Wow! I am running in a 24hour team relay event!

This weeks training has been some what disrupted. I had planned on putting in more shorter runs in the form of some speed work. On Thursday I had planned to go for a long run which was going to be another attempt at me running the full 15 mile+ distance all the way home from work. 

But I scrapped my training regime earlier in the week as my plans for this weekend have changed rather drastically as I am now going to be running in the Spitfire Scramble 24 hour event!

When the event was announced earlier in the year I was incredibly eager to take part either as a solo runner or as part of a team. However I had to reign my excited self back in as I had already committed to my three marathons in three months which I am currently slap bang in the middle of.

My real desire and interest in wanting to be involved in the event were that it is being held in my local country park which is a place I hold dear as I have done the majority of my training in and around the park over the last 6+ years.

My late entry into the event happened when I saw a tweet from the race organisers asking for runners to come forward to fill places in a team left short of runners through injury.

Being local and having no other plans this weekend I quickly put my name forward and now I find myself 24hours away from partaking in a 24hour team relay race as part of the mighty teamred!

The event is pretty simple, run as many laps of the 10K course as you can in the 24hour time period one runner at a time, and in our case we need to try and rack up more laps than out opposition teamblue.

The nature of the challenge has now started to dawn on me!

How will I cope running multiple laps over a 24 hour period?

What am I going to be like running in the dark, in the night, in the cold?

How will I rest and refuel inbetween my laps?

What kind of times will I be able to run? And how will these vary at different times of the day and throughout the event?

As with any challenge it is the nature of the unknown that is exciting and provides  the thrill of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone!

I am really looking forward to the challenge ahead, seeing how many laps I can complete and how I hold up during the event. I am also excited at being part of a brilliant event, contributing to the success of a team as well running what will be some great trails amongst an interesting, beautiful landscape.

Thanks for reading, good luck to anyone running in spitfire scramble or any other events this weekend. If anyone has any advice on how to approach such an event I would be very pleased to hear it!

Some quality miles

Tonight's workout focusing on some 'quality' miles.

I headed out for a 4km run hitting it pretty hard at probably 80% intensity and covered it in just under 19 minutes feeling good which I was pleased with.

Then at a local park I covered around 1km by doing 100m sprints again at around 80% followed by 100m recovery jogs.

To finish I did 3 leg circuits of star jumps, squats, calf raises, lunges and tuck jumps as illustrated on the picture below.

The view from the park was pretty inspiring with the church spire popping up over the tree line, to the other side of me the clouds changing colour as the sun sets.

                                    

Thanks for reading and I hope you are managing to enjoy the last of the summer by getting outside and enjoying the great outdoors. 

Bank Holiday Weekend

A Bank Holiday weekend, a thrilling prospect of an extra day off work, so much time, so much potential. But as is all too often it can descend into a lethargic mess of miserable British weather and over crowded garden centres.

I can't see my bank holiday weekend has been all that bad but this morning, which is bank holiday Monday morning I find myself in an Alan Partridge bank holiday boredom quandary of not knowing exactly what to do with myself.

I guess I have kind of confused myself as today is a rare day off where I don't feel like exercising and don't have a training plan in place, and it a very strange occurrence to reach after 10 am and I haven't even planned when I am going for a run let alone have been for a run!

My lack of appetite for exercise stems from two factors, firstly the gloomy, wet and miserable view outside my window which is a prime example of the a fore mentioned British Bank Holiday weather and secondly a weekend spent visiting my mum and dads being indulgent in all manner of my mums cooking and various snacks, crisps, cakes and other not so good for you treats that I have been very good at avoiding during my marathon training. 

Saturday

My Saturday of the weekend was spent with an early morning drive with my wife up 'North' to meet up with my parents along with my Sister and her Fiance at Rutland water reservoir. 

