Tuesday - I had the idea of having a really long sleep after a long day of travelling yesterday but that was soon shattered as I woke up 6 am. At least this meant that I could get my run done early before it got really hot in Phoenix and then I could get back up the road to Flagstaff in decent time. I felt surprisingly good on my run and ran the 15 mile loop in 85 mins. My legs weren't tight and there were no after effects of the race lingering in them so that was promising that the strength is kicking in. After having some breakfast I had a good nap before heading up to Scottsdale to pick up Greg's kilt for him and then onto Flagstaff from there. I made it up in good time and headed right out the door for my second run so I could be home when Julie got off work. I just did a loop of Buffalo park from my house which brought me up to 22 miles for the day. I found this out when I was training for London that once i've got a month of marathon training in my legs, 20+ mile days don't feel much different from 15 mile days so hopefully that trend continues for this next 6 weeks. I don't even remember falling asleep as I must have conked out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Wednesday - I woke up early and headed down the road to a lab to get some blood drawn so I could see where all my levels of iron, hematocrit, blood cells and hemoglobin were at. It took 5 minutes and then I headed back to the house to have some coffee and toast as I had fasted for the test (I did this so I could check my cholesterol levels also). Everyone was working out up at Buffalo so I met them there and just ran very easy on the trails out the back of the park as I needed to recover for tomorrows workout. It was bitterly cold and windy so I was glad that I was sheltered in the woods. I didn't envy the guys doing the long steady state run at the park though as it is very exposed on the loop they run. I got back to the park in 60 minutes and waited for the guys to finish so I could run another 20 minutes with them. They seemed to have had a good workout despite the weather so that inspired me to have a good workout the next day. Jordan and Brett came over to the house afterwards as I had offered to make them some pancakes. I made a ton of them and then quickly crashed as i always do after eating any kind of pancake. I was still really tired for the next run so I ran very easily for 9 miles. I did this out by Lake Mary Rd as I was meeting Jason afterwards to time his workout. I ran on some new trails which was great as I could just switch off and enjoy the run and the scenery. I got back to the car after 40 minutes and Jason had just arrived so I ran with him for his warm up and then I drove him out to the starting point of his workout. Jason had had a bad race a week before so I had given him an easy week of training after it and he seemed to have recovered well as he ran the workout quickly and in control. I was starting to get really hungry (I had an protein bar and some PowerBar Endurance while Jason was running but it wasn't enough) so I headed straight home and cooked a big dinner of potatoes, broccoli and a massive steak I had been marinating. It really filled me up and I felt so much better. I relaxed with Julie the rest of the evening, catching up on emails and watching TV.

Thursday - This morning was going to be a big workout. 20*1 minute hard with 2 minutes recovery fartlek on the urban trail. This seems like a lot of recovery but Greg thinks that I need to keep my speed up so the extra recovery (a minute more than usual) would help to let me run fast for the entire workout. He was right! From what my Garmin was telling me I was flying on the reps and got faster the further I got into the workout. With 20 minutes of warming up and down it meant that I was running for an hour and forty minutes but it passed by really quickly. As I was jogging back to the car, I started to cross a road that another pedestrian was crossing at the same time. I saw a car coming but he had a stop sign so I figured that would mean he would stop. Wrong! Instead he ran straight into me and narrowly missed the other pedestrian. I slammed onto the hood of the car and started giving him all the abuse I could. Luckily I wasn't hurt at all but did get a numb hand and arm for a while. The guy just gave me a plain stare the whole time as if he had no clue what was going on. Once I looked at his car and realised I had made a nice dent in it, I quickly ran on with a big smile on my face.

I got back to the house and made some scrambled eggs with beets in it for the first time. It tasted really good so I think that will be more of a regular addition to my eggs now. After a really good nap, I spent most of the afternoon writing training programs that needed to be sent out this week. I ran again at 2pm as I had a massage with Dana at 3.30pm. I felt good on the run and my legs hadn't tightened up from the morning so I was hoping the massage wouldn't be that painful. Dana only found a few spots that were a little tight and knotted up so that was good as I could relax for most of the massage. I headed home afterwards and (accidentally) made an all white dinner for Julie and I. I made tilapia with white yams and white asparagus. After this Julie and I just ran errands for the rest of the night and then managed to put our feet for about 10 minutes before heading to bed.

