationalities. he has served his time yes and there is now no reason why he shouldn't be able to run again, but just not at the olympics. and what about the clean athletes that he has deprived of places in national squads is that fair? and while we're on the subject perhaps ian huntley might want to claim for 'restraint of trade' because he can't work any more. you just never know what doors it may have opened if they got the judgement wrong. people should be forgiven though and we shouldn't continually castigate dwain for succumbing to temptation-that can happen to any body as we're all human and the prizes and riches that were dangling in front of him would be tempting for any body.

went training last night and promptly wished i hadn't afterwards. ran like a fucking cart horse as usual...mike reckons i am running well, but i'm not quick enough for my liking. yes my recovery has got bettter but the 800 speed just isn't there and probably never will be again. three 800's followed by one 400 at the end of the session. its a lot harder than it sounds because you're running them at 1500 meter pace which takes its toll on your legs come the end of the evening. for some reason i find it very hard to look at what i run on the track in a positive light. maybe its because i'm just better on the cross country and road, which incidently i have always thought anyway, but surely even a pb deserves some recognition from my self, but i just think a pb at my speed shows that i was shit in the first place

reaching a peak

i feel like i have reached a peak of fitness very quickly this year. on with only two weeks of the season remaining (maybe a bit more depending on how i feel) i ran 4:38 again for 1500 meters on sunday despite feeling sick due to the heat and tired due to having run twice the day before. that was at yate track, where my record over the past few years shows that i consistently run between 5-10 seconds slower than what i would do at exeter at the same season. the sub 4:30 clocking that has almost become a bit of a psychological barrier over the last couple of years is surely getting closer. i was looking for another race between now and exeter but having checked the timetable for the only meeting i know of, cheltenham next wednesday, the only distance race they have on is a 1000 meter race. i haven't totally ruled it out as it may be quite useful as a training exercise, so watch this space. its just frustrating when you get really fit that there's a lack of suitable races.

this summer i have kept the mileage reasonably high around about 50-60 per week. this has meant often having to squeeze a run in after workbefore lunch, which is tiring and frankly some times it makes you feel like running is all you do. but thats the last thing you think of when you run a pb or you are stood on the start line waiting for the gun to go and battle to commence. its what all the hard woks about

not long to go now

the track season is a small window of opportunity and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly time comes and goes in any walk of life. it only seems like yesterday that i was walking on to the trak for the first time this year. now there is only one month of the season left and whilst i intend to make the most of it my legs are starting to feel just that little bit jaded. never mind though in a months time i'll be able to put my feet up for a couple of weeks or so and not have to worry about running until the cross country season starts again and the road relays at the end of september. and hopefully a 10k pb and a 5k pb but that will be an on going target for the whole of the winter period. in the intervening period between seasons i will look for a new job someone said today that the railfreight company ews pay good money for shunters down at portbury and avonmouth docks so i may have a gander at that.

down the track tonight and we're getting to the stage now when we're expecting to run fast. there aint long left so we really have to make it count now. nearly all the work will be 1500 meter specific, but i would hope for some thing a bit longer as i may well be doing a 5000 meter race on saturday week, where hopefully i will crack 17 minutes for the first time. aslo in august i will probably be paying a visit to scotland to meet a new addition to this world and i will report back my findings on this blog!

why do traffic police think they know everything?

i got caught going througha "red" light. i say "red because it was acually orange and it was too dangerous to stop because of my proximity to the light-i wouldn't of been able to stop in time and i had traffic right up my backside. still according to the traffic pig who stopped me i would have been able to stop if i had been driving at the correct speed, but i was already well within the speed limit, and any slower and i wouldn't of been driving with the flow of the traffic. so thats a £60 fine and three points on my licence. compare that to the numerous examples of drug addicts going out beating an old granny to a pulp and then getting a caution and told not to do it again. where's the fairness? well this is my theory...the police are in the pay of the top drug dealers, so it is in their interests to keep as many drug addicts on the streets as possible, as that obviously means more money for the dealers and more for the filth who take a cut...but they still have to justify their existence to the politicians so they make their statistics look good by nicking easy targets like motorists. so everybody's happy...apart from if you're a law abiding citizen of the united kingdom.

well apart from that everythings fine apart from i have an infection in my foot from a blister. we've just moved in to the phase of our training when we're really starting to concentrate on 1500 meter specific work. last nights session for example was in two bits. an 800 meter rep then a 700 meter rep. then we had a lap jog recovery then 600, 500, 400 all off a 1:30 recovery period. the idea was that we were supposed to run the second half of the session faster than the first half, which i managed to do quite comfortably, 4:34 for the firts bit and 4:24 for the second meaning that i should hopefully be able to run somewhat faster than my pb pace in my next 1500 meter race. i have a more specific idea than that but i'm not going to say what it is though. the next challenge for me is to produce that form when it counts as i'm not going to be racing again for a while, probably the end of the month.

upwardly mobile

if you are wondering why i haven't posted for a while the answer is simple. i now own a car and i have succumbed to the temptation to drive everywhere. and why not? i've been waiting 28 years for this and i intend to make the most of it. i now means that i have more independence and more time to myself due to the shorter journey times. in theory this should mean that i have more recovery time between work and training and should hopefully train and work better. simple.

