First long run in nearly 2 months

Ok so the phrase long run can mean many things but to me anything over 15km is classified as a long training run.
My plan this week has been to cover 60km and it started Tuesday morning with a 10km run with a military friend of mine who basically runs at a billion miles an hour and can still chat! so my legs were a little sore and tired when I woke up today...BUT I had already made the plan to run with my younger brother this morning and he was here at 5:45 raring to go (slight enthusiasm anyway) so off we went and we covered 20km in just about 1 hour 45 minutes. Not my fastest every by a long way but it felt great to be running longer distances again.My trysty hound Monty following us the whole way and still looking pretty bouncy by the end (git!). My legs felt it but nothing went wrong so im pleased. Couple of recovery shakes, few hours work then Im off to the gym for some circuit training...doh.

So thats 30km so far and I have 4 days to go so I think the 60km goal will easily be reached this week. Tomorrow I think ill do a really easy 10km just to give my legs a chance to recover more.

Over and out for now... have a nice day!

So far so good

Week 1 down and I managed a good 50k of running, almost all of that was off road too and in some decent warm weather. Woop woop. My legs are holding up well so far and my new shoes are doing good. This week I need to take it up a small notch and Im going to do that by trying to add 15k runs into my routine rather than just 10ks. I want to remain very careful about adding distance and speed so Im going to just take it up small notches at a time. I have also been doing my Tabata circuit training to keep the upper body and core training too as I think this will help to carry me and my kit across the sand.

I hope in a couple more weeks ill be able to join some other local Bath people who are taking part in the same race as me. It'll be great to share the training with some like minded people.

I think Im already boring my family about it :)

Over and out for now.

eat sleep run repeat

My excitement  at getting a place on the Marathon Des Sables 2015 has now simmered down to a low bubble of nervousness. I have had a mixed year of injuries and since completing Celtman 2013 I haven't really been able to hold down any decent, consistent training. Ive had lower back pain, foot problems and most recently a very odd bleed in my right calf caused by surfing. So 4 weeks of no running or cycling has been my start to training for the hardest race of my life so far...great.

I have no completed my first 2 10k training runs and have decided my body is ready to start the long and hopefully more scientific than usual training needed to carry me over the 150 odd miles of sunshine and sand (making it sound nice).

My plan is to follow a 4 week training cycle:

This week (60k):
Mon - 10k
Tue - 10k & circuit training
Wed - 10k
Thur - 10k & circuit training
Fri - 10k
Sat - 10k
Sun - nothing

Next week (70k):
Mon - 15k & circuit training
Tue - 10k
Wed - 10k & circuit training
Thu - 15k
Fri - 10k
Sat - 10k
Sun - nothing

3rd week (75k)
Mon - 15k
Tue - 10k & spinning session
Wed - 15k
Thu - 10k & spinning session
Fri - 10k
Sat - 15k
Sun - nothing

4th week (46k)
Mon - 10k
Tue - 8k
Wed - 10k & circuit training
Thu - 8k
Friday - rest
Sat - 10k
Sun - rest

5th week(65k)
Mon - 15k
Tue - 10k & circuit training
Wed - 10k
Thur - 10k & circuit training
Fri - rest
Sat - 20k
Sun - nothing


My plan is to run the first 4 weeks very gently and just make sure I dont pick up any injuries. If my legs are too sore ill just drop that days session. Form and recovery is my main goal. Once I build up to 80+ km a week ill let that settle and then add my pack into the equation and slowly load it up.
My plan is flexible as it cant take into account family needs and holidays so ill just adjust as I go. Ive been doing this for long enough to know if my training is on target. My pace goals after a couple of months will be to run between 4:30 and 4:45 min kms. That gives me room to slow down.

Im going to blog my journey as a record for myself this year and to keep me motivated. Ill add pics as I go and see how my weight adjusts to the training (Im starting at 85kg). As I go along ill also do some cycling but Im not yet sure how ill slot that it. The whole thing is a work in progress but my aim is to be very run fit by Christmas and then just hold that until the race. I want to build a very solid base fitness and just not worry about speed.

Over and out for now.