Monday 20th (day 21)

Today was the first day of my 'easy' week and it certainly didn't feel easy doing 6mile this morning. My legs felt so heavy and fatigued, I was feeling the effects of the miles in the last 2 weeks and i'm so glad John has toned down the volume around the sessions. After a morning run I went down the track to watch a couple of the guys from my group do a session as they're going home tomorrow and also watch the St Mary's guys do a time trial. I got some lunch in and then headed up to where the St Marys mob were staying to sit in the sun for a few hours as it was a cracking day!

Heres a couple of the lads going at it in the last 100

Tuesday 21st (day 22)

Today was another tough session, I had the benefit of having done it back in the winter so I had something to compare it too when I finished. It was 10x1k off jog 200. The idea was to start on a slower rep at tempo pace, then run the next at race pace and carry this on throughout. It also worked well as the girls could do our tempo 1k as their fast one and then they ran 400 of our fast 1k.

Compared to when I did this session back in December I found it a lot easier. I know i'm a fair bit fitter than I was back then so it's good to go back and do past sessions from time to time just to see where I am at. I know John has this penciled in to do again in a few weeks and I know it's going to be 10x tougher then! I'll explain why closer to the time.

A bonus for todays session was the guest appearance of fellow RunnersLife athlete Sharpy (below in nothing but his famous Brookes sportswear) showing up to do the session. He got to 9k then 450m of the last rep. I did my very best to keep him motivated and tried to get him to get the whole session in but credit to him, he went beyond his planned 8 reps and gave the last a shot and I know it was pretty tough as he only arrived yesterday. Good to see him running well though!!

This evening I am resting as I hit a good amount of volume on the session this morning, so i'll just get out in the morning for a long run with the lads and do some weights in the afternoon.

Wednesday 22nd (day 23)

Today was long run day and we all set off at 9 along the trails. I was only going to do 9 mile today due to my reduced mileage week so Nick showed us a different run which was quite good. I wound up the end of my run to get my legs turning over, something I've told told I have to do to work on my lactic threshold. So i pushed on the 2nd last mile to 6:10 pace then the last mile around 5:45 pace.

In the afternoon I just chilled out and stayed out the sun as it was pretty hot yesterday, It must have been 25+ and I don't like to be in the sun too much as I find it drains me and dehydrated me. In the evening we cooked up a good chicken meal and then I watch the football in the local.

*I forgot to add in I did weights, drills and core early evening with Andy and Lee which was pretty tough but a good session.

Thursday 23rd (day 24) 

Not long to go now, todays tempo, one big session on Saturday then a short session on Tuesday before I go back to the UK is all the hard running I have left. Today was just the same as last week, a wind up tempo. We started off with the girls, Nick and Helen. Nick and Helen weren't doing much as they leave for Zurich tomorrow for a road race. Lee, Andy and I all did the wind up tempo and after a couple miles we pushed on to 5:45 pace to begin with then after 5mile I was at around 5mins per mile pace. Today my heart rate was really low for some reason- we do the end of the tempo when we're running at our fastest on the old cross country course which is very undulating and I only just touched high end tempo heart rate at the end of the 5miles that we'd done quick. After this I just jogged 3mile back to the apartment with the lads. I'm pretty happy the way my heart rates were this morning as this can only mean I'm getting fitter now and it's always good to see visible signs when looking back through the Garmin data.

Tonight it's Nuttall's last night so I think we're all going to go out for a meal a couple drinks before he heads off in the morning. I'm not planning on any late nights as my eyes seem to want to close around 10pm these days which can only be a good thing I guess with all this training.

Friday 24th (day 25)

Today I was pencilled in for a rest day so I took full advantage of that! I've not had a proper rest day in months apart from a couple of ones i've had to take because of injury in the last couple months when I had little aches and pains. Even though Vernon was double running today we still went Go Karting near Loule along the coast. I dropped Jess, Emily and Fin off in Loule to do some shopping while we went off to Kart. With our wallets a little lighter a couple hours later we all headed home and then I had to take Nick and Helen to the airport as they're racing tomorrow. Oh and Vernon and I are yet to decide who actually won the karting so we called it a draw! 