my first race as a car owner was at mansfield on saturday in a 3000m league race. no pace makers like there were in my previous 3000 down at millfield and the weather conditions were certainly not perfect like they were at millfield with a slight wind down the back straight but the cloud cover up north made sure that it wasn't too hot like it has been at so many league meetings in the past. running most of the race on my own, i managed to run 9:59.8, so a new lifetime best by just 1 10th of a second. not a big improvement like i would obviously have preferred but like that aincient chinese proverb says "every marathon starts with the first step".

as is the way with league meetings you often get coaxed in to doing other events but i always set a strict rule with the team managers that i don't do anything else for the team until i have competed in the event that i train for. 40 minutes after the 3000 had fininshed and with my legs feeling pretty much wrecked i ran a leg of the 4x400 and managed to run the anchor leg in 65 seconds. i feel as though i could have gon quicker but i just did enough to hold on to the place that i started in with a little burst at the end.

got home at about nine o'clock and it was out for a bit of a spin in the old (new) motor, a honda concerto 1.6 hatch backfor an hour or so just exploring places that i've never been before locally around portbury clapton in gordano and all the other local villages. i love the countryside especially in the summer as it is just so peaceful and quiet

long sessions

tonight is the only track session of the week. i have a race on sunday hopefully at tipton, but more likely to be at mansfield in the midland league. to be honest i'm really not that keen to travel so far but but if thats what i have to do then i will do it because with the track and field situation as it is in the west country there aren't that many meetings that cater for athletes of my sort of standard and unfortunately beggars can't be choosers. even if i had the qualifying times for the british milers club grand prixs the mileage involved i travelling would still be rather large due to the lack of suitable facilities in the area. they're at places like watford, or crystal palace or manchester. the kenyan olympic team is due to hold it's pre olympic camp in bristol in 2012 and with both tracks filton and whitchurch up for redevelopment we could have a rather embarrassing situation on our hands where some of the worlds top distance runners come to train in bristol but have no where to train. i think most bristolians could find some sort of grudge against our citys leaders but the lack of an adequate sports stadium and the facilities that go with it are a concern for every body within the sporting fraternity.

i have already done a 4 miler this morning decided to do it today due to the fact that i finished quite late at work yesterday. on a round i didn't know in an area i didn't know i ended up getting lost. when asked people for help apparently no one knewhow to do the round and when i asked the management for a map, they told me 'there's a shop accross the road go you'll have to go and buy one'. fucking brilliant. it was half past two by the time i got back to the office at pill, swearing i will never do that round again or if i do i will cut off

the race on saturday is a 3000 in the midland league my third 3000 of the year. thats more this season than i have done in the previous 3 years and hopefully i will be able to extend my unbeaten run to two races!

i feel like a total idiot...

why? for virtually giving away my ticket to wembley because i couldn't get there. and i know this sounds awfully selfish, but i will find it very hard to celebrate watching on tv because i sould have been there. don't get me wrong i still want them to win, but it's not the same watching it on tv compared to being there.

lessons in life

people often ask me questions about why i run, why i do so much training when i have a physical job etc etc and i can come up with a multitude of reasons why i run and what running can do for you. firstly i run for competitive reasons, for the fun of competition. as a sort of side ahow to that i take a huge amount of satisfaction when i lower my times over any distance or if its cross country from beating some one i know would represent a huge challenge to me.

secondly its nice if you're annoyed about something to be able to just pop my trainers on and hit the road for an hour or so and it does have the effect of clearing all thoughts from my mind and gives me the chance to think things over whilst i'm out. most of my steady running is done on my own. this is on purpose because it is 'me' time. rather than having people shouting at me saying do this do that all the time i can get away and concentrate solely on my self.

it is a sport that teaches you so much about yourself, how your mind and body works and i certainly consider my self to be a far wiser more educated person now than i was at university all learnt through running. it is a sport that teache you humility as it makes you realise that every one has limitations even the greatest of us. for proof of this just look at the pictures of martin lel sammy wanjiiru and abderahim goumri after the london marathon this year. three of the worlds greatest athletes exhausted, finished.

easy does it

this week will be my last week of longer repetitions before i move on to 1500 meter specific work in preparation for the bmc races down at exeter and hope fully a fast time. today really doesn't feel like summer as it is pissing down with rain. but you have to put things like that to the back of your mind and focus only on what you can control if you're to become a successful distance runner. like running through pain for example. tuesday was a good example of this as the longer distance section of the group did a session of 8x800 off a short recovery. nobody completed the full session. i did 6 800's and 2 400's as my calf mascles felt absolutely solid running in spikes. i hadn't bothered bringing my road training shoes with me, something which i regretted. i finished and showered in time to listen on the radio to bristol city book their place at wembley for the championship play off final. the 800 meter reps were run in about 2:34 and the 400's in about 74. my calves just wouldn't let me go any quicker. such is life but you would far rather it happened in training than a race.