Thursday – Today was a nice easy day to recover from the workout that I had yesterday. I ran with the guys at the bagel run for an hour and then headed home to have breakfast and get started on work that I needed to get finished for tomorrow. I started to do some work but got tired so I went to bed and had a good nap. I got the rest of the work finished once I woke up and was about to head down to the YMCA to meet the guys for a run when Greg arrived at my door with a spare bed he was giving me (everyone who is staying with us before the wedding now has a bed!). This meant that the core workout had finished a little early and the guys would have left for the run already so we unloaded the dismantled bed into the garage and I waited another hour or so to get my run in. I ended up running my usual 6-mile loop from the house to Buffalo Park again and then ran a hot bath so I could put some Epsom salts in a have a nice soak. My legs didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as they did earlier on in the year (in my build up to the London marathon) when I had done the 16*400m workout so I was pleased about that. That hopefully means that I won’t have sore legs for my race on Sunday. Julie came home and made a nice dinner of pork tenderloin with broccoli and cous cous for dinner and then we just sat in front of the TV and vegged out for the rest of the night as I was feeling pretty tired and just wanted to put my feet up.

Friday – I ran with Mike this morning out at E3 again (he had never been there) and it was just what I needed. We just talked and ran as it drizzled down on us and I had a good time catching up with him and all his news. Once I got home and had breakfast, I headed over to Julie’s work with a cake that we made for everyone to say thank you for the party they gave us on Saturday night. I went dressed in the tartan knickerbockers, hat and bowtie that they had given me as a joke. I felt like an idiot walking through the building wearing all that stuff but it got the desired effect when everyone saw it. I caught Julie quickly to say goodbye as I wouldn’t see her again until Tuesday when I got back to the Flagstaff. I headed back and tried to have a nap as usual but was just lying in bed forcing it so I ended up just getting up and packing my bag for my trip. I decided to just get on the road and head down to Phoenix so I could get another run in before I left. The drive was pretty quick except once I hit Phoenix as it was rush hour and there was an accident on the road so that really slowed me down. I still got there in plenty of time and headed straight out the door to run for 5 miles before coming back to a nice dinner with Julie’s parents and then heading off to the airport. It was a direct flight to London and I had managed to book an exit row seat so I knew I would be comfortable and hopefully get some sleep over night. I watched a film and then attempted to start another one but fell right asleep once it started. I got around 4 hours sleep which was pretty good for me.

Saturday – I arrived into Heathrow at 1pm and was picked up by one of the Great Run drivers to take me down to Portsmouth. I stopped at M&S to grab some food and then we were off. I ate in the car and then fell asleep for the rest of the journey. Once we got to the hotel I went straight to my room and got changed for a run. My stomach wasn’t feeling great as I still had a lot of food sitting in it and my legs were stiff from sitting for the last 11 hours. This forced me to go really slowly and take about 40 minutes for my 5 miles run. I felt better once I had finished and got my strides, drills and stretches done. Once I was showered and changed, I headed down to the athlete meeting where we were briefed about what the procedure for the next day would be and then ate dinner. They were showing footage of the previous years race so I tried to get some hints of what the course was like. After this I just headed up to the room and both Stuart Stokes and I got ready for an early night as we were both tired. I fell asleep while we were watching TV so I turned it off to settle in a have a good long sleep. That was the plan anyway. I was now wide-awake and couldn’t get my mind to stop racing. I decided the best thing was to get up and head downstairs with my book and phone. I called Julie and we chatted for a little while before I started to read my book. I started to feel a little tired so I headed back to the room around 1am and settled back into bed. Half an hour later I was still nowhere near sleeping so I grabbed my computer and watched a film to see if that would help. I watched the whole thing and then finally around 4am fell asleep. Our alarm was set for 6.45am so I set another one for 7.45am so I could get a little extra sleep as the race wasn’t until 10.55am.

Sunday – Once I woke up I went straight down to breakfast to have some coffee and toast and wake up a little. I finished that pretty quickly so I went back to the room to pack my bag and get everything ready for the race. At 9am we all walked over to the elite tent which was freezing as it was just a tent at a castle by the sea. They had 2 tiny space heaters which did nothing for the level of heat in the area but I wasn’t too bothered as I would be warming up fairly soon. I actually ended up running the mile back to the hotel as I had forgotten my new nose strip that I wanted to try out (it has a new configuration of strips to open up the nose more) and then running back again for my warm up. I did a lot of drills as I knew that my legs really needed to be woken up before I did any strides. With 15 minutes to go to the start we all headed over to the start line and got our final strides and warm ups finished and then lined up. I took myself to the side to sit down and get my head ready for the race. I told myself not to give have any “outs” during the race (meaning never giving myself the option of slowing down) and to feel strong. I thought about how this was the last time I would think about the lack of sleep and how tired I was so it wouldn’t cross my mind during the race. I then said a little prayer and lined up. I was announced to the crowd which is always nice as you get a little buzz with everyone clapping for you right before you start.

