The Week - 7th Feb

This week has been a little quieter. I traveled over to Paris on Monday to sort out paperwork and logistics for the up and coming 80km EcoTrail de Paris. I love being in Paris. I love the lifestyle, I love the City, I love the run routes and of course Niandi and myself have a home there! It is very difficult on us both when we have to spend chunks of time apart and January has been one of those months. Niandi has been busy with work in Germany and of course I have been busy with training and coaching for the up and coming London Marathon.

So, how has this weeks training gone? For me I cut back on distance a little covering 82.5 miles, however, I did up the speed. My week was as follows:

• Monday - rest and travel to Paris
• Tuesday - 15.5 miles in 1:57 over a mixture of trail and road
• Wednesday was recovery with 8 miles easy in the morning and 3.2 miles jog in the evening
• Thursday - Same route as Tuesday but in reverse and appx 30 secs slower per mile
• Friday - 8 miles tempo
• Saturday - 8.2 miles tempo on the road and then 7 miles trail at threshold in the eve
• Sunday - 17.5 miles at 7:30 pace

It has been a good week for me and I can see my speed improving with my added endurance. It's nice when a plan starts to click together. This week is going to be pretty easy ahead of the London Ultra 50k (32 miles) on Saturday 13th Feb.

What is nice about the London Ultra is that we have quite a few 'runwild runfree' clients running. Cat Archer returns from skiing on Friday and heads straight over to the race. Niandi is flying in from Paris and locally Ron Shannon & Mark Hughes are heading over from the Midlands. It is a training run for all of us in preparation for the 80km later in March. Great isn't it! We run 32 miles 'as training' ;-) Quite right when people say we are mad. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Julie Deadman once again heads over to France this coming week to race in a Half Marathon. Julie as previously mentioned in another blog story has gone from PB to PB in the last 12 months so we really hope that she can push the Half to a new level. It is going to be a tough race as I have decided on an aggressive strategy. Julie is going to know she has run this race and her legs will definitely know in the 2/48hrs afterwards. But, a time arrives in training when you have to push and push hard to find out what you can really achieve... Julie is fully aware that the wheels may come off at the late stages of the race but this is something we are prepared to risk. All the very best Julie!!

Max Bonzo is racing in Seville Marathon. It is his first attempt at the distance. Max is fully aware of the challenge ahead and we have come up with a strategy of run/ wlaking to get him to the finish. I am sure once he crosses the line, he can look at some new targets for later in the year. All the very best Max.

runwild runfree news

The runwild runfree Lanzarote training camp is now full for 2010. It is going to be a really superb camp with Martin & Liz Yelling joining me in all aspects of coaching and preparation. I really think that the opportunity to spend one week with the potential to pick several minds (one being an Olympian) is invaluable. Not only do you benefit from great training, hopefully we will have great weather, great food and great company. 2011 places will go on sale in April, so, if you would like to beat the rush and secure a place in advance, please email me. Dates will be March 3rd to March 10th (tbc)

EcoTrail de Paris 80km trail race is now only just over a month away. This for me is a stunning race and runwild runfree are really pleased to be the UK agent. We are taking a small group over in March but we hope that in future years this will become a key race on the Ultra Calendar. In France it is extremely popular. Let's face it, when you run up the Eiffel Tower to the finish line how can you beat that finish line!!

Venice Marathon in conjunction with Zest Sports Tours will soon be available to book. We are currently putting the finishing touches to the package. Race date is October 24th and we are going to be able to offer race enty too, so, don't worry if you don't have a place!

Catch up next week ! Ian