North East Running

At the start of this year I blogged about my running goals . Turning 50 in July - I wanted this year to be special. Running in the M50 category in July and August was a real chance to do well and to target this period. I also wanted to do a marathon performance I was proud of in the spring. This would have the double benefit of giving me the core endurance strength to then build on for later in the year. So... Jan-Mar Went from 90k a week at the start of Jan to 120k a week at end of Mar ( summary here ) - this hard work resulted in a 2:54 marathon which was a 4min PB in April! Apr-Jun So the foundation was in place. It was time to tweak the training and focus on the 5k and 10k races in July. I dropped the distance a little - so stepped right back from 120k a week and took things back to 80-90k per week. The typical week was... Mon - Easy Tue - Hard session of 8x200m, 4x400m, 4x400m, 8x200m Wed - Easy Thu - Intervals - either 8x1k, 4x1mi or 8 hills. Fri - East Sat - Hard parkrun Sun - M

One of my big goals for this year was to qualify for the England Masters team . Looking through all of the qualifying races for this year I thought Redcar Half Marathon in September would be my best shot. I'd be 50 by then (easier in theory) and based on WAVA scores from recent years, HM was a much stronger distance for me than Marathon. Going into this year it was a 79 min HM PB vs a 2:58 Mara PB. Goals for 2024 But, just to see how the system works as much as anything I registered for Manchester Marathon selection for the M45 category. ...and all of the stars aligned, and I somehow got into the top-3 of the M45s who had entered for qualification. Third in M45 for Masters qualification The fact I crept into third place by only 5 seconds over 42k (without having a clue where I was in the huge field) makes me feel even more over the moon. 5s over 42k is about the same a 1s win in a 10k. Anyway, delighted - and I'll have a go at the HM distance to qualify as M50 at Redcar - maybe

Got a 4 minute PB. Dropped my time from 2:58:18 to 2:54:13. Nothing too exciting about how the race went - just kept my splits below 4:10km and managed to hold on without slipping until around the 39km mark. Check out training reflections to see how I trained harder to run more strongly and push the PB down. That's my fourth marathon now... 1 of 4 - Yorkshire Marathon 2021 Pace fell off a cliff at 35km. On reflection wasn't good enough for a sub-three. But learnt that I needed to train harder. The fact I kept things strong until 32-33km is probably typical of a decent 80minute HM runner. But first marathon is really going into the unknown for the first time. Yorkshire Marathon 2021 2 of 4 - Edinburgh Marathon 2022 A really sold first 35km without letting any 5km split drop below 21minute gave the foundations. The pace fall-off still happened, but it wasn't as dramatic - stronger legs meant it slowly drifted from 4:10/km to 4:30/km which meant the sub-three goal had been ac

Manchester Marathon tomorrow. My fourth marathon and have trained harder than ever before. Back in January I blogged what my plan was for the marathon training block . I've pretty much followed it. Only difference being instead of two runs on a Tuesday I just started the day with a double session. But in summary: Go into the training block doing 90km (55mi) a week. Take it up to 120km (75mi) a week. 12 weeks of increasing efforts, with a three week taper at the end. At the maximum do four weeks in a row with 36km (22mi) long runs on the Sunday. Long runs to be at decent pace with at least an 8km (5mi) mara pace section on tired legs. Run every day - alternating between efforts and recovery Tue - hard session (Typically 4x1mile efforts followed by 5k tempo) Thu - hard session (Typically three sets of 5km at mara pace with floats inbetween)  Weekly distances Not sure how much to read into the Strava Fitness and Freshness chart. But fitness went from +59 to +103 to +86. Form went from

2023 was a good year. PBs in parkrun, 5k, 10k and Marathon. With the right conditions I feel I could have got 10mi and HM too - but cannot grumble. Particularly happy with parkrun as that is now eight years of incremental improvement through improved training and focus. Power of ten score card So what are the 2024 goals? It's a big year as I am 50 in July. Entering the V50 category gives me a real chance to pick some goals that weren't possible in recent years at the top end of the V45 category. So I'm intending on training harder than ever - and putting down some stretched goals that may not be possible - but are worth going for. Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon Goal 2  - Top 50 in the UK runbritain ranking for V50 at 5k distance Goal 3  - England masters vest for V50 Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon With hindsight I think I should have done around 2hr55 at London last year but a few things didn't go to plan and I ended up with a 2hr58. This year I'll try and put things right and