When the gun went off, so did the Kenyans. There was no way of running with them as they went off really hard so a group of 8 of us settled into a good rhythm for the first few miles. I was conscious of doing as little as possible for the first half of the race so I stayed at the back of the pack but just after 4 miles, Scott Overall decided to make a break so I had to work really hard to get up to him and get away from the others. There were a few good runners in the pack including the European marathon champion, European 10km bronze medallist and Gunther Weidlinger, one of the most versatile runners in Europe having run 3.35 for 1500m and 2.10 for the marathon. I wanted to try and run hard over the last 5 miles but Scott was staying really strong and making it very hard for me to even get up on his shoulder. I just kept telling myself to stay strong as I needed a good effort today as part of my marathon training. At about 7.5 miles Scott started to move away from me and I thought that he was going to run away but as we came to the end of a long straight I worked really hard to get up to him again as I didn’t want to run solo for the last couple of miles. As we hit the 8 mile mark he moved to the side to let me pass but he was running too fast and I was already doing everything just to stick with him so I remained behind him on the long straight to the finish. I knew I would get to the finish in a reasonable time if I just stuck with him and it became a lot easier once we hit the 15km mark as there was less than 3 minutes of running left. As we hit the last 300m, Scott took off and beat me by 6 seconds…and he fully deserved it. He had run really strongly for the entire race and I had run behind him for the whole time. I like to help out in races but today he just made it too tough for me so hopefully he has a really great season now as he has a great base to work from. I finished in 47.41which initially I wasn’t pleased with as its not very fast, but once I sat down, caught my breath and thought about everything, I was ok with it. I purposely didn’t start my watch as I didn’t want to get caught up in splits during the race and wanted to race instead of time trialling. I had had 8 hours of sleep over the past 2 nights and run 120 miles for the week so to run 47.41 was fine. I became more and more pleased with that as the day went on. I would use this as a jumping point for my last 6 weeks of training before Fukuoka. I was called in for drug testing so I quickly got changed, signed some papers and warmed down for 20 minutes on a 100m straight of pavement where the tester could watch me (you aren’t allowed out of eye sight once you a collared for testing). Once we got to the testing room I got my rope out and stretched for a while until I could produce a sample. I was actually able to go pretty quickly and was marshalled by a former member of my running club who used to live just 10 minutes from where I grew up. Once I was finished I grabbed some food and then headed back to the hotel where I lay down to watch “The Hangover” and before I knew it I was being woken by the closing credits. The nap really refreshed me and I watched TV for a little while before heading out for a 5 mile jog to ease my legs out a bit. My calves were really tight but the run really helped with loosening them off. I got back and had a hot bath before heading down to dinner and stuffing myself on the buffet. I was pretty quiet during dinner as I was getting really sleepy so headed I off to bed pretty early and had a great nights sleep.

Monday – I got a really good sleep in last night and woke up around 7.30am feeling so much better than I did yesterday morning. I made myself some coffee and had a PowerBar before heading out and going for an easy hour run. It was a crisp morning and the sun was rising in the direction I was running so that made it a very enjoyable run. My whole body felt strange for the first 20 minutes for some reason and then I got a nose bleed so I stopped at some toilets and waited for the blood to stop. Once I got back on the road I felt a lot better but still kept the pace very slow. I was just going to stop at 40 minutes but there were some nice grass fields in front of the hotel so I continued on for another 20 minutes. Once I got back, I headed straight to breakfast and filled up on a full English breakfast. I was quickly reminded why I don’t eat a lot of greasy food as my stomach wasn’t feeling too hot afterwards. I went back up stairs to have a shower and packed my bag as I would be leaving in 20 minutes. The top of my nose was bleeding once I came out of the shower as I had peeled off some skin the day before when removing my nose strip. That’s a good sign that the new strips will stay in place as I had to peel off the last one I used during the Great North Run as one side had come unstuck. I headed downstairs to the lobby and the driver was waiting for me already. I felt pretty sick during the ride to the airport so I grabbed my pillow and tried to sleep instead.

The airport was a pretty simple process and I got through quickly as I didn’t have any luggage to check. I bought the usual bagful of Cadbury’s for Julie and her mum and then headed off to the gate. 10 hours of sitting still and watching films, I arrived in Phoenix and Julie’s mum picked me up from the airport. I had every intention of running but once we arrived at the house, I realized how tired I was so grabbed some food and headed straight to be.

