First Blog

am: Drills
pm: Easy/Steady 45 mins on trails + strides
12mi

I slept through well last night but went to bed a little late as I was struggling to feel tired so I probably only got 8 hour or so. I was out of bed at 0800 to have a cup of tea and a banana before heading to reception. I jogged to the track on my own and managed to get lost (it was my first visit) and ended up running the hilliest, toughest way possible! It was a couple of miles in the end and after a bit of stretching I did George’s drills session. I found these drills incredibly good and I think they’re exactly what I need. It was all about your foot pushing off the ground quickly and not wasting time on the ground – something Phil noticed on the long run in Portugal and said I need to work on – and good posture from the hips to stop yourself leaning back, combined with good knee lift. I definitely want to do these at least once a week now. It was also aerobically challenging and my legs were a bit tired come the end of it too. I jogged back with Matt Clowes and Shaun Moralee taking a much better path! By now I was really hungry and had four slices of toast with jam and some orange juice. I stretched a little before taking a hot shower and having a shave – the first one since before the 12 stage and I was starting to look like a caveman! I lazed around for a while before having some porridge that made me sufficiently sleepy to have nap. I woke myself up at 1645 and had a coffee and an orange before throwing my kit on and getting out of the door as I was running a bit late. I almost missed the car to the lake as having walked in on Vince Wilson having a slash he then locked me in the toilet for a few minutes - standard prank. It was really windy at the lake but the sky was glorious! The former did me in on the run as I set off aiming to run steady but after 3 miles I hit a hill and huge headwind and just could not get my heart rate back down. I know this is often the case at altitude - once your heart rate is out of your zone it is nigh on impossible to control! I made the decision to loop back and take it easy so I ran with Lewis Moses and Matt Clowes at about 6.30 pace for the rest. We found a beautiful new trail through the woods and othet than slightly tight hamstrings from this morning’s drills I was pleased with how I felt. I did some strides afterwards and felt great with the wind behind before having a little stretch and a banana and yoghurt. I’m now really looking forward to hitting the track tomorrow. Driving back McLeod had to take a few different turns to shake off some local chavs determined to cause trouble! We had fajitas for dinner and then realised we'd run out of hot water so I had to nip into the coaches' room to get a wash! I did a proper stretch routine this evening as I felt a bit stiff after running this evening. I got into my bed in the living room at 2100 to hopefully watch the Palace relegate Wednesday on Sky Player.