moving on

having been the only person in the group to finish the session last thursday (we ran 600, 500, 400 off a short recovery 4 times) i have really started to knuckle down and put some hard work in. the weekly mileage is now up to 60 mpw in non race weeks and about 50 in race weeks. i am now managing to fit an extra run in after work on mondays wednesdays and fridays. only about 30 minutes or so each time but it does make a significant difference to the mileage total as i usually manage about 4-41/2 miles each time along the river avon towpath. my targets for the summer reamin the same as ever, but i was interested to see the front page of the evening post today. gary johnson has been made in to winston churchill doing the 'victory' salute and smoking a cigar, with the headline 'let it be our finest hour'. i'm sure i don't need to explain what this is all about but i now think neil warnock has overtaken ian holloway as the most hated person at ashton gate thanks to his constantly jibing at the team

mixed emotions at millfield

i finally broke the 10 miniute barrier last night at millfield-9 minutes 59 seconds, but i was really annoyed at being beaten by claire hallisey-again-yet i beat her all the time in training yet she seems to save all her best performances for competition. its annoying that i seem to save my best performances for training but theres got to be some reason for that. it was suggested last night that tapering before races isn't necesarily the right thing to do as your legs can go in to it not feeling awake. it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that i know i can beat her based on her training performances and it makes me feel that i should be running times like that rather than the absolute shite i ran last night. the conditions were were perfect, the pacemaking was absolutely perfect, there is no excuse for only just breaking 10 minutes i feel like i should have taken another 10 seconds off and i doubt i will get another opportunity as good as that all summer. and if anyone says to me 'ooh but you should be pleased because you ran a pb' i'm going to slap them in the face. i'm not happy about having to settle for second best.

don't ask me what i'm doing next because i don't know but the 1500's down at exeter are the most likely next target race.

broken promises

i mentioned to martin greenwood last night about posting the report from my latest laboratory test to this blog and he said i could possibly do it by copying and pasting it. however ;ooking at the email they sent me this option doesn't appear to be possible (the actual report it self is an email attatchment) so if any one knows how to do this than please feel free to contact mr computer illiterate here. since i last posted on here i have done two track sessions and a couple of 8 or 9 mile steady runs. the first session was 800 short recovery 400 and the second was 3x 4x400. the second one was run at a slightly faster pace mainly using it as a tune up for mondays race. the same distance but the extra recovery made a hell of a difference to how my legs felt the next day. on wednesday after the legs were particularly sore on friday they felt almost like i hadn't done any thing hard the previous night, which is the way it should be during the track season if there is an important race coming up because you don't want to leave your best performances behind in training and have nothing left for races.

i was asked to run in a club league match today but i declined. something that didn't endear me or mike to the track and field team manager but in this sport you have to look after yourself and you can't expect others to do it for you other wise they will take advantage and i'm determined not to let that happen. the races in the leagues are generally low key affairs with some times as few as two or three people competing, not good for fast times but it may mean that i win some later on in the year as i will be doing some of them-just not on this occasion.

learning from the past

one of the mistakes i think i made last year was trying to tackle 1500 meter races stright away off winter training. the consequence of this was my leags very quickly had to get used to running at speeds that were way faster than what i was used to and i think that was a major contributory factor to the fact that the second half of the summer wasn't as good as the first. my legs were just too badly beaten up. this year the plan is to tackle more 3000 meter races before moving on to the shorter stuff and so far so good. last night while the 800 meter runners were doing a session of 500, 400, 300 x 2 off longish recoveries the 1500 and 3000 meter runners were doing a session of 800 short recovery 400, 3 times for the 1500 people and 4 times for the 3000 meter people, which amounted to a hardcore of me and a n other. it will be even more lonely on thursday as the students will be resting up ready for the busa championships over the bank holiday weekend. i on the other hand will be watching bristol city v preston north end on the sunday, probably looking at cars on the friday and i will probably watch about 2 dozen races and participate in one on the monday, starting with the newest race on the calendar, the run bristol 10k, which i would of been doing my self had it not been for the clash, and a series of 800m 1500m and 3000m races at millfield as well as a swimming gala which is usually entertaining. plus there is the possibility of a game of tennis or golf on saturday so that will be a weekned full of sporting action!

slow start at bath

i ran a pb at bath. 10.21 for 3000. really though that is simply not good enough and before anyone starts giving me that shite about "ooh but its a personal best though" i don't care. i can don much better than that and i am not going to make excuses for bad rubbish. the conditions themselves were hard work, very hot and very windy. at bath university, which is not a favourite track of mine in the first instance it only takes a small amount of wind to play havoc with race times as it is over 100 meters above sea level and is consequently very exposed to the elements. track race number 2 is at millfield on monday evening, where i will again be running a 3000. this time though rather than being on my own i will be in a paced race against people of a simialr ability. millfield is one of only two tracks where i can ever seem to run well, the other one being exeter, so it will be interesting ot see whether or not it amkes any difference. mind you on saturday the times were slow all round. the race was won by julian emery of clevedon, someone i would expect to beat 9 minutes fairly convincingly, but he only ran 9:15 in similar circumstances to my self eg he was on his own in front for most of the race after martin flook dropped out. no one else broke 10 minutes, the 2nd place guy ran 10:17, i was third, the fourth place guy ran 10:31 and there was a young female who ran 11 minutes some thing.

