First up well done to everyone who competed in the relays this weekend.  I always think the real end of track season (hurray) is signalled by the first relay race and it looks like there were some good results.  I wasn't able to compete myself due to family commitments but I needed to crack on with the training anyway...eyes always firmly on the goal!

It was also the Toronto Marathon today, and when I remembered it was on,  it brought back memories.  It was a race which I competed in last year and which went really badly.  The highs of London were well and truly quashed by the ultimate low of Toronto.  However,  it was also a turning point in my career.  Not because it went badly, more because of circumstances and developments in my thinking around training.  However the fact that it did go so badly only reinforced what I was already thinking.  That whilst the marathon suited me, I was no-where near ready to compete well over one.  Such is the nature of the event, it is almost impossible to 'blag it'.  I almost managed to in London, off a diet of only 60 miles a week at best and a small handful of long runs (although I was in great shape and had my best ever XC season to date) but there was no way it was going to let me do the same again in Toronto.  There were big gaps in my training, lots of work to do to improve many aspects of my repertoire as an athlete.  I was massively disappointed to run so slowly in Toronto, my  first outing in an England vest, but at the same time, I also felt that I could finally get on with putting things right.  Start a fresh so to speak.

Of course, things are never that simple, and as mentioned in my bio, I have had a number of problems this year which has resulted in my results being far from impressive.  To say the least it has been frustrating as I have never done myself justice for one reason or another.  To those athletics data geeks (of which I am one) it looks as though I haven't improved at all.   As much as I say I was in this shape and could have run that, until you actually run it, it means bugger all and it is really annoying!

The last year, under coach Chris, has been such a learning experience.  I feel that I've really got to know myself better as an athlete and what training I respond well to.  We didn't get it completely right last winter but have made some pretty big changes this year to my schedule.  In the last month or so, I've really began to feel that we're starting to get somewhere.

One of my major issues in the past has been recovery.  Some people struggle with it some people don't.  I definitely struggled.  I was following the three sessions a week schedule that a lot of people seem to in this country.  I ran every session flat out however in between I was also trying to run my runs at an honest pace.  As a result, I rarely put together a week of good sessions.  In fact I seemed to rarely have a really good session, I was in a state of permanent semi-knackeredness.  Once we realised what was happening, it seemed really obvious.

The make up of my sessions has changed (you will see from my training diary, it is sometimes a bit unusual) but that's a story for a different day.  One of the key changes is my pacing.  My steady runs are now slower, if I feel tired, I slow down.  Seems so obvious now but I had this notion that if I ran slower, I would become slower.  A plodder.  PC Plod.  Now I see the sessions as training, and the runs as something which fills the gaps in between.  Of course runs are important, and they have a purpose but the sessions are more important.  It's mediocre sessions which make you slower, not slower runs.  Many of my sessions are also now done to a target pace, e.g target marathon pace, target 5k pace etc.  It really makes me feel that each session has a purpose and a target, rather than just general as fast as you possibly can and finish on your knees (often in my case getting slower the whole way through the session).  We use Jack Daniels theories and methods as a guide for training paces - a recommended read if anyone is interested!

Next weekend sees my next race - a local 5 miler close to where Chris's mum lives.  I'm feeling quite excited after this weekend's training and looking forward to putting my demons to rest.  Let's hope the good luck fairies are smiling on me!