It's been three weeks since my last blog which is pretty slack considering I normally update every week. I then noticed I was at the bottom of the athletes pile and this is not on, so this should shoot me straight to the top. My last blog came just before my third year kicked off and when lectures started it threw me off a bit. After going months of being where I wanted when I wanted I had to all of a sudden get organised and be in certain places at certain times. It's not just lectures though, there's been all sorts of meetings I've had to attend to discuss project work and then other things I've had to do as part of my scholarship with the uni. But it hasn't taken me this long to adjust, I would've updated earlier but my recent weekends have been taken up by a couple of races. In the Runnerslife world races is synonymous with race reports. You'll notice the Manchester Relays report is up and the National 6 Stage one will be following it sometime in the middle of the week (and I'm not just saying that this time, I've been organised and already written it so all I need to do is post it). Those interested in the training log will see three weeks of training (not including this one) posted as well.

With the formalities out of the way we're in a position to start talking about running. I've been turning out some good training since I last blogged. I've been walking away from sessions surprised at some of the times I was doing. I wouldn't say I'm in tip top shape already, there are still things to sort out but I'm definitely on the right track.

Being young I'm still going through the phase where every year the weekly mileage is increased. This means more runs, more double days and longer runs. If memory serves me right I'm on 3/4 double days of running if I'm not racing which is a fair few early mornings. I miss the days when you'd look at your watch after 20 mins and you'd only have, say, 40 mins left. On a Sunday run I now look at my watch after 20 mins with a whole hour left (that's right, I'm now on 80 mins). I find that 10 mins between 70 and 80 mins seems to be some sort of void where time almost stands still; it just drags on! I do feel a massive sense of achievement when I complete the run though. But I always seem to get back to my house around the 75 min mark so I always have to do an out and back to finish off the run or an extra 5 min loop. I'm yet to find that perfect 80 min loop where I can step out of my door, start the run and finish the run back at the door without going past the same place twice.

Of course with more miles and more running comes the greater risk of getting injured. So to prevent that tribulation it helps to do a few things which help you get by. I like to stretch regularly, almost every day after runs to help the flexibility, prevent stiffness and it does give a bit of strength. I'm lucky enough to have Brooks send me kit so I have a couple of pairs of trainers in rotation most of the time. Don't know why this has to be done, but Steve and other coaches have been telling me this for a few years now and I only really started doing it last year. At the uni there's also access to strength and conditioning facilities and coaches which is a real help. Like last year I intend to do a weights session, a circuit session, some prehab and a couple of core sessions a week. The only difference is my prehab stuff will come before my circuit and weight sessions and maybe before a core session. This is because my circuits, core and prehab are now set by a guy called Ruddi Farquharson who works with almost all of the scholar athletes including Wilko and Ed Aston. Some athletes have been working with him for a while now and as they've only said good things about him I've decided to jump on the bandwagon. The weights are still set by last year's strength coach Chris Ross. I've also started a weekly session in a gymnastics hall doing drills. I've been doing the same drills for years and wanted to learn some new ones. As it's in a gymnastics hall I do the drills on soft flooring so the impact of my legs is very light. Plus it's nice having someone there to make sure I'm doing things right like standing tall and making sure my foot strike is good.

For the last few weeks I've had a new experience in my running career, I went to see a physio. A couple of weeks into training I had a little niggle in my hip which didn't seem to go away. It would be there on most runs and almost every night I'd wake up and the hip would be in a lot of pain. Then on one Sunday run 4 weeks after the niggle started it caused absolute agony for the last 25 mins of the run, every step I took was so painful and the horrible sensation ran all the way down my left leg. When I got back to uni I decided to see a physio about the problem. Someone had previously told me it may have been a nerve which needed to be released and the physio confirmed this. It was a nerve which runs from your hip down your leg and a tight muscle was pressing against it. So I had a couple of sessions of acupuncture (which was also a first for me) to get the nerve released. The physio could've used his elbows on the muscle but apparently that's really painful and for someone like me who had never been to a physio before acupuncture was the least painful way to sort me out. If I'm honest I quite enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if I'd like long, sharp needles being stuck into my hip but it wasn't too bad. Mid way through the session the physio would twist the needle and sometimes there would be an excruciating pain but apart from that I was ok. I'm glad to say the problem has been eradicated and I'm niggle free again.

A couple of days before the Manchester Relays I had a sub max test in the lab to see what point of fitness I'm at. I think it went well and the tester, who is also my scholarship mentor Alex McGregor, was very optimistic at first glance with the results. He's already sent me a report of the test and the numbers are in the table below. The paces are a bit rapid but that's because they've come off a treadmill; I never do recovery runs at 6:06 pace and easy runs at 5:22 pace. I'm having a meeting with Alex next week so I'll get a more in depth analysis then.

That's it for now; I think this could be the biggest blog I've ever written. That's what happens when you don't keep in touch for 3 weeks, there's quite a lot to say. I'll try and get back to my usual weekly updates but I'll definitely be putting the National 6 Stage report and this week's training up during the week. A couple of people left comments which I didn't reply to so they've got their own little bit below with my responses. Hope my rambling on hasn't sent you to sleep.

Thanks for the read,

Goolab xxx

Milly- My prehab work is just exercises which strengthen my hip and glute area. The new ones I do only take about 5 mins and I think there's seven of them . You have the classic hip abduction exercises in there plus a few others I'm not quite sure on how to describe. I use a band for more resistance but the key is to keep good technique and strengthen all those little muscles in the hip/glute area like the hip flexors. If you wanted to do your own stuff I'm sure there's loads of material on the internet with various hip exercises you can do.

Simon- Thanks! Yeah the Southern 6 stage was a great result and it was 14 seconds quicker than last year. Steve didn't want me to look too much into the result just because I hadn't been training long.     

Thank you both for the comments and sorry about the late replies xxx