The next couple of hours were then spent riding the 16 miles around the lake with this vehicle below being my mode of transport: 

   

A very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon even if my natural speed and energy was somewhat restricted by the slower speed of the girls and the large weight I carried in my bag as I acted as pack horse for the group carrying drinks, snacks and jackets. 

A pretty good form of exercise as well and quite a sweat and appetite was worked up which was good as a plentiful picnic was waiting back at the car. A wide range of homemade snacks and cakes, salads, crisps, dips, coleslaw, rolls, nibbles and sweet treats easily replaced the calories burned and then some!

Sunday

Sunday morning I headed out for my usual run when I am back home at my parents, I see it as less of a training run and more of a trip along memory lane along my route through the town and park. 

The park does have its picturesque spots as my pictures illustrate despite on the surface not appearing to be anything special.

       

The run wasn't my finest as I was possibly a bit tired from the bike ride the day before but I also definitely felt the negative affects of all the snack and junk food consumed the day before. 

I still managed a sub 50 10K on a very steep and hilly route, but although it was a good time it was a struggle as I really didn't feel that great or comfortable the whole way round. 

Sunday afternoon we headed off to a local garden centre for a little look round and a spot of lunch.

When I was confronted by the cake selection I was glad I had popped out for a run earlier as the cakes all looked awesome! They had all the standard kind of Victoria sponge cakes, meringues, millionaire shortbread and rock roads but also a range of confectionery inspired cakes such as a mars bar cheesecake, an oreo cake along the lines of a pavlova but the one I really couldn't resist was the peanut butter stack. 

   

It was delicious! It lived up to its looks and a perfect blend of sweet, chocolately, sticky, sickly peanutty goodness! It was made up of layers of chocolate brownie, some kind of peanut butter cream, topped with a thick caramel type sauce and peanuts, awesome!

Sunday afternoon was then for the drive back home when I got hit with some rather bad news, I had left my trainers at my parents house! Whoops! 

Mum is going to send them in the post but they wont get her for a few days so I am a bit unsure as to what do to with my running until then. I have some other trainers but they are well past their running best and I don't want to risk any injures pr pain by running in unsuitable trainers. 

So with the weather, my lack of interest in training today and a lack of suitable running footwear my day at the moment is looking a bit like this, coffee and pissing about on the internet. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you have had/are having an enjoyable Bank Holiday Weekend whether you are running or not. 

1 marathon down 2 to go, what have I learnt?

So after 1 of my 3 marathons in 3 months challenge where am I and what have I learnt? 

My challenge was to run 3 marathons in 3 months, I entered theses in early 2014 as I felt I needed something to work on and needed to achieve something positive and challenging prior to turning 30 in early 2015. My other motive was to give myself a great chance of running a sub 4 hour marathon, firstly so I can just say I have achieved this milestone and secondly so I could have the challenge of achieving this before turning 30. 

The first and third marathons in my mini series are trail marathons so the second marathon in Nottingham on the 28th September which is a standard city marathon on a flat course with strong PB potential was always going to be the ideal opportunity to crack the magical sub 4 barrier. 

I am pretty desperate just to get a clear run at a marathon and have a good crack at a sub 4. As you can read from my post run report of my first marathon it didn't quite go to plan and didn't give me any kind of chance of running a good time. 

As I train more and run more I continue to learn more about what it takes to train for a marathon and how to run one and I am increasingly eager to put this into practice and to try and run a 'perfect' race.

With the Notitngham Marathon coming up in September I know this city marathon will be my best chance of cracking sub 4 and probably my only chance of running sub 4 pre 30. 

So what have I learnt from my training and running the first marathon?

Drink more water - I am not talking about the actual race but more on a daily basis, although I have always drank a lot of water and stayed well hydrated I have realised I think I am not drinking enough especially when I am training a lot. So I have started to make a conscious effort to drink more before and after training as well as drinking more while at the gym as well.

