Fig No1

All this snow hasn't stopped me from training, all the excuses I hear just spur me on even more. I'm not saying the training is easy but if you want to win sacrifices have to be made, if your not willing then you just have to be happy with the best you can do. There's nowt worse than listening to a load of feeble excuses.
In my world if you want to win then you have to be prepared to try everything possible, it's not all plain sailing. Like I say it may look like an easy win but to the victor it is months of hard work.
I have managed to shed 2lbs in weight this week so another 7lb to loose by May should be quite easy. It will be interesting this year to see what body fat percentage and what muscle mass percentage I end up with in time for the marathon. Last year I was a few pounds heavier than 2008 but felt it was due to having more muscle mass, at least this year I will have more accurate information.
This week I thought I would try some different fruits to take to work, figs and lychees I picked. Figs were a favourite food source for Gladiators and so I was pleased to find I absolutely loved them and have placed them in the number one slot for my five a day. The Lychees are a different story all together I found them like sucking on eyeballs that taste like lemon washing-up liquid and are only fit for firing out of catapults.

Climb better or run faster ?

Another torturous 14 miles completed today through snow and ice. The spike idea on the comments might not be a bad idea. I have now switched my way of thinking into that of when I was biking in that the worse the weather is the more chance I have of training whilst my rivals aren't. So I'm hoping for lots more snow and ice, the more the better.
Due to not being able to cycle to work tomorrow I will just have to run there again and with the running club to go to after work I should be on for one of my highest mileage weeks for a very long while. Not bad seeing as I am not too bothered with the mileage at the moment.
Saturday I am planning an interval session on the treadmill with the aim of hitting 23km/h for as long as possible with 3 minutes recovery, 12 of these should do the trick nicely. I'm still convinced that training myself to run at this higher speed will increase my overall top end cruising speed on the flat but will reduce my climbing power. You can't be the best climber in the world as well as being the best sprinter in the world. So you just have to pick which way you want to be slightly biased or go 50/50. I Maybe I'm totally wrong but I will have fun experimenting non the less.

Would you like ice with that.

The seven mile run to work this morning was as I had expected. The route is all on back roads which are a total mess of compacted snow and ice, so it was a case of stumbling and slipping the full distance on some of the most treacherous uneven surface I have ever run on. By the time I got to work it felt like I had run double that distance and my ankle joints felt like they had been broken. My conclusion was that the run was hard, miserable, freezing, slippery, hard on the joints, and seemed never ending and if it was that bad it must be good for you. So I ran home as well. Just to make sure it was really that bad I'm having another go tomorrow. All I can think about is when the snow eventually does melt away it will be like running on a luxury carpet on them old back roads.

Snow way.

Snow joking I had to go to the gym again today. For over ten years I have never known the weather to stop me from getting the miles in on a weekend, cycling or running. Maybe an odd weekend here and there but it not seems like an age ago since I completed a good quality long run, not that I'm to bothered at the moment as I have plenty of time on my hands before my marathon training starts. At this rate the early popular races will all be cancelled, which will just mean I will have to train more.
For some cardiovascular training I did 20 minutes each on the stepper, cycle and treadmill all at a reasonable moderate effort. I must admit when I'm not interval training on these machine it does seem never ending, a quick bash on the weights afterwards left me feeling quite good considering.
Tomorrow I will get into the Spartan mode of training and run the 7 mile to work no matter what the weather is like. Every year after winter training training you always find that you have become a slightly different athlete, better finishing sprint, better on the hills, more endurance power or even on the negative side in that you have managed to of trained yourself to run slower. God only knows how I will pop out of this winter, but I'm looking forward to it one way or another.
Last night I managed to make a good bottle of wine disappear whilst watching a movie, it's a good job there is only one night left of this holiday as all my bottles that I have won are nearly out of stock. The more you win the more they try again get you back on the drink to slow you down. Fantastic.

Small Duathlon Seed Planted.

Yet again the frost was so severe that the back roads and paths were too bad to run on with any decent speed. So yet again it was a case of training indoors, at this rate you would think I was training for the treadmill Olympic Games. Tomorrow hopefully I will get about 15 miles in jogging around the country villages with the emphasis on enjoyment rather than speed.
Another hurdle at the moment is trying to get rid of the slight headache/hangover before I can start training, a minor set back with these holiday periods.
The World Duathlon Championships are in Edinburgh 4th/5th September - 10km run, 40km cycle, 5km run - which I wouldn't mind having a go at but you have to qualify, the nearest race as in travelling distance is in March which means I will have no time to do any extra biking due to the need to concentrate on the marathon. I may just go and have a go anyway seeing as I still have all my bikes and gear from my biking days. I might as well get some use out my bikes before the dust gets any thicker.

Rest not rust.

REST - Even if it was forced rest it's definitely true what they say in that rest is a vital part of improving. Today's session at the gym was weight training which I enjoy and for that added moral boost I just about smashed all my lifting P.B.'s to pieces. The best thing about rest is that it seems alot easier to do as you get older, and in another 10 years I should be able to get 6 rest days in a week and then I will be flying. ( I wish ).
New Years Day is looking like a case of an easy 10 miler just in case the devil drink manages to sneak past my defences, to be honest I don't think it will sneak past but more like come flooding in.
So no Captain's Cook Fell Race on New Years Day for me, even though I would like to have a crack at it. I have done a few training runs around the course and besides the unbelievable steep slippery section to the top of the woods before Captain Cook's monument it seems to be a fast going route which is just how I like them. You can't beat having a good bit of tarmac section in a fell race I say, I don't think the hardened fell runners would agree though.
My latest idea is to have a go at some indoor track racing. 1500 metres or the 3000 metres sounds the right distance to me, yet again more for having fun before getting serious for the marathon. The more fun now the easier the hard training will be when the time is right. You can't train hard after months of racing hard.

Not Forgetting - ALL THE BEST FOR 2010

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Any idea will do.

Another idea I have been pondering on for some time is training on the stepping machine at the gym. It's very much like cross country skiing were you have to use your arms as well, due to having to use my arms as well as my legs my heart and lungs have to work all that much harder. To confirm this idea, whilst running at 5km pace my heart doesn't feel anywhere near as stressed as when working hard on the stepping machine. So by my reckoning during a race it should be my leg muscles that give way first before my cardiovascular system.
My other idea of still fitting in quite a bit of cycling is now advised in most of the running magazines, where you still gain fitness but it is less stress full on the joints than running plus it is a change from running all the time. I find the more cross training I do the more I look forward to my next run, I won't be gradually crossing over to another sport away from running as I know all to well that come spring time there's nowt better than running.
I should try and keep my ideas to myself, I can't afford to give some of my close rivals an inch never mind a good idea.
As I state in my Quotes. " I often regret that I have spoken never that I have remained silent".

Scrunch bunch.

After running or should I say scrunching along for two hours this morning with fellow club mate Phil Utley along Icy snow compacted paths it does make you wonder weather if it is worth all the effort. Probably not so much the effort as you can only stumble along at a certain pace but it definitely works some different muscles that aren't normally used, like your arms when they are frantically flailing everywhere as you try to keep on your feet, with the speed of my arms at times I'm surprised I don't go into hover mode. But the company and the after feel of having done some training makes up for the lack of effective training.