i spent most of the rest of the evening feeling very tired hungry and thinking why do i bother with this to myself, before as i usually do when i'm thinking this, i realised that without the running there would be a huge void in my life that would need to be filled somehow and quite honestly i don't know how i would fill it. there will be two more training sessions between now and monday, both of them on the track. there is a 5k at shortwood but at this stage of the season, training should not be sacrificed for racing and i wouldn't expect to run a fast time at shortwood as it isn't the quickest course around. its also quite important that i get my self used to running ont track again so my calfs don't get injured when i start oputting my spikes on on monday. saturdays race was done in my much heavier road shoes. right now i'm going to have another look at cars on some of the websites. cheerio for now

i've come on here just to say one thing today...

after about a year of e=searching, i have found a copy of american pie-the greatest hits cd album, in waitrose of all places after about a year trying to find it. this was an album that was originally brought for me several years ago, on tape that has been lost in the midsts of time, by martin greenwood and jon waymont. shortly i will be going home to have lunch followed by a trip to bath for the first race of the track season this afternoon, interspersed hopefully by a bristol city win over sheffield united and hull city and stoke both losing to keep our faint automatic promotion hopes alive for another week at least.

test results

having put myelsf through half an hour of discomfort yesterdayon a treadmill i have learned the following. firstly that my vo2 max has improved from 57.89 to 59.something, i have also made considerable improvement with my lactate threshold, in that my blood lactate levels were lower at every level of intensity, from the slowest pace right to the quickest. this is pleasing when you consider that i did a minute longer on the aerobic section of the test (so 19 minutes of running in total as opposed to 18) and i did 7:30 on the anaerobic section which is 30 seconds more. so hopefully, come the summer this will mean that i am more durable and faster as well. the lactate results were especially pleasing when you consider that i haven't done any top end speed work at all yet, so clearly i am doing some thing right. so in theory my current for should translate as follows, according to the information i have found on the serpentine running club website (their website's the best for that sort of thing) 1500 4:39, 3000 9:59 5000 17:13. i'm running a 3k tomorrow at bath university so it will be interesting to see how accurately those predictions translate to the track. it will also be good to guage the early season form of some of the other competitors. going to the sports department at bath university can some times be like a whos who of british sport. for example yesterday i saw craig pickering (fastest white man in history) duncan goodhew the former swimmer now coach. in addition their famous alumni include colin jackson and jason gardner mbe two former world champions on the track-and that just some of the athletics bods!

the other race going on tomorrow is the national road relay championships at sutton park in birmingham, but i wont be there as the club have decided to enter only one team this year despite qualifying two at the midlands. it was disappointing to hear of the withdrawl of rob whalley due to a familly wedding-he declared his availability for the wedding after someone sent an email round with the wrong dates on, so with that our chance of a medal could have gone but one of the great things about the twelve stage is that you never know how the other teams are getting on til they turn up as well

why i hate sitting around doing nothing

i hate sitting around doing nothing because it feels so unnatural to me. i am an outdoor active person by nature, so therefore the days before treadmill tests can be quite, well boring as you're supposed to do nothing as it may affect the results of the test. i may go for a run around weston bigwood tonight only a jog but enough to keep my legs ticking over. i wont sleep very well if i don't you see.

talking about unatural forms of running, the treadmill test it self is slightly odd itself for a number of reasons. for a start you have to wear a head brace which in turn holds a tube in your mouth which is connected to a computer. you also have to wear a nose clip, so that the machine can collate all the oxygen that you breathe. for the first section of the test you have to start off at slow speeds, and every three minutes they will take your heart rate and a blood sample to measure your blood lactate levels. after you have completed, six phases of this you then with a thirty second break between the intervals, for them to do the samples. at the end of each phase of this the treadmill speed goes up by 1 km/h, so it gets progressively more challenging. at the end of this section of the test, you have a ten minute break ready for the piece de rennaisance-the anaerobic section of the test. starting at a slightly lower speed than you finished the first section of the test, the incline of the treadmill rises by 1% every minute, until you can take no more. sound easy? well it is at first, but it gets VERY hard VERY quickly.

on a different subject, after last nights result bristol city's play off ambitions are still in the balance after wolves 3-0 thrashing of the scum last night. one more win will do it for us but the way we are playing at the minute. on the other hand automatic promotion is still a possibitlity but with the combination of results it would require, it is now highly unlikely. it would need hull and stoke both to lose their remaining two games and us to win both of ours. but looking back to the start of the season, we were freshly promoted and the over whelming majority of fans would have taken any thing outside of the bottom 3 after 8 long years in division 1. its just a shame that our first real bad run of the season has come at such a crucial phase, but we have proved a lot of people wrong and will hopefully do the same again next year

a great weekend down in brighton

it was good to get away from everything for a weekend away in brighton this weekend and for this i must firstly give a shout to jon and scott for hosting me and martin g for a very relaxing weekend. not sure when the next time i'll be down is but i'll hope to be down in the summer some time. but really i have to visit scotland some time as ewan and kelli want me to come and visit their new addition to the world, isaac, who was born at 6:47 on the 14th of april, so massive congratulations to them and i'm sure they will both prove to be fantastic parents...