Eat more protein - Putting in some serious mileage and training every day obviously puts a great strain on your body and your muscles and again I figured I wasn't eating as much protein as I could/should be. In the week or two before the marathon I started eating steak and chicken all the time as well as increasing the amounts of protein shakes I was consuming.

Now I am trying to pack my diet full of as much protein as possible with my main protein sources being chicken, steak, kidney beans, chick peas, hummus, brazil nuts, almonds, tuna, and mackerel.

Run more - I have finally broken some kind of mental block I had which stopped me from running on consecutive days and seemed to hold me back from running too much. Now I am quite happy running day after day within reason and have put together several 4 and 5 day plus runstreaks. It goes without saying really but running on more days means I am able to train more and get in more mileage which will benefit me massively. 

More strength training - A neglected part of my training regime as its hard and it hurts and its generally not as fun as running is. But unfortunately doing weights, circuits and body weight exercises such as press up, lunges and squats are integral to any training plan if you want to get faster and stronger and I am now making a real effort to include 2 or 3 strength training type sessions into my weekly routine.  

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this post useful for your own training.

Training round up for my second marathon

Two weeks after my marathon and now six weeks until my next one I have been working hard to hit the next race harder and faster!

My training in the last two weeks has included a lot more strength training and circuit training in my attempts to be even fitter and stronger.

Heres a leg circuit I have done a couple of times recently to work on strengthening my legs: 

I have also done a bit more gym work including more weights and mixing up ab exercises, upper body work and some leg exercises into circuit routines.

The main exercises I have been focusing on are press ups, squats, lunges, crunches and leg raises.

Over the last fortnight a main focus has been on building up my press up capabilities as this has been something I have let slide recently. So on top of my training I completed a press up streak of 100 press ups on seven consecutive days, a pretty good achievement for me and I feel so much stronger from it already. 

Diet wise things have slipped a bit as I have enjoyed not watching what I have been eating so carefully.

A few foodporn highlights from the week include :

An awesome ham and BBQ pizza

A delicious strawberry and banana smoothie

And my epic post run Sunday brunch breakfast wrap last weekend

Today's run

Today was my first longer run since the marathon as I completed 27.5km on a route out along the London Loop to Purfleet. This is a route I have been very keen to run as this was the route I had planned to run a few weeks before the marathon but had to abandon after 2kms due to my foot injury striking.

My route took me through my usual course through the Ingrebourne valley country park but further out to Rainham village, over the train tracks, through Rainham marshes following the London Loop trail all the way out onto the Thames. 

These pictures are the view from when I came out onto the river, firstly looking East out towards the Thames estuary, if my camera was better you would make out the Dartford crossing. 

The second photo is then looking West towards the City, again if the photo was better quality you could make out the skyscrapers in the far distance.

Unfortunately I had picked a poor day for this run as it was very overcast and cloudy not to mention windy and battling the wind coming off the river was challenging to say the least!

A few highlight along the route include the sculpture of the diver in the photo below which is supposedly the only sculpture actually in the Thames. 

My personal highlight though is the concrete barges which were used as part of the D Day landing in World War ii, they inspire and fascinate me every time I see them and I continue to be perplexed by the lack of interest and information available on them and the lack of recognition they receive. 

My half way turnaround point was the RSPB bird sanctuary at Purfleet which is the base for bird watchers on the Rainham marshes and an excellent provider of refreshments and tasty cakes. Not today unfortunately as today I only had time for a quick toilet break before turning around and heading home. 

After 2 and three quarter hours and over 27 kilometers I was pretty knackered and was in need of some refuel nutritional sustenance which I consumed in the form of a tortilla wrap with peanut butter, jam and banana, delicious!

As always thanks for reading and I welcome any comments, feedback and suggestions, thanks!

I am now on bloglovin as well, its great way to keep up with your favourite blogs, well worth a look if you haven't already checked it out. 

Sunday morning post run brunch

Sunday morning and after my first longish run since the marathon last week (a 12Km threshold run) I felt pretty hungry and wanted something substantial to eat. 

