…For “Horse Manure 200 Yards” read bottomless perdition…

Less that 5 weeks to the London Marathon now and I really pleased with how the training’s going. I definitely feel strong than I did for the two marathons I ran last year and even the long runs feel more comfortable. I’ll probably bang out a couple more 23 or 24 mile runs before I start to taper but things are looking up.

I ran just under 80 miles last week, I probably would’ve sneaked a few more but I was on-call so could get out for anything decent Friday and Saturday. I done my track session Tuesday, as well as few good quality double sessions and ended the week with a progression run with Martin, James and Nige around the Liverpool half marathon course. The plan was 7 miles at 7:30 then 7 at 7’s then Martin and James were pushing on for 6 m/mile for the final 7! That was too rich for my blood, I stuck with Nige and ran back to sport centre before putting in 2 miles at 6:30 pace on my own.

I then popped down to the Promenade to watch the half marathon with Martin but missed the leaders. I had plenty to cheer though as the endless parade of PLS runners plus family and friends streamed through on glorious day. I’ve done the Liverpool Half a few times and it’s a great atmosphere. Another half marathon taking place on Sunday was over in New York, Liverpool Harrier Jonny Mellor was making his debut at the distance and ran a brilliant 62:59. I seen Jonny training at Wavertree a few days before and he was effortlessly knocking out 4:45 miles reps, well it looked effortless!

It was my mothers day and my mother in-laws 80th birthday as well as her wedding anniversary! We celebrated had a slap up meal at my sister in-laws and finish off with one of them parlour games were someone stick the name of a celeb to your head and you have 10 questions to guess it, rock n’ roll!

Wilmslow this Sunday, really looking forward to this and confident I can get a PB. There are a few going from the club so it should be a good laugh and hopefully we can all get good times. It’s my third outing at Wilmslow and I really love the atmosphere, especially at the turn in one of the villages where there seems to be a few hundred people all cheering you on. I got my current PB here last year, getting dragged around the last 2 miles by a lad called Dave Watson from Preston, he seen me flagging and help me along.

I wont make the same mistake of getting in the pack at the start this year, it took me about 3k to get going and by then I was chasing my tail and really felt it from around mile 8. I’ll get on or as close to the start as I can and let people worry about over taking me!

London Marathon Training Week 11

MONDAY 6.5 miles am - 7 miles pm 13.5
TUESDAY 5.5 miles am - track session 6 x 4 mins @5:35 with 1:45 rest then 6 x 1 min @ 5:20 with 1 min rest - warm up/down 15
WEDNESDAY 5 miles 7 m/mile pace am - 6 miles pm 11
THURSDAY 5.5 miles am - hill sesssion 9 miles pm 14.5
FRIDAY slow 5 miles xc 5
SATURDAY rest
SUNDAY 20 mile progression run 20

Total 79