Apologies once again for the lack of blogs from me recently, I've been flat out with my college work and training, now I know some of you will probably say us students have the easy life, that could be true but some of my days have just crazy- like Mondays which is now an 11 hour day of training, college all day, training then more training!

Well now you're going to get a nice long one as I'm currently en route to New York with my laptop at my finger tips with time to kill.

I mentioned in my last blog, which seems an age ago now, about different types of training runs. I went through tempo running and what type of effort they should be done at. I've found my vo2 max testing results and I'm going to share some of the data with you and help give you an idea how I know what pace/effort/heart rate to do my runs at as I have had some questions recently about what type of pace and effort I do my runs at.

I'll start off with 'Recovery' runs. I find these very important after sessions, usually do them the evening of the session as I do my main training sessions in the morning. I used to neglect these runs and probably run too quickly but after my trip to Font Romeu earlier in the year I learnt a lot from Mo, Boniface and Moses. They would go out and run at 9-10minute mile pace. As crazy as it seems that's the best way to get rid of lactic in your legs. They choose to do the whole run at the pace however the physiology behind it suggests running easy (in the correct heart rate zone- see table below) and then doing the last 10minutes at 9-10minute mile pace. I find this the most effective way of flushing out my legs.

Next up is 'Low Steady' runs. I find these good to do when I'm running for an hour or more. Say on a Wednesday when I do 75mins or a Sunday when I do 90mins, I will run in this zone. Its just nice and relaxed and usually chatting all the way without really breaking into a sweat.

'High Steady' runs are good to get the legs turning slightly. I will do these when I'm not so tired and haven't go anything too tough coming up (eg. A massive Tuesday session or a race on the weekend). Say on a Monday evening or a Friday. I'll usually do this run with the tri-athlete lads on a Monday where we'll do a good 45/50mins at 6:20 pace for example and my heart rate will be in the 150's.

On a Thursday I will do 'Low Tempo' work and maybe dip into 'High Tempo' in the latter stages of the run. Say for instance I will do a 40minute run with the first 20mins steady (so I'll run in the high steady area for 20minutes) then begin to wind up into the low tempo area and get my heart rate sitting around the 170bpm mark. For me, based on vo2 tests, that's usually around 5:10 pace and the key is to not go much faster that that as you loose the benefit of the tempo run and it turns into a flat out effort. I don't really know the science behind the zones so can't really comment too much about them.

I won't often move into 'High Tempo' on specific tempo runs however I will if I have a longer type rep in training, say a 6minute effort. After that it's 'Low VO2 Max' efforts which is usually mile reps down to minute reps and after that 'High VO2 Max'. These two zones kind of cross over anyway though as it totally depends on the types of recovery in sessions. If you're getting longer recoveries you're obviously going to be able to run faster in the rep and your heart rate will be higher, thus putting you in a higher zone.

Below are my heart rate zones for the different types of runs I do. Bare in mind these a SPECIFIC TO ME so please don't take them as your own. Everyone varies and these have been calculated to certain percentages of my maximum heart rate. On the other hand do use them as a guide if you have no idea on what your runs should be at. If for example you're going out for a recovery run after a hard session where your heart rate maxed out at 195bpm and on your 'recovery' run your heart rate is 155 then you know you're running too fast.

As for me, I have been training very hard recently. I felt my last race wasn't great, pretty average in my own personal opinion but I'll move on and look to the next. I've been doing some good mileage weeks, building up to where I was at around Easter last year when I got into the 90's. I've also been hitting some really good sessions on the track and on the grass, such as 8x1k on the track and also 4,3,2,1mins x3 on the grass. Those along with others have suggested I'm running quite well at the moment so I'm going to consolidate that fitness and tick over for the next or so while I'm in New York. Saying that, there's more running kit in my bag than casual clothes so I'm hoping to get plenty of running done around Central Park each morning with my new short term training partner Richard Warburton (who I'm out here with)... if he decides to get his arse into gear he might end up becoming more a of long term training partner, but I think many of the Loughborough boys will agree here, he needs to man up and get some miles in.

I've now decided I'm definitely going to run Ribble Valley on the 27^th so hopefully I can go out and run under 30mins finally after my last 10k  a while back where I failed badly at that in the Great Yorkshire run. I've heard it's going to be a decent field so hoping all the lads will work together and we can post some quick times.

When I get to New York I'm expecting there to be decent internet access somewhere so I'll try and get another blog or two posted while I'm out here with accompanying photos to make those at home jealous. Now I just have to cross my fingers for some snow!

That's all from me for now, I'll update soon.