These last 7 days have been pretty tough for me; I've done 2 sessions, a huge tempo coupled with the mileage and it's really taken it out of me.

Going back to last Tuesday's session it went as well as it could have for me really. Mo, Moses and Boniface were doing a huge 14k worth of reps with 5x2k and then 2 sets of 5x400m. I was told only to do 1200m of the first 3 2k's, as it was only my 2^nd 'proper' day of training here. I coped absolutely fine and felt quite comfortable running at that pace and I also did my fair share of work on the reps too, taking some out for the lads. Once I'd finished my 1200's I wanted to carry on but John said to me hold back and see how I go on the 400's, so I had a good long recovery where I jogged about before they started. The plan was only to the first set with the lads at 3k pace for me off a short recovery. I once again got through them nice and comfortably and again asked John if I could do some more, he agreed that I could do the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th rep of the next set. These were a little quicker, more 1500m pace but they ended up being closer to 800 pace for me! I still felt good though and really enjoyed it and that was the first session in the bag.

It was also a pleasure to see the Ugandan lads do this session, I've never seen athletes of this calibre train before and it is a real eye opener as to how hard you have to work if you want to achieve what they have. Even Mo looked very good throughout the whole session, he never looked stretched once at all. What made it even more amazing was the way Boniface was running his 400's; he must have been going through 200 close to 32 and then closing the last 200 in 26 or 27 seconds!

I won't go into how every run has gone this week or what we've been doing day in day out as its pretty much the same routine of running in the morning, getting some food in, having a sleep then going out for a drink in the afternoon or just chilling out in the apartment before the 2^nd run of the day.

Come Thursday I was down to do a long wind up tempo with Nick. Mo and Boniface were also doing something similar but we don't quite have the legs to stay with those boys! We did 20mins steady, 20mins high steady then 20mins tempo. The run soon picked up and by the time we got to 40mins we were motoring along at just outside 5min miles, as we got into the 9^th mile my heart rate began to go above the tempo zone so I had to back off and I decided to call it a day at the end of that mile. I've attached some of the data I got from my Garmin watch from that run just to show how my heart was behaving on the tempo.

On Thursday evening I was absolutely wiped out after the tempo that morning so just took it nice and easy on my evening run and then again on Friday morning the feeling hadn't gone so once again I just took it nice and easy to try and freshen my legs up. After chatting with Ben the physiologist he said to me tempos are the most beneficial out here as that's what really strains the aerobic system to its maximum due to the altitude so that is most likely the reason behind my body feeling so tired. I decided to rest Friday evening as I felt like I needed it and I was on for big mileage anyway.

Saturday morning we had to do a hill session that was an on going session as there's no shortage of hills here. We started at Paula's trail (she has one named after her) and then went up 2miles of road to the top doing 90 seconds on 60 off, where we jogged downhill during the recovery. Usually hill sessions aren't a problem for me so off I went legging it, as I would do in any session. After the first 90 seconds I wondered why Nick was 30m back and I felt like I'd already done 10 reps. He just laughed and said "take it easy, this will be hard." I then settled into a slightly slower rhythm but could still feel it hitting me. After 3 reps I felt like I should be finishing my breathing was that heavy. On the 4^th rep I went into what could only be described as an asthma attack after 60 seconds of running. My legs felt fine; I just couldn't get enough air in to cope with the effort. As a distance runner it's very rare that your lungs 'die' before your legs do, usually its lactic acid that slows you, not in this case.

I then battled on to the top of the hill, which we reached at the end of the 9^th rep. After that, I didn't fancy doing a rep up a ski slope which we were now at the foot of, so we jogged back down for a mile; a much needed recovery for my lungs. We had 5 more reps to do, round 2 I was thinking to myself.

I knew what was to come this time so again I composed myself and got moving one more time. I'd like to say I felt a little better on these last 5 reps but I didn't! My legs didn't tie up at all; again I just couldn't get the air into my body fast enough. I gave it everything on every one of the reps regardless of how much I sounded like I was dying and I cursed John every name under the sun when I finished but as any athlete will say, it was a great feeling to know it was over and done with.

Paula's trail.

That evening we just went for an easy run to flush out the rubbish from our legs but we had the benefit of having Ben the physiologist with us. He had taken some lactic readings before, during and after the session and again he took some before the easy run. I think after the session warm down my reading was 3.1, which is about right for me after a tough session.

Before the easy run it was 2.1 and 40mins later it was down to 1.1, now the purpose of an easy run is to flush out that lactic, so it's pointless doing a recovery run and not getting rid of all the lactic. Ideally it needs to be under 0.8 as that's when the machine can't read the level anymore and your body is removing it faster than it produces it. I was the lowest out of the 3 of us, (Nick, Helen and I) so Ben showed us a technique, what can only be described as a African shuffle jog around 10min mile pace. We did this for about 4 minutes and everyone's lactic was now unreadable so we were completely flushed out and not carrying anything into the next run. This is definitely a technique that is worth trying, you may not feel any different physically but the fact the lactic is removed completely by shuffle jogging so slowly at the end of each run will make a huge difference come the next day.

Sundays run was just a normal one for me, I knew if I ran 13 miles I would run another highest mileage week but I ended up doing 15 miles as I ran with Mo and Boniface as Nick was just going really easy today. Typically the run quickened in the latter stages but I felt fine and just pushed on with them, as we hit 14miles I took a different path back as I didn't fancy doing the last mile with them boys as they do shift along, so I just jogged back comfortably and did a 4 or 5 minute shuffle at the end to loosen off my legs.

So that's my first proper week of training all done and all I can so is that it was very tough, now I have to do it all again this week. Great!

I'm really looking forward to another hard week now as I know it's going to really benefit me for the summer and hopefully I'll run the times I want to run on the track when I get back. It's never going to be easy but that's why I'm here- to train hard and get the results.

It's only Monday afternoon so today I've only done one run today so far- 8 miles this morning. I'm not doing weights this afternoon, as I didn't sleep too well last night so it's just a precaution before tomorrow's session. I'm just taking it easy for the rest of the day and will do them on Wednesday, which is no problem really.

These blogs seem to be getting longer and longer each week, I think I have too much time on my hands at the minute. I'll finish it there before I ramble on anymore. I best get going anyway as I have to sit and pray to the Alan Shearer god for the next 8 hours, so if my blog doesn't get updated in the next few days, I've jumped off a cliff because we lost against Boro tonight. Come on the Toon!

Ryan

a few shots from the lake where we do a lot of steady running because it's flat and has good trails.