on another non running subject i have decided to do the pass plus course in the old motor which should help to massively reduce my insurance premiums. having seen some of the prices that people are quoting on the internet the extra £150 seems like a worthwhile investment. even if i don't get that much money back in the first year, it gives you a lot more confidence for things like motorway driving and country driving etc

running wise these are the plans for the summer-1500-sub 4:30, 3000, sub 9:30 5000, sub 17:00. i would also like to try abd establish more of a profile locally as we get towards the cross country season and maybe get closer to winning a county vest, which is my long term aim. but with andrew hennesey, james thie, rob whalley, ben tickner, frank tickner, ben noad, craig peters jon wills all ahead of me in the avon and somerset pecking order and established international athletes i think i may need to move else where to get one!

the winter is over

and the summer is now upon us-or so it seems. my period of winter training is now officially over and the first race of the season will quite probably be a 3000m track race at bath university on the 26th. wouldn't it be fantastically good to open up with a pb? the aim has got to be to break 10 minutes. it feels like i'm taking a wild stab in the dark as it is sooo long since i raced a 3000m-nearly 2 years i do believe. there is the small matter of a lactate threshold/vo2 max test to complete 2 days before the race but i am hoping to get that brought forward so i have enough time to recover. at this stage of the season, provided i don't get selected for the national road relays on the same day instead, i will probably train on the thursday evening as well, but maybe not do the full session. we're doing horfield common hills tonight on the grass. a session that involves doing lots of short reps, in sets of 5 or 6 and usually totalling between 18 and 24 in number. it was at this stage last year that rob whalleys summer was completely wrecked by injury that was basically caused by running too fast too soon. we had to help him to his car after the session and didn't see him at training again until about october time, so i'll be wary of that tonight as running on grass can have that effect on your calves.

finally congratulations are due to ewan and kelli who gave birth yesterday to a baby boy isaac

the end of the winter

i have now officially reached the end of my winter training period. i feel as though i have learned a few things about myself this winter which in all honesty if you had told me in september i would have slapped you for lying to me. i have learnt that i can run on the cross country-proof being the gold medal that i achieved in december at the county championhips...i have learnt that i am most emphatically not a half marathon runner 5k's and 10k's are my strongest distance. i have also learnt that i have an annoying habit of saving my best performances for bad conditions. and have also learnt that it is not just about running pb's although they're nice. good performances in bad conditions and beating people can be very satisfying although there is onebloke that keeps on finishing one place in front of me all the time.

after missing out on the relays due to work commitment i a still currently unaware of how we got on and whether or not we qualified two teams for the national 12 stage. if we didnt i will be doing a 3000m race at bath on the day in 26th instead. and hopefully i'm gonna get a car sorted out this week...

a close shave at aztec

we trained at aztec last night and i set my self a target of running under 5:30 for every repetition i did. i did 4of them and i ran 5:30 bang on for each and every one of them. i wa well ahead of the people that i normally run with so i was pleased in that sense, but i'm mostly annoyed that i've got myself really fit for the relays can't run them and i can't find a race on the sunday either, all due to the usual incompetence of royal mails management (lets not go any further down that road)

no excuses anymore

there are now going to be no excuses for me this track season, i can no longer say i can't go to a race because i haven't got a car, which means that meetings like exeter and solihulthat were usually out of bounds due to my inability to transport my self are now on the radar. this means now that it is a massive summer for me and my running. one that will sort out whether or not i will make it as a runner or whether or not i'm closer to the limit of my potential than i think. on the other hand it may not happen over night but i do expect a bigger improvement than i have seen in the past two summers. the heat is on!

highs and lows

the good news is that i have finally passd my driving test-thats a monkey off my back. the bad news is that i wont be ableto run the midland relay championships-owing entirely to a fuck up made by the royal mail management losing a holiday request form...not happy about that! this pretty much means that my winter racing season is over although there will be one more week of training which i will use as a base for my summer season, where 1500's 3000's and 5k's will be target distance. as prepartation for this i will be doing a 2.2 mile time trial tonight after the boat race and the cycling have ended (come on oxford!) and city hopefully have ended their bed period with a win against norwich, which they can hopefully use as a springboard for the rest of the campaign. i'm off to have a look at the bookies websites now...

a scary thought

it has only just occurred to me that after last nights session at sneyd park that there are now only 2 sessions left thiss winter before we have our break and come back for the track season. after the midland road relays i will take a break of a week from all forms of training (maybe a week and a half before getting back down to the nitty gritty). too much is up in the air at the minute for me to be making race plans-namely my driving test-get that out of the way and it will make life ten times easier with regards to travelling especially for track meetings which tend to be a long way away from cities like bristol, because of our embarrasingly poor facilities. that could be quite an embarrassment for the city because we're hosting the kenyan olympic team in 2012 and both the local tracks could be being relaid at that time. bristol city council is hardly renowned locally for its pr skills but that would be quite a disasterous own goal

near the end and still no 10k pb....