After eating so well and healthy for the weeks leading up to the marathon I have been very much enjoying eating less healthy this week and this morning was no exception. 

After a bit of though and an assessment of what ingredients I had at my disposal I came up with the idea of a breakfast wrap. Modeled on the McDonalds breakfast wrap I thought whatever they can do I can probably do better and slightly healthier! 

Here is a look at my effort:

My concoction consisted of a tortilla wrap, some cheese, two potato waffles, a fried egg and some lightly fried mushrooms and tomatoes. 

It proved to be a very delicious ingenuous brunch idea and was a joy to eat as the egg ran into the melted cheese and mixed in with the tomato ketchup mixing up nicely with the fresh vegetables. 

After a grueling run at a tough pace of a little over 5 min/km as well as dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Bertha which has battered the UK today with heavy rain and strong winds I was so thankful for something tasty to eat!

Today's circuit training workout

After my marathon last weekend I ave realised I need to raise my game in order to give myself a chance of running a sub 4 hour marathon. 

As well as running more mileage I need to do more strength and conditioning training, with that in mind today I opted for some circuit training instead of going for a run. Here is my workout:  

Red Dog BBQ Saloon meat feast foodporn

Red Dog Saloon 

How does the saying go? 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy', well the last few weeks I have certainly been working hard in training for my marathon last weekend so a night out with friends to to enjoy a few drinks and some great food was definitely a bit overdue. 

The Red Dog Saloon is known for being somewhat of a mouth watering meat lovers paradise, this blog is going to one of those where there is not so much writing as I let the photos tell the story. 

The place made me feel like I was in an episode of Man v Food starring as Adam Richman sampling the finest food on offer from recipes handed down through the generations in a family run redneck diner in the middle of Texas, which is kind of a dream come true for me! 

The menu is packed full of delicious sounding meat based options including a range of chicken, burgers and ribs as you would expect from an American barbecue restaurant. 

After quite a few drinks earlier in the evening some good food was well overdue and after some careful deliberation of all the menu options I opted for the following: 

A pulled pork sandwich of 16 hour smoked pork in a brioche bun with house BBQ sauce accompanied by slaw and side dishes of fries and BBQ chicken wings.  

The pork was probably the best pulled pork I have ever had as you would expect from a specialist barbecue joint and the wings weren't far behind either. Soaking in an excellent sweet and tangy BBQ sauce the meat fell off the bone so easily and every bite was an enjoyable experience.

It was a great meat feast full of flavour and full on meaty goodness, if any additional taste was needed an ample selection of sauces were on hand. 

To help wash it all down there was plenty of liquid refreshment on hand as well. 

In the aftermath of such a great meal there wasn't much left to be considered for a doggy bag to take home!

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Post run snack foodporn

Soon after I finished my marathon on Sunday I started upon the important job of refueling.

Feeling ravenous and eager to fuel my muscle with much needed calories and nutrients I quickly consumed what food I had within reach.

My post race meal consisted of:

A tortilla wrap I had packed to bring with me as an easy way to replenish on carbohydrates.

A banana, the trusted runners friend so versatile to provide a tasty shot of energy and carbohydrates either pre or post run.

Last but not least a Mars bar which was part of the post race goody bag. Having given up chocolate and sweet sugary foods in the several weeks building up to the marathon combined with the urgent desire for great tasting calories high in sugar that Mars bar tasted Amazing!

So in those few moments an idea was formed....

Why not combine the three ingredients into one awesome post run snack?

So that is exactly what I did last night after my run:

One tortilla wrap:

Add one banana:

Mash up said banana:

Add the Mars bar, I only had mini ones so decided to use three:

Pop in the microwave for a bit, I opted for 45 seconds which did the job nicely:

Then wrap up into a kind of burrito shape:

Then eat and enjoy!