Tonight I cooked up a monster dinner (as seen below where I have a mouth full of food) for the lads and i've just had my treat for the week a nice banana and chocolate crep in the local bar. Tomorrow we have our last major session of the trip as Tuesday I only have a build up run before I fly back home so it'll be good to get it in the bag. I think the lads are a little worried as I'm going to be fresh from my easy week and day off today, so i'm going to make them work damn hard now haha unlucky lads. 

Saturday 25th (day 26)

Today I was hoping for a really good session as i'd rested yesterday and ideally I should have been feeling fresh. That wasn't the case, I don't know if it was because I rested yesterday, because I didn't do a good enough warm up, because we started the session earlier than normal or even because I had a huge desert last night, I don't know but I'm not going to worry about it. The session wasn't that bad, I probably would have been happy with it at the start of the training trip but the fact i'd been running so well I was disappointed with it. The session itself was 2mile tempo, 2x2k, 8mins of back to backs, 2mile tempo. Looking I just felt pretty fatigued and struggled with my breathing slightly in the reps so i've put that behind me and got on with things.

To make things worse, I forgot to text Sharpy the change of plans for the session. We started at half 9 instead of 10:45 so he turned up after we'd done our tempo and wasn't warmed up. I felt so bad for it but credit to him, he did a short warm up and jumped into the 2k reps. So here it is, my apology, Sharpy, i'm sorry, I owe you a pint at the end of the season!

Later that morning I dropped John, Ruth and Abdi off at the airport as they were flying home and I just went back to the apartment after that, put my feet up for a few hours before I went out for an evening jog to get the rubbish out my legs from the morning session. One of those runs you don't enjoy and just grind out!

Sunday 26th (day 27)

With it being London Marathon day everyone wanted to watch it so we went for our run at 8 to get it over and done with. I did just under 90 and felt a little better today although my legs still felt a little heavy for the first 40mins. One we got back it was a day full of sport, London Marathon, Bahrain grand Prix (It was great to see the circuit I ran on back in September!) then after the grand prix we had the football on. It was also Lee's 30th today so we all went out for an ice cream in the evening and a drink then headed back for a film.

Monday 27th (day 28)

Today I had to be up pretty early to take Lee and Andy to the airport so I didn't get a chance to do a morning run. I didn't get back till about 10ish and I was pretty tired so went back to sleep for an hour or so and got a big 2nd breakfast in. I did my run mid afternoon and felt so much better today, I even ventured along the cliffs to check out the coastal path but it was a little too up and down for my liking! I cut through the Alfamar hotel where I spotted the Swedish athletics team then headed back to my apartment from there.

As Lee and Andy have gone, I ate with the girls and surprisingly the cooking wasn't too bad apart from the spice that was in it as i'm not a fan of that! now i'll get murdered off Fin for saying that! I then went down to a local bar to watch Newcastle grind out a 0-0 with Pompy which was a little frustrating. Then back to pack and off to bed before tomorrows flight.

Tuesday 28th (day 29)

Today our flight was at 2ish so I got my run done at half 8 with Jess and Emily, I was meant to be doing a 45min build up run as a session but i'm on the treadmill tomorrow for a vo2 test so I just did a 30 easy. 

We then made our way to the airport and arrived back in the UK around 5ish. I had to get another jog in before tomorrows treadmill test just to loosen up and get the flight out my legs. I didn't feel too bad tonight so hopefully tomorrow will go well.

All in all I really enjoyed portugal, I got some really good sessions in along with plenty of quality miles and i'm feeling a lot fitter. This will now set me in good stead for the summer and i'm hoping to rewrite my pb's now! So on with the hard training now i'll keep you's updated.