I mentioned in last weeks blog that I had earmarked this week as the biggest weeks training in preparation for the Toronto Marathon, and had taken a weeks holiday from work to allow rest and recovery.  I also invited John McCole across to spend the week at my place and get some good training in.


Mon 16 Aug      

9:51am  6 miles (first 5 with John)
7:08pm  11 miles.  Ran from the track at Wythenshawe, first 9 with John.                                                                             

Tue 17 Aug        
11:01am  6 miles with John.  
5:55pm 9 miles including track session at Sport City.  16x400 (30secs).  68, 68, 66, 66, 66, 66, 66, 68, 68, 67, 68, 68, 69, 69, 67, 66.  A tired session after working very very hard in the 10,000m race on Saturday and then doing 20 miles on Sunday.  Session with John, Ben Riddell and Joe Bailey.  The lads could see I was tired and didn't mind me just sitting at the back of the group and just following whatever was happening ahead.  Good to get the legs turning over and the short recovery made it a good workout.

Wed 18 Aug      
11:03am  12 miles.  Nice and easy recovery pace, first 9 with John 
6:05pm  6 miles.  John sat this run out but had Simon Horsfield, Matt Bond and Jason Ward for company.  As is always with Jason we picked up significantly on the second half coming back 4 minutes faster.          

Thu 19 Aug        
10:53am  6 miles with John    
6:20pm 13 miles including 10 mile progression run.  The fourth one of these progression runs in this marathon build up and this was the best yet.  Felt really really good and the overall time was decent despite the slow start.  55:32 in total.  Splits: 6:19, 6:00, 5:46, 5:37, 5:28, 5:10, 5:11, 5:16, 5:15, 5:25.  6th mile possibly a bit quick but the effort was certainly progressive.  Was running with John, Jason and Matt and then Jason put the hammer down with a 4:59 mile which Matt followed.  Then got into a good rhythm running nice and relaxed at a good pace, passed Jason at 7 and then was hovering about 50m behind Matt for the rest of the run.  Shame my lace came undone for the last 2 and a bit miles.  More of an annoyance at first but then it was quite loose for the last mile and my foot was all over the place! 

Fri 20 Aug
10:49am  14 miles.  First 9 with Andy.  Strong last 2 miles on my own.  No evening run today as was at a wedding all day/night.

Sat 21 Aug        
10:02am  9 miles.  Ran with Matt Bond for much of it, he was doing some efforts mid-run and then jogging back towards me.
6:50pm  5 miles with Matt.

Sun 22 Aug       
10:26am  24 miles including Leek Half Marathon.  1st, 1:17:19, 5:54/mi.   Knew that with 1220ft of climbing, this was a bitch of a hilly course and the half would be a very slow time based on past results.  Just wanted to run hard all the way and get another sustained effort workout in before Toronto.  Won by approx 1min and beat the winning time of last year by Ben Gamble who's best was 67 last year, so had a good workout midrun.  Think this run will end up being a really key run in my build up.  

Weekly Mileage: 121