Weekly News 31st Jan

Firstly, big congratulations to Niandi Carmont who on January 30th took part in the 55k Paris-Mantes. Starting at midnight in Boulogne Billancourt, Paris and then trailing through the night some 55k to Mantes, Niandi was first lady in 5 hrs 45m. Conditions apparently were pretty tough with ice, some snow and minus 6 temperatures. So cold that water froze in the feed pipe leading from Niandi's camel back. I could write more but Niandi will write a race report and post it here.

My training is going really well and January has been one of my best months in a while. After last Sundays training marathon, I had a rest Monday morning and then a tempo 8 miles Monday night. This session went really well with no fatigue or soreness.

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday I had planned split long sessions with full ultra kit:

• Tuesday am: 10.25 miles in 1h 25m
• Tuesday pm: 10.25 miles in 1h 21m
• Thursday am: 14.3 miles in 1h 57m
• Thursday pm: 14.3 miles in 1h 54m
• Sunday am: 5 miles threshold on trails
• Sunday pm: 13 miles at just under MP in 1h 30m

Between all the above I ran double 5 milers and so therefore racked up another 100 mile week. It's been one of those break through weeks when I have really felt me and my body start to respond to the big miles. My speed is still off but I am not worried about that. It will come. In total for January I have now clocked up 5 marathons so I am feeling really good going into February and some of the up and coming races.

Client News:

Julie Deadman is training well and is on countdown to a half marathon in two weeks. Many of the 'ultra' crew; Nick, Mark, Ron, Cat and Chris are racking up the miles in prep for the EcoTrail de Paris. Several of us have the London Ultra on Feb 13th as prep. At 50k this is a training run... ;-). How do we get to 50k being training??

Max Bonzo tackles Seville in 2 weeks. He has had limited training but he is a motivated guy and I am sure he is going to have a very special first marathon.

Sandie has had the 'all clear' on the ankle and is back in training... great news Sandie. Other Paris marathon runners; Richard, Rosemarie and Cat are adjusting training and slowly get back into the swing of things after a disrupted December and January. However, the sessions are going well and progression is coming.

Several other clients are 'in training' at the moment building up time on the feet and endurance ready for late season races. Kate and Laura have London Marathon. Jen and Emma have some early season 10k's planned in the build up to half marathon distance.

It's not all running too! Nick and Mark who are in prep for EcoTrail also have plans for Ironman later in the year. Eric Butcher is now in 'full' training for triathlons that also culminates in a late season Ironman.

runwild-runfree news

Yesterday I took part in another training day for London Marathon. This time it was the first session out of three for Virgin, this years race sponsor. Working alongside Martin & Liz Yelling we coached a large group of novice or first time marathon runners at the superb venue of Dorney Lake in Eton. This will be the home of Olympic Rowing and the 'venue' for the Olympic games. As you can imagine it was another one of those great days and one of the reason I love doing what I do.

We have just teamed up with Zest Sports Tours. This is a really exciting new venture as it will provide runwild-runfree with a really professional package for future training camps, races and training weekends. Our initial project is taking a small group to Ironman distance Roth in Germany. We have also just put a package together for Venice Marathon. Obviously we are really excited. Please keep up to date at http://www.zesttours.co.uk/ and of course http://www.runwildrunfree.co.uk

So, that is one busy week!! Let us all hear your news and stories. It's always great to hear what has gone well and what hasn't. We all can learn....

February is going to be a good month, I can tell.