This is a long one!

Tuesday’s Training – Am: 10*400m (ish) road loops with 400m jog rec. Pm: 35 mins slow

Mileage – 16 miles

My blood is changing. This always happens after 4 days down from altitude and last usually until the 7^th day down. And this is the reason why I felt do tired today. I got a great sleep of 10 hours last night and woke up feeling very groggy. I had an energy bar and coffee and spent a while trying to psyche myself up to get out the door and run. I jogged half a mile and then stretched for a while and then finally headed out again for a 3 mile warm up. I originally wanted to go to the track to get the workout done but once I looked up online that it cost £4.80 ($8) to get into the stadium I quickly changed my mind and decided to find somewhere on the roads to do it. I ended up just doing it around the block that AC’s sister lives on as it turned out to be just over 400m long. There were 4 pretty tight turns on the loop but the workout was going to be used just to get my legs back a little and try feel a bit better after a long day’s travel the day before. The first rep was pretty tough as I felt like I was just trying to start the ignition. I felt ok though once I had got through a couple of reps and got through the 10 reps without too much hassle from pedestrians or builders. The first rep was 73 secs and I brought that down to 68 secs by the last rep. Once I was done with the warm down, I stretched a bit and then had a nice hot shower which led to me resting in front of the TV for a while.

I got a call from AC at around 4pm and it turned out to be one of our friends Mark (who I’ve raced since I was 13) so I headed up to Illegal Jack’s and we sat and chatted for a bit. The restaurant was jammed full as AC had put on a free burrito day to raise awareness of what his product is. It was great to see so many people there and I’m sure it will have a great affect on his future business. After talking for a while, got onto the topic of the good athletes that we used to race against and how they had all disappeared. It ended up being that there was only Mark, myself and one other runner (out of the male athletes) who were still running from when we were juniors. It was pretty sad actually and a shame as I certainly wasn’t the best of the athletes when we were going through the ranks. Guys from all over Scotland would regularly beat me and now they have mostly all quit the sport. We walked down the road after a while as I had to get on with another run. I got to the apartment and got changed but was feeling very tired when I stepped out the door. I have been doing a lot of longer runs (up to 3 hours) during the marathon build up yet this 35 minute run was by far the longest feeling run I have done in a long while. I was so sluggish that I couldn’t even make it to 40 mins. I should have maybe taken the evening off but I still wanted to do something as exercise helps with getting over jet lag. AC’s sister was home when I got back so once I had showered we walked over to Illegal Jack’s for some dinner. It was good to see that it was still busy so we grabbed some food and sat at the window and people watched for a while. Mouse, AC’s sister, went home after a while and I stayed in case AC needed any help with anything but ended up just eating some more. My appetite is insatiable when I am tired so a beef quesadilla helped with that and then I just sat around reading the paper while I waited for AC to be finished. The staff had done really well with hw busy it was so AC wanted to take them out for a night so we went back to the apartment quickly so AC could shower. When we got back, the staff had all started drinking and were trying to force me to take shots of Jaigermeister but I was having none of it. I’ve not drunk any alcohol since New Year’s eve so I wasn’t about to end that streak a week before my big race. I wanted to stay awake as long as possible tonight as that is one of the recommendations we got from the UKA doctors when travelling to Asia on how to ease the effects of jet lag (Go to bed late and wake up late). I stayed with them at the restaurant until 1 am and then headed back when they went to the clubs. After watching some programs on my computer, I put my head down (at 2 am) and fell right asleep.

Monday’s Training – Am: Travelling to UK Pm: 52 mins very slow.

Mileage - 7 miles.

I’ve never been a good sleeper when it comes to air travel and last night was really no different. My problem is the length of my legs. I can never get comfortable because my knees are always pressed up against the seat in front and then my bum gets numb as I don’t have much cushioning there. I thought I had hit the jackpot though when we were taking off as it looked like I had the only seat on the plane with a free seat beside it. This always helps as I can stretch my legs out into the space beside me. Once we were up in the air though, the old lady 2 seats along went and grabbed her granddaughter and had her sit beside me. She was tiny so that wasn’t too bad but she was curled up on the seat so she was kicking me and moving around all night so that made sure I couldn’t get a decent stretch of sleep. I just had a bunch of 20 minute naps really.