The verdict:

It was everything I had hoped for! Melted gooey chocately goodness with the fruit banana flavour all combined in a warm sticky mess. OK not the ideal snack if you haven't got a sweet tooth or don't like sickly desserts but for me it worked out perfectly!

I have for a while been trying to think up some ingredients so a sweet desert based burrito and I think this idea could form the basis of my plan. I just need to finalize a few more ideas for what to add, I need a few extra flavours going on and something with a bit more bite and crunch. If you have any ideas or if you have done something similar I would love to hear! 

Nutritional information:

For the health conscious among you or just for your general information this is how this snack stacks up:

                      Wrap - 180 calories - 34g carbs
                      Banana - 100 calories - 25g carbs
                      Mars bars - 240 calories - 39g carbs 

Looking back at my marathon 48hours on

Now 48 hours+ after finishing the marathon on Sunday the dust has settled  and I can look back a little more clearly. 

Yesterday, the day after running my marathon I felt great! Not just normally great but superbly great! I had so much energy both physically and mentally, my legs felt a little achy but I was still able to walk around spritely enough and still bounded up stairs at work and at the train station with my customary energy.

Even today I still feel really good, I keep waiting for some DOMS to hit me with some post marathon pain but so far nothing.

My only ailments post run have been:

• Achy feet, kind of to be expected after pounding 26 miles! 
• A sore big toe nail on my left foot, again standard stuff for a long distance runner.
• A really tight sore lower back yesterday morning I think this was more caused by my tired muscles sitting in my office chair for an extended period.

Non of these cause me any concern, I was dreading Monday as I thought walking would be painful, I would be too drained to work effectively and I would just feel really rough, but I was completely fine. 

The only thing causing concern is my right foot under my big toe and on the ball of my foot. It started as an injury three weeks before the marathon, see blog here and after a few days rest I was able to get back running. With careful monitoring I knew it wasn't getting any worse when walking or running , even when I covered 29km. Post marathon though the pain has amplified, my own diagnosis would suggest Sesamoiditis or Metatarsalgia and I am growing more convinced I should seek a professional medical opinion.

So far my recovery work post marathon has consisted of:

• A 20 minute walk on Sunday evening followed by a stretch and an ice bath at home.
• A gentle 10 minute ride on my stationary exercise bike at home followed by a stretch and a roll with my foam roller.
• A 40 minute walk into work this morning

I feel ready to run again!

I am so excited to start training for my next marathon in approximately 6 weeks. After my experience at this marathon I feel I have a greater understanding of the marathon distance and a better appreciation of what it takes to run a sub 4 hour marathon.

I know I need to hit my training hard for this next marathon an that means more strength work, more sprints, more intervals, more hill running and more milage!

I can't wait to start my new training chapter from tomorrow, bring it on!!!

Thanks for reading and for all the messages following the marathon . What are your tips for recovering from a marathon and for getting stronger for the next one? I look forward to all your suggestions....

Vanguard Way Marathon Report

Time to reflect on my third marathon yesterday and my first of three marathons in the next three months. Warning this blog may turn into a bit of a marathon read and doesn't even fully cover everything that happened along the way! 

Yesterday I completed the Vanguard Way Marathon, a small local trail marathon starting out in South Croydon following the Vanguard Way trail out to Limpsfield and back. The race was organised by a member of the 100 marathon club and I was in awe of some of the runners I ran with who were rightly introduced and acknowledged at the start of the race, a few had run in the region of 500 marathons and one gentleman was on the verge of completing his 1000th marathon in the coming weeks! If that didn't motivate me to run then I don't know what would have!

The run turned out to be really enjoyable with some great trails, countryside and scenery to experience. I enjoyed some great running and felt stronger and ran more than in previous marathons. I also experienced some great camaraderie with my fellow runners along the course. 

The marathon turned out to be a rather eventful few hours of running.

Preparation

In the week leading up to the marathon I had very much enjoyed 'the fun part to marathon training', that is the bit where you get to eat loads under the guise of 'carb loading'. Despite eating lots I managed to keep it all healthy and clean with lots of potato, flapjacks and tortilla wraps, you can read about some of my carb loading fun here. 

