Summary of 2019 running (Part 1)

Hoping that this will be a big year not only my personal running, but also RAF Athletics and Team GB at the Olympic. With this is mind, one of my goals is to Blog more and share my running journey.

A quick summary of 2019 (Part 1):

At the start of the year I moved from Scotland to Crickhowell, Wales on completion of my Force Development Instructor (FDI) course. I soon settled into running in the hills of the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains. By day I'm teaching climbing, canoeing, Hill walking and more, and each evening I'm back out on the hills fitting in the training.

It soon paid off as I won the Inter Service XC Champs at RAF Halton for the 2nd time. This was followed up by 2nd place at Newport Half and then a win at the IS Half Marathon Champs in Fleet in a pd of 67.34. AT the same time I joined the England Marathon Development programme with Nic Anderson and attended a training weekend in the Forest of Dean.

I followed this with more pbs. a 15.11 park run and a 14.44 min 5km for 7th at the Welsh Champs. Soon after this I was off to a very fast Belfast course with the UKAF team. In good conditions on a flat course I ran strongly through to 3rd place in 30.38. Only 8 seconds off the England Selection standard.

This proved good build up for Copenhagen Marathon where I ran an even paced race to finish just in the top 10 in 2.26. I good fast course that I would highly recommend.

That was the first half of the year complete. Lots of PBs that I didnt expect to get at the age of 34. I missed out on the 2.23 England standard for the Marathon, but I learned more about nutrition (Maurten), and developed a good pacing strategy based on a HR of 160 bpm.

What did I change to run this fast after 20 plus years of running?

First of all I got the Nike 4% shoes. I was skeptical at first, but now believe that they make you quicker in the race and in recovering. I had lots of consistent training and a more settled home life. I changed my coach to Dan Robinson through England Athletics. Dan is studying for a PHd at Wolverhampton University and also coaches Hayley Carruthers. Dan did some lab testing on my and worked out my lactate turn point and from this designed a training programme around the relevant heart rates and pace. I added longer interval and more of them. As well as focused on the long runs and practicing with race nutrition.

I will summarise the rest of the year in part 2 and mention some more training ideas that I have been implementing.

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