We arrived at Heathrow around 1.30pm so I had a couple of hours until my connecting flight. I went and grabbed a sandwich and coffee and tried to relax a little bit but it felt better to stretch my legs out a bit as they had been cramped up for so long. At 3.30pm, I got on the plane to Edinburgh and slept the whole way up. I was surprised to see that my bag arrived right away (it normally gets lost somewhere) so I got onto the bus into town and headed over to Illegal Jack’s to meet AC and get the keys for his sister’s apartment (I would be staying with them for a couple of nights). After a quick reunion, I headed over to the apartment and headed out for my run. Needless to say, I didn’t feel too good. I actually headed off at a normal pace only to realise that I was really tired and I needed to slow the pace right down so I basically shuffled for the next 50 mins and tried to expend s little energy as possible. It was a gorgeous evening so I headed down to Holyrood Park where there were lots of people out running and doing things in the park. I headed back through The Meadows and again, there were lots of students out there relaxing and hanging out. I got back to the apartment and did some stretching to try and loosen up a bit. I showered and headed over to Illegal Jack’s to grab some dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to find both AC and his sister sitting waiting for me so AC grabbed us some of the freshly made chilli and then I washed it down with a beef burrito. We sat and chatted for a little while before it was time to close up so we went through to the back as AC had to do the cashing up and the staff had to clean the front of house. AC tried his best to explain Twitter to me but I still don’t really get it. Apparently there is so much more to it than just simple updates and AC is taking advantage of this to try and publicise his business as much as possible. We ended up heading back to the apartment after 9.30pm sometime and then just sat and chatted for a little while. I was slipping in and out of sleep whilst I was lying on the couch so decided to go to bed at 11.30pm and fell right asleep.

Sunday’s Training – Am: 10 mile tempo followed by 12*1 min hard, 1 min easy fartlek. 49.12 (4.56, 4.58, 4.57, 4.56, 4.55, 4.54, 4.55, 4.53, 4.50, 4.52) Pm: 34 mins easy

Mileage – 26 miles

I woke up at 6 this morning as I wanted to get on with the training before it got too hot and windy. I had an English muffin and coffee and waited tried to do a cross word while I waited for Julie to wake up. We headed out a little later than I wanted as I found a bunch of my videos that I made when I was at the Olympics. The videos didn’t work on my last computer so it was great that they were working now. I went for a half mile jog so I could get some stretching done before heading out for the workout. I warmed up for 3 miles and started to do my drills and strides. I was feeling a little tired but it was more of a mental foggy tired than a physical tiredness. I strapped on my racing shoes, took my t-shirt off and I was ready to go. Greg had planned for me to do a 15 mile tempo but his last advise to me was that if I was feeling good that I should stop short and if I didn’t feel good, keep going. The thinking around this being that if I was feeling good, I may leave the race out on the road but if I didn’t feel good, I would be going slow enough that I wouldn’t be killing myself. I didn’t really want to do a really long tempo anyway as I had done one last week so once I knew I felt ok, I decided upon just doing 10 miles at a decent pace and then a short fartlek afterwards.

The tempo itself was fine. It wasn’t super quick but I felt relaxed and able to pick the pace up when I needed so I was happy with the way I was feeling. I wanted to start slightly slower and pick it up as I went through the miles so that went as planned. Julie was out there with me on the bike and handing me my drinks every 3 miles. I had a bit of a mishap with my energy gel as I had taped it to my bottle and when I ripped it off the bottle (the top of it was taped to the bottle so that when I ripped it off, it would be open and ready to go) I guess I didn’t rip it right because it still wasn’t open. I squeezed it as hard as possible and the gel went shooting out all over the road. There was only a tiny bit left in the pack so I sucked that out and washed it down with some energy drink. I finished the tempo feeling fine and relaxed so I stopped for a second, wiped my face and head down (it was pretty warm), took some more liquid on and then jogged for half a mile before getting into the fartlek. I was flying on the 1 minute efforts so I was happy I was able to do that section of the workout well as I thought I would be tired. I managed to cover 4 miles and then stopped and changed my shoes and headed back for a 3 mile warm down.