I felt pretty good in the build up to the run although I had missed out on a few long training runs due to illness and injury, see previous blog articles here.

The start of the marathon was about an hours drive from home, so I made sure I was all organised and ready to go the night before with only a little bit of packing in the morning. We set off in good time and we managed to find our way their easily and got there in plenty of time. I say 'we' as although I wasn't running with anyone I had my number one supporter my wife with me acting as driver, support crew, photographer and cheer leader.

This was my first event with my camelpack and I must say it worked out well as it was comfortable to wear, allowed me to stay well hydrated throughout the run and I was able to carry energy gels a lot more comfortably than my running bum bag I used previously.

The Actual Run

The marathon was a small scale trail marathon only in its second year. The course was marked out with tape and spray paint arrows which required a certain amount of self navigation and awareness to ensure you stayed on the right track.

Lets just say that although I didn't have any real running problems my navigation wasn't as successful! 

Detour number 1

After around 3 or 4 miles I was part of a largish group of maybe ten runners coming down a trail picking up a decent speed enjoying a decline in the trail. We came to the bottom of the section, over a crossroads in the path and I followed everyone through another gate up onto the next part of the trail. As the trail started to get steeper I was now part of a group of maybe 20 runners when 2 or 3 runners started to raise questions over whether we were on the right path and if any markers had been spotted. After a bit of discussion they decided to head back but I made the decision to press up following the majority of the other runners ahead of me.

It turns out we had missed our turning and had ended up going up and around the golf course rather than along the bottom of it an up the other side. After a mile or two we met up with the proper route again and I think the detour only added a short distance to the course. Although I was at fault for not observing course markings and getting caught up with the group I don't consider this error to be my fault which is frustrating as it cost a lot of time in deliberating and discussing which way to go and how to proceed.

Detour number 2

Just after the half way turnaround I was running with another guy who I had been running with for several mile and we had struck up quite a bit of conversation about the course and the run. The route took us onto a bridge over the motorway and back onto an off road track into a wooded area. I was confident we should then veer off to the left down a few steps onto another trail. Following the guy in front I kept my eyes peeled for this passage to the left but couldn't see it so I thought I must have been mistaken and kept on running up the track. A few minutes later and I started having serious doubts over where we were heading and sure enough shortly after the other guy stopped to question me. We consulted the map and decided we were unsure of where to head so should continue to the next junction before deciding how to reconnect back with the real trail. We were soon caught up by another runner who confidently reassured us we were on the right path and should keep going straight on. I voiced my concerns that we had missed a turning to the left through the woods and although the other two thought this might be correct we decided going back would waste too much time and we should just try to reconnect to the real route. After pressing on for several minutes with the three of us having contrasting views on how to proceed I decided it was time to whip out my phone to consult my mapmyrun app which had been tracking my run. I quickly identified where we had gone wrong and where we needed to head to reconnect with the route. A few hundred metres down the side of a busy road and we met up with familiar territory and the course. Easily a mile wasted and more time lost in discussing where to go. 

Worse than the detour upon trying to quickly navigate the most direct route through a field of cows I failed to notice a rather large muddy patch and ended up taking several large squelchy steps. As if that was bad enough the mud wasn't pure mud and contained the kind of smelly stuff you unfortunately find in cow fields! My trainers got pretty dirty and wet which made them heavy for the next few miles but the worse thing was the stinking smell caused my the cow excrement coming from them which thankfully only lasted for a few miles! 