one of my stated aims for this winter season was a pb over 10k on the road, to beat my current time of 37:22 which was set over a year ago. i was due to race at yeovilton on easter monday, but my neighbour let me down because he did a 24 miler on the sunday in preparation for london as his final long run before the big one. i then rang around every person i know that i thought might be going and the excuses were all the same-either they weren't going or their cars were full. after about an hour ringing round people i had exhausted every possible lead and had to give up. i no have no excuse for not doing sneyd park hills tonight which is a tough session at the best of times probably more painful than a 10k race...bastards.

whats even more annoying is that after my run down at weston super mare on the prom last thursday (i ran 29:23 seven secs outside my pb in very windy conditions) night i really feel as if i am in shape to take a considerable amount of time off my 10k time. the 5k's i'm not too worried about as when i hopefully pass my driving test on thursday there are several series that they run locally which are quite quick over the summer. as for the 10k's i will be keeping my eye out for a race this saturday as it is my rota day off but so far my options seem to be either a 5 miler in bexleyheath or a 4k cross country in gloucestershire, non of which seem like perfect options but hey beggars can't be choosers. on the other hand i may need saturday free to go and buy a car which would involve a trip to newport. on the other hand though in the long term that would open up my options considerably and i would hopefully never have to worry about lifts again. thats a nice thought to finish on!

An easy tuesday

lazy bugger me didn't bother training last night, i just went for a run instead. there were reasons for this whic i shall explain as thus. the local bus company in their infinite wisdom have decided that the best way to get the people to use buses is by cutting the service so there are no buses that where i wanted them to go at the time i wanted. going would have meant either leaving the house at half past four and waiting for two hours for others to turn up or turning up late as my lift decided she wasn't going to go either. in light of the fact that i have a race on thursday and yesterday my legs were still hurting from the half marathon i decided to give it a miss...

the race on thursday is the usual caper down at weston super mare the 5 mile road (or pavement race) up and down the promenade. time estimates will vary depending on what the weather is like. the latest forecast is to expect snow over easter, but as long as there are no winds with that (but some how i doubt it) the times should be fast. now that my legs have almost recovered from sunday, i would be disappointed if i didn't get under 29:30.

thoroughly beaten up

after the debacle of the last two miles at bath (i was on for about 1:20til the cramps in the stomach and legs took over) i have learned a couple of things the hard way. 1 don't do long distance races til you are strong enough to be able to handle them-i am not, i don't do any thing like enough miles to be ab;e to compete in them as well as i can in 5k's or 10k's. 2 crucial this one-take on board enough energy during the race or you wil cramp and when that happens there is nothing you can do to stop the slow down. i took on board nothing at all as i can't tolerate sports energy drinks while i'm running. 3 my optimum distances are between 5 and 10k 4 you need the concentration span of a zombie to be able to run good long distance races.

the one highlight of the day was meeting a young oxford graduate called becky in the food tent afterwards. if she had lived a bit closer too home i would have asked her for a number. aztec west tonight if i can get a lift but some how i don't think i will as i am racing a 5 miler down at weston on thursday and i wont be going if i can't get a lift, i ache too much

i must make this more regular

hello again after another long break from my blog. i really must get my act together and update it far more often. there have been some changes in my athletic life since we last spoke the major one being that from now on i will be doing 3 quality sessions a week or two quality sessions plus a race, one of which i will be doing on saturday evenings. i did the first one of these last weekend and i misunderstood what mike wanted me to do and consequently ended up doing about 5 minutes too much. It doesn't sound like a great deal to some one who runs 50 miles a week and works on his feet. it meant that i reached my lactate turn point about halfway through the 2nd rep and when lactic acid is just flooding in to your blood for 6 or 7 minutes it can make life rather uncomfortable. i managed to sustain the same pace-just-throughout the session but i don't think i have ever worked so hard in a session since the track season and certainly never on the road. the idea of doing this is to improve lactate tolerance (the amount of lactic acid you can handle in your blood) and the lactate turn point (the point at which the heart rate stops raising and the volumes of blood lactate start to raise dramatically). muscles utilise lactic acid as it is the substance that makes them move. however with intense exercisethey need more lactic acid but some times this means that they over load and it spills over in to the bloodstream, causing limbs to get heavier and more painful until eventually the body can take no more and you have to stop. the best analogy for this is that muscles are like buckets with small holes in the bottom. i may have done too much but it pushed me out of my comfort zone which i feel is what i need to help push me past the plateau i feel like i havereached over the past couple of months.

tonight with the midland relays in mind we will be doing an interval session on the hills at clifton prom, a thought which seems positively appetising after the agony i put my self through on saturday (i have slept very well since then). between now and sunday week there will be 4 more interval sessions a long run and a visit to city v watford at ashton gate on a week today

its now or never...

was thinking last night, there's not that much left for me to do this winter before we move in to the summer season and short fast painful track sessions. i haven't done a 10k pb, i haven't broken 17:30 for 5k or 29:00 for 5 miles. i should make quite a big improvement to myhalf marathon time when i tackle the nationwide bath half marathon in 4 weeks time. thats SHOULD and will remain that way right up until the point that its done because experience tells me that especially with the longer distances, that there is a lot that can go wrong and when it goes wrong, thats it, its very hard to retrieve the situation.

