A New Year

I seem to log on here and every time I write a blog I feel like I have to apologise for my lack of contact recently. So once again my updates haven't been too good with holidays, Christmas and New Year. These days with the world of Blackberries & iPhones you can do everything you like online when you're waiting for the bus, sitting in a traffic jam or just on the sofa without having to turn a laptop on. I think the last time I used my Macbook was when I was in New York a few weeks ago. Just as i'm about to spend the next 30minutes writing up a blog it begins to snow so i'm going to cut this blog short but I promise i'll finish in a couple hours as it's just started snowing quite heavy and i've got to go do a hill session before it gets too bad!!

I'll be back later today so watch this space.....

Anyway back to the blog, happy new year and here's to a successful 2010. I just want to add it's great to see a new look RunnersLife website, the homepage looks very slick now and the guys who run the site have done a great job.

This afternoons session was pretty tough for me as I did a hard one on Thursday. Having been a little ill last weekend I took Monday/Tuesday easy and opted to do my Tuesday session on Thursday instead. That was 5x5mins on the grass and I didn't feel to good at the time but the times were very fast for me covering over a mile for each rep. I think that was still in my legs this morning when I was doing my hills so I chickened out and did the 4 reps today instead of 5. I do them on the Beacon and for those of you who arn't familiar with that area of Loughborough it's a long tough hill George Gandy uses a lot during the winter. I think it's about 7-8minutes to the top from the car park I started at but I only go to a bench situated 0.75 mile from the start. I ran it continuously just over 4minutes up and 5:30 down and felt great on the first rep which is unlike me but I did do a pretty long warm up with plenty stretching (again unlike me!) I felt quite heavy legged so decided to be sensible and not work myself too hard as there's a lot of volume in the session and cut from 5 to 4 reps.

I mentioned earlier I'd been a little ill. Some of you who seen the Ribble Valley 10k result may have noticed me way down in the 50's just infront of Helen Clitheroe who was first woman. I woke up on Boxing Day feeling quite rough for some reason- no I hadn't been out drinking or had any late nights, just didn't feel myself. I had my breakfast and then started feeling stomach cramps and felt abit spaced out so decided to go back to bed. I slept for another 3 hours and woke up a little better so decided to travel down to Burnley where I was staying. I knew when I went to a restaurant when I couldn't finish my dinner that I still wasn't quite right, then before bed my head was pounding. I had travelled all the way at my parents expense and stayed over and I didn't really want to pull out the race especially when my legs felt fine so I chose to race.

On race day I woke up feeling fine, big appetite for breakfast, no cramps, no headaches so I was all set to go! I warmed up fine, took my time and felt good in the first mile but after just over 3k I began to feel stomach cramps again and I knew when I reached 4k my race was over so I slow pretty much to a stop and jogged for a minute then tried to go again but there was no chance. So I carried on jogging waiting for Helen who used to train in my group when she was coached off Nuttall as well. I shouted at her i'd pace her to the finish as she was on her own and just ran in at tempo pace to make sure I got something from the race.

Looking back it was a silly decision to race judging by the way I felt the day before however I'm not one for dropping out of races even before they've started, I like to give it a go and see how I feel. So it's one to put behind me and move on and soon enough i'll shatter that 10k pb of mine!

Ribble Valley aside everything else has been going really well, training has been great these last few weeks and i've been putting in some good mileage and some cracking sessions with the lads in Loughborough.

Next up for me in the cross country in Edinburgh next weekend where I always love running! I'll keep you updated on how things are going in preparation. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my sponsors Tyne Tees Television who are in partnership with Sport Newcastle as they have renewed my sponsorship for a further year. They have supported me for a number of years now and renewed the sponsorship a number of times now so I will of course keep training hard and keep on delivering successful results.

I recently returned from a trip in New York where I must say the running is fantastic there! I was out everyday in Central Park (apart from the day we got 10" of snow overnight) and even got 2 sessions in while I was there. The city is amazing, the shops are unreal the sites are jaw dropping and the park was just a dream to run around.

I'll share some of my favourite shots I took below

Times Square on an evening.