Detour number 3 

Coming into the last 4 or 5 miles the trail passed through some woods before coming out onto residential roads towards the finish in Lloyd Park. I was managing to find my way OK while trying to make ground on two runners a few hundred metres ahead of me. I remembered from the way out that there was a tight poorly signed corner which I think I managed to take, I was then heading straight along a path for ages waiting for the path to come out onto roads. It took me too long to realise I had gone to far and obviously had missed a turning. Upon consulting my phone to check mapmyrun My heart sank as I realised I had ended up a long way off course. I quickly planned the most direct route to link me up with trail again determined to get back on course and complete the route. My heart quickly sank as I realised it was around 3 miles to join me back up towards the finish line and the start of this journey was a steep long hill! I walked/jogged my way towards the finish carefully checking my map to make sure I was heading the right way and taking the most direct route. 

I decided to keep going until I hit the marathon distance and then to just concentrate on getting back to the finish line. I had spent so long looking at my map and trying to navigate that my race time had suffered greatly.

After an age I caught sight of the park where the finish was, I felt like a right idiot heading towards the finish line in pretty much the opposite direction of the actual course and my wife was shocked to see me creep up on her from the wrong direction! 

So the finish brought a range of emotions, I was so pleased with my actual running performance as I ran throughout the 5 hours it took me to complete the course and my legs were full of running in the final miles. I was so disappointed to have messed things up so much though! 

I was very downhearted to have put so much effort in and sacrificed so much to end up with a disappointing time caused largely by my detours and the delays and stoppages they caused. 

Recovery

Post race apart from the anguish, frustration, disappointment and annoyance of taking so many detours physically I felt good, really good! Throughout the day I kept waiting for the pain to hit me but it never came. 

Directly after finishing I did a bit of a shakedown and cool down and as well as taking on plenty of water I consumed an energy drink, a protein shake, a banana, a mars bar and a tortilla wrap. As well as no physical pain I didn't suffer any stomach issues either during the race, directly after the race, after eating or during the drive home.

I did take a huge amount of satisfaction from feeling so good after such an effort and knew it meant I had trained and prepared very well.

First thing I did when I got home? Before I jumped in the shower I popped my favorite source of post run dirty carbs in the oven and as soon as I was washed up I devoured it pretty much as quick as I could.

A Chicago Town takeaway style filled crust pizza, hits the spot every time! 

Thanks for reading and I plan to share more thoughts from the marathon and my experiences soon.

Marathon countdown - Less than 24 hours to go

So less than 24 hours to go to the 2014 Vanguard Way Marathon.

The training has been done, the hard work has been put in and there is not much preparation left to do, a mixture of nerves and excitement as the race looms large on the horizon.

The last week has gone well, I have scaled down my training and only covered 27Km in the last week, I have eaten well and enjoyed my carb loading, kept hydrated and managed to get plenty of sleep.

So all in all its all gone to plan and now I am just left to rest, eat well and relax with just one day to go. 

I am feeling quite nicely not overly excited nor nervous. I am a bit concerned that I am a bit under cooked in terms of having only completed one run in the region of 30Km due to illness and injury but you always have last minute regrets over what you could change or have done differently.

Now my concerns are about the weather with heavy rain forecast in the build up to the marathon and I am apprehensive about how hot and humid it might be and how this will impact my running.

On the injury front I am not hampered by any fresh injuries, my big toe problem that restricted my training a few weeks back has calmed down and although it is still an almost constant pain it is minimal and isn't affected by running.

I am increasingly convinced the problem with my toe stems from my new trainers as I fear my right shoe is a fraction too big and has caused my toe injury and is also causing an issue with my right ankle as my foot moves around a little in the shoe. Anyway there is nothing I can do about it at the moment so I will hope it doesn't affect me in the marathon and will address the issue afterwards. 

So I feel good my legs feel fresh, my preparation has been good, I have eaten well and rested up so fingers crossed everything goes to plan tomorrow. My mind is a wash with thoughts about how the run will workout and what my splits should be but I am feeling quite relaxed. 

My aim is for 4.15 as I think the magical sub 4 hours mark is slightly out of my reach. Thanks for reading and for all the support given over the past few months, best of luck to everyone else racing this weekend!