i may try one of the hove park saturday morning 5k's or the easter bunny 10k on easter monday. thats one that will always hold special memories for me as it is where i first broke 40 minutes two years ago and it is generally reckoned to be quite a fast course apart from the one climb between 3 and 4k (I think thats where it was any way).

i'm just about to go and check out some dates for track and field meetings next summer so i can get the time off work. time is limited so i must be off.

bye for now

pete

well said ryan

local sprint sensation ryan scott summed up the mood of the athletics fraternity perfectly in todays edition of the evening post when he stated "hopefully everybody can beat dwain". nothing personal dwain but you cheated, and in doing that you have deprived honest hard working athletes like ryan out of not only an income but international places and championships as well. if he came last that would save all the furore over whether or not he goes to the world championships. thats what my heart says any way, but my head says that dwain chambers will not go away that quietly and he certainly wont come last. mores the tragedy because he was such a naturally talented sprinter. maybe though that was what tipped him over the edge in the first place, being that close to world championship gold but not actually being good enough. not that i am in any way trying to condone what he did and he should be banned because he was not available for drugs tests while he was with nfl europe

maybe one day i'll be available for the world championships? it doesn't hurt to have dreams and you certainly don't know whats around the corner in this sport? hard work and dedication can take you a long way in athletics as long as you listen to the right people and you can identify the events that you're suited to and a whole load of other ifs and buts.....

a rare restful moment

tonight i will be skipping the session with mikes group in order to just do a steady run around portishead, then i will be playing squash afterwards. this is all in aid of ensuring that i am completely fresh for the race in cardiff on saturday (i've just looked at the maps on the net the park is right by the millenium stadium) i don't know which bright spark thought of that but it does sound like a recipie for people getting in the way and generally being a bit of a nuisance. never mind i've entered now so i might as well make the most of the opportunity.

my final hard day before the event was yesterday. i ran twice, 4 miles in the morning, 6 in the evening, with a gym session in between times. going by the times i ran at aztec west on tuesday i think it would be worth having a crack at 36:30. thats 3:39 per kilometer, well within my capbilities. my long term goal for 10k is to get down to under 35:00 then i will reassess my progress with a view to either going even faster still or having a crack at the marathon, but thats a long time off. i have always said that i will not go for the marathon until i have got what i think i can from the middle distances and shorter long distances because once you have made that step up you lose all the speed you have developed running on the track and cross country very quickly, even though it is very important to have that back ground if you want to be a successful marathon runner. some people have tried to coax me in to doing one now but if you look at all the great athletes of now and past they all bided their time and waited for the right moment before they tackled the big 26.2 miles, and you can justify it by the times they ran and the records they broke

drug cheats rear their ugly head again

dwain chambers just doesn't seem to want to go quietly does he? uka have after what i gather was intense leagal pressure relented on their vow to stop dwain chambers from competing in the world indoor trials. the arguments seem to centre on whether or not he kept the testing authorities notified of his whereabouts during his year out of the sport when he competed for nfl europe. each side seems to blame the other for what is going on saying it was the other that took him off the drugs test registration list. the rules say you have to be registered for 12 months before you can compete in a gb vest. legally i think the law is on the side of dwain chambers, because he has served his ban and he wasn't competing during the 12 months that he was off the register. however morally i think it is wrong that dwain chambers should ever be allowed to compete again let alone in a gb vest because not only has he been caught taking drugs but he has taken the piss out of the sport saying that it had slapped him in the face etc etc. some were inclined to be sympathetic to him because it seemed that he had innocently taken a substance thinking that it was legal and it wasn't. i believed him on that but not now!

last night saw a return to aztec west for the first time in two months and it was the windiest i have ever known. i still managed times of 5:42, 5:33, 5:35 and 5:37 despite running the first half of the course in to a headwind. not many were there last night and as seems the norm now i was heading the 2nd group, behind rob and craig and a few other youngsters. i just hope i have a bit lfeft for saturday!

a dilemna...

as i was reading the report from the previous vo2 max test i did, i realised that this summer i have a dilemna to think about with regards to my training. do i bring it nore in to line with the events i train for in the winter or do i opt for the extra speed. at the moment i am more inclined to think that by bringing it into line with what i do in the summer my running will benefit more. so that means that 800 and 400 meter races will be out the window and that 100 meter pb hopefully wont be being revised this summer. the reason why i have raised this issue is that if i incorporated more structure and specificity in to my training it will benefit more and i will become a better runner for it. this will mean having to curb my natural instincts and rather than just running how i feel it will mean having to follow a structured programme of sessions. another reason why i am bringing up the old horse chestnut of what distances i am best suited to again is because of the one real problem i suffer from as an athlete-speed endurance. looking back at my training history over the past couple of years it has become quite apparent that what i have done in the winter and what i have done in the summer are poles apart in terms af the physiological demands that they have placed on me and my running has suffered as a result. the only way for me to improve speed endurance is for me to do sessions that concentrate on running fast for long periods of time as opposed to just fast or endurance related training. i shall certainly be consulting mike about this and about what distaances he thinks i should be training for when we meet tonight at aztec west, for our mile reps session and see what his recommendations (or observations as he likes to call them) are on this issue, which is some thing that fundamentally needs to be addressed if i am to maximise my potentioal as a distance runner