Once I got back I had to get showered and changed really quickly as it was already 10.50am and we had to be at church at 11am. The shower and changing was no problem but trying to get some breakfast down was the hard part. Luckily Julie was already to go so she made me a smoothie with frozen blueberries and strawberries, probiotic yoghurt, apple juice and some vanilla protein isolate powder. I then grabbed a bottle of water and a bowl of cereal for the car. I couldn’t get the smoothie down quickly as it was so cold and I was getting some major brain freeze. We drove over to the church where all of Julie’s family were already and waiting for us.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing as we just sat around and chit chatted (and I tried to nap unsuccessfully). I ended up heading out the door again at 3.45pm to get a slow 5 mile run in. I felt fine but still just took it very easy. I got back and showered and then spent a little while repacking my bag. It now closed up fine so I printed off my boarding my passes and headed downstairs to have some dinner before heading to the airport. Julie took me to the airport but she drove around the airport while I checked my bags in case they were too heavy and I would have to take something out of it. They were fine so she headed back up the road to Flagstaff. I always hate saying goodbye to Julie as I start to miss her right away. I have done a lot of travelling and I’m usually fine but when the trip is 2 weeks long, I really miss her. It actually really kicks in when I land in the other country. Last year for the World Half marathon champs it was really bad as I took the exact route through London that we had taken the year before when she came over for a couple of weeks. It just reminded me of what a good time we had had and how much I wanted her around. I don’t really do too many long trips anymore so I guess it’s not too bad.

I got onto the plane and although I had already eaten dinner 3 hours before, I ate again and it wasn’t half bad. A cous cous salad and some pasta was just what I needed as I watched the film 2012 and then spent the rest of the night trying to sleep.

Saturday’s Training – Am: 80 mins easy Pm: 34 mins easy

Mileage – 17 Miles

I got up pretty late today after going to bed pretty late last night so it felt good to sleep in a little bit. I had my coffee and toast outside with Julie’s parents, Grandma and her brother, Mike while Julie kept sleeping. I forgot how nice the weather is in the morning in Phoenix before the sun starts to blast everything. I headed out the door around 10am and ran towards South Mountain as there are a bunch of trails that wonder around the foothills area. It was nice just to switch off and zig zag around the sandy paths and have a little quiet oasis so close to a big city. I wasn’t feeling great but after about 30 mins I started to perk up a bit. By 45 mins I realised that I should either turn around or head off on a trail that would cut across to the neighbourhoods. I went for the second option and ended up at the top of a hill with no trail to continue down to street level. I ended up stopping the watch and carefully walking down the steep hill face as this was no time to practise my hill running descending. I was now stuck on a drainage ditch behind everyone’s garden so I just followed it around until I got to a space in the houses and hopped over the fence to the street. I had no clue where I was but knew which general direction to take so after about 5 mins of running I came out at a main road and found my way back onto a route that I knew. I decided to finish the run at 80 mins and went to the back of the house to cool off in the pool. It was a nice temperature but I wish it had been a little colder. Julie then arrived back from her run so we both had showers and got ready to do some chores around town.

It took us a couple of hours to get everything done (emissions test for the car, buying blister bandages for my trip home, going to the shoe store) and I was getting tired so when we got back we lay down on the big couches in front of the TV and relaxed for an hour. This wasn’t a great way to start feeling good for my second run as I didn’t want to pull myself off the couch and go run in the sweltering heat. I got changed, dressed my blisters and headed out the door. Almost immediately I could feel the bandages move around so my feet were a little uncomfortable. I was supposed to run for 50 – 60 mins but I cut it down to 35 mins as I was tired and it was really hot. There was a strong breeze though so that helped to cool me down as I ran out on the sandy reservation.

I quickly got showered and changed and then we headed out to the church Luau that Julie’s parents had helped to organise. It took a little while for the food to be served but it was great once it did. Teriyaki chicken, Kaluha pork, rice, coleslaw, fruit salad and a whole assortment of desserts made my stomach happy. There were various acts on the stage, raffles and competitions and then once it was all over, we helped to break everything down and then take the grandma’s back to the house. Julie and I sat and talked to them for a while but then I headed up to bed when it was 10pm as I was getting pretty tired and I needed to get up early in the morning.