tonight will be the last session before the race on saturday, a 10k around bute park in cardiff, not sure what the course is like but the could be some problems with transport because of the wales v scotland match at the milleniums stadium, some thing that i comletely overlooked when i booked my race entry. the main problem is that they often put queing systems in place at temple meads station in bristol when there are events at the millenium stadium and it wouldn't be an ideal situation if this were to interfere with my travle arrangements. but for the moment i just wanna get tonight out of the way

back in the swing

iwas feeling tired and demotivated this week. coming off a few weeks of heavy mileage, reducing in time for the cardiff bute park 10k next saturday morning. i feel as though a pb is in the offing for this, providing that i can hold my self back in training over the last couple of days before the race.

my previous race was a bridge inn 5k where i ran 17:40 ish, don't know exactly what my time was as i accidently re set my watch crossing the line. i tried to post here about it on tuesday but the computer played up and that was that it wouldn't (and still wont)let me publish. the conditions on tuesday night were very windy with the worst of it being in your face up the slope. disappointed really as i thought that i was in shape to have a crack at my pb, 17:33. you will have missed my comments on my tuesday about the forth coming year for athletics. the jist of it is that the majority of our medal prospects are on the females sidewith there being the potential to take all three medals in the marathon, but paula being athsmatic could struggle with the pollution and humidity in beijing unless she wears one of those pollution masks. jo pavey will be in the mix in the 10,000 and the 5,000 if she recovers in time, whilst there are some promising girls in the 800. mo farah is the singular british hope for male distance runners with any chance of getting a medal this year such is the way standards have dtropped in the past 20 years.

here's an idea

its one for a trip down to brighton. they now do a weekly time trial in hove park every saturday at 9am. jon waymont if you're reading this please get my number off martin greenwood and get in touch and we can discuss it further...back to the subject of training it was noses back to the grindstone yesterday night at coombe dingle for tyhe hardcore few who turned up a session of 6 mins, 2x4mins, 4x2 mins, 4x1 mins finished off with a 6 minute effort was a painful start to what will be a prolonged period of training for me with the exception of a weston prom run on thursday. i was pleased with my efforts last night as i felt i was able to stay in touch with some of the people i wouldn't usually have much chance of beating. the 10k i did at weston is well and truly out of my legs now and i am able to focus my efforts entirely on getting fast times at cardif and bourton-on-the-water, which rumour has it is one of the fastest courses in the south west region. there can be no excuses!

upping the miles

i'm on track to log over 60 miles this week. that'll be the first time i've ever managed to pull that off, even with an easy day today. wednesday i managed an 8 mile tempo run. i had to run fast really because the light was closing in and i was running on unlit roads. this ws followed by a session at better bodies gym, soon to be rebranded as something else but i'm not quite sure what yet. with two hard days in a row i was quite sore yesterday, but thats ok as i don't plan another hard session til i do my long run on sunday morning. my biggest concern though at the moment is that i don't pick up this stomach bug thats been sweeping the country. they say it gives you 3 days of diarrhoea and vomiting, which sounds highly unpleasant. the longest i have ever had off from running due to injury or illness or just rest and recouperation is 48 hours, so i expect if i do catch it i would be climbing the walls to get out and do something by the end of the third day.

this year i have decided i am going to try and help the club out a bit more on the track and field side of things with doing some of the league meetings. with no open meetings to speak of on the track any more apart from the ones at exeter and a few bmc ones here and there, which don't represent very good opportunities for myself due to various circumstances which i a trying to address, i will be attempting to get time off work on the saturdays in question, but don't hold your breath, this is royal mail we are talking about here, not an organisation that is generally too considerate to its low level employees. the midland mens and womens leagues have been amalgamated this year so it should represent a good oportunity to chat up some hot totty as well!

happy new year

so the year ended on a negative note and started on a positive one. lets get the bad bits out the way first, starting with the annual club handicap on sunday morning. with a time defecit of 8 mins and 20 seconds to make up i only managed 20th place although i did knock over a miute off my best time for the course. special mention has to be made though for naomi speake a 14 year old who is currently on a journey right to the very top of athletics. tearing around the course just slightly quicker than i did, she smashed the course records for u15 females, u17 females, and u20's with a faster time than the u15 boys record to boot. to put it in perspective she is faster than both paula radcliffe jo pavey and kelli holmes were at that age. it would be no over exaggeration to say that she is a potential international superstar for 2016 or maybe 2012 if her rate of development continues at the current frightening rate.

the positive start to the year was my run down at the hangover 10k at kewstoke village yesterday. 9 secs outside my pb on a slow course, with 2 big hills on it, 9th place out of 172 finishers. the guy who beat me in 8th luke quillam only beat me by 7 secs and has run under 36 minutes for 10k before. annoyingly he walked away with a bottle of champagne as a prize and i got sweet fa. i have just entered my next 10k, the cardiff valentines 10k love rune, which sounds a bit gay really.