Pictures and film from the Grand Canyon

Tuesday: We met out at the trail that I had run on for the first time on Sunday, road E3. I ran with Fasil and Jordan and took it pretty easy as I had a workout the next day and I wanted to feel good for it. A nice and easy 10 miles and then it was time to head home for breakfast, nap and then work. The second run was an easy 8 miles and then I made a dinner of mushroom and provolone burgers (in a beer sauce) and some fried spaghetti. I had never tried this recipe before and I think I will spice up the burgers the next time as it only called for ground sirloin. It definitely needed some garlic or some herbs in there. The fried spaghetti was interesting (taken from ‘Jamie’s Italy’ recipe book) and I think I will make that again as it was very simple. I had a little trouble sleeping that night for some reason. I think that I just wasn’t tired when we went to bed. I think I fell asleep at around 11pm

Wednesday: This morning was a 16*400m workout for me. I would be on my own so I went to Sinagua high school to use their track before any classes came out and I would get kicked off. It was a long workout as the recovery was 400m also so it is 8 miles total on the track. I found it quite tough starting off but I worked my way down from a first rep of 71 secs (whoops!) to 64 secs at the end. I hadn’t been on the track for a while so I knew it was going to be hard going and that my legs would be pretty sore afterwards so luckily I had booked a massage later on to freshen them up a bit. I drove by Buffalo Park to talk to Greg and invite him over to the house to talk about the rest of the marathon training before heading down the road back to the house. I had breakfast, iced my psoas and used my massage stick on my calves while I waited for him to arrive.

Greg and I went over the training and why certain workouts were on certain days. The build up is slightly different to what I did for London so it should be good to see how it turns out. I headed to bed after he had left and had a short nap before getting up and trying to get some work done. I didn’t have much time as my massage was at 3.30pm and I had to get an hour run in before then. I was baking some brownies for our friends and had to wait for them to be ready before heading out the door at 2.15pm. Of course, only a couple of miles into the run I got a nose bleed and stopped and waited for that to stop before running on. I’m glad I didn’t go and get my blood test this week as I would have had hardly any blood left in my body after all the bloody nose’s I’ve had this week. I washed my face up in a puddle by the side of the trail and finished off the run. I got back and quickly got changed before heading down the road to see Dana for my massage. The massage was just what I needed and Dana did a great job and working out all the kinks and knots that had developed from the morning’s workout. Last year after that workout my legs felt really bad for a few days so hopefully the massage will have combated that problem. I headed down to the grocery store after the massage to pick up some stuff for dinner and grabbed 30lbs of ice so I could have an ice bath.

The ice bath was really cold but I felt really good for having had one and then a really hot shower so that I could cook without shivering for the rest of the night. I made some garlic greens beans, potatoes and a ribeye steak for me and a grilled chicken for Julie. I had to eat before Julie had got back from running with her friend as I was starving. Once she got back I headed out to meet Carlson and some friends to say goodbye as he was leaving the next day to go home and train there. We were going to be doing our marathon training together but it will be good for him to start anew and refresh himself in a new training environment.

My Saturday and Sunday this week were total opposites. Saturday was very busy and Sunday I did next to nothing. I woke up on Saturday morning fairly early to fuel myself properly for the 22 to 24 mile run I would be doing a couple of hours later. Normally I have toast and jam but recently I have been eating PowerBars mainly because our toaster broke and it’s a pain to grill the toast in the oven. I also have a cupboard full of PowerBar stuff so I need to get through them sometime so the toaster breaking has given me such an opportunity. On the longer days of training, I get through a bottle of some sort of sports drink (usually PowerBar Endurance) along with my coffee. I always know if I am hydrated enough if once I start to run, I need to pee. We usually stop 10 minutes in anyway to relieve ourselves so I'm never too uncomfortable. We met at Woody Mountain Road for the run and put our bottles and gels in Greg's bicycle basket (he's rigged a big basket with bottle holders on the back of his bike so we can just grab the drinks as we need on the run. I felt pretty good once we started as we were going nice and easy and it was good weather outside. Greg was having a tougher time than us as the road had got very bumpy over the past week and that didn't make for an easy cycle. The group split up pretty quickly with Brett, Jordan and myself a little bit in front so Greg was cycling between groups to give them all fluids. Jordan turned around at an hour and Brett and I continued to the 10 mile mark. We had run fairly easily out to the point (66 minutes) so we picked it up on the way back a little which felt good. I had a gel strapped to my bottle but I wasn't sure about taking it as it was caffeinated and I wanted to take a nap once I got back but in the end I decided to wait for the hill and until I was out of breath to take it down so I could practice swallowing it down when I am working hard. Of course I split it right down the side again and lost half of it but I got a couple of mouthfuls and swigged it down with my drink. My hands were really sticky so I ended up running most of the way back open handed as it was annoying when my fingers would stick when I made a fist. We got back to the start in 62 minutes (2.08 for 20 miles) and then I continued on a 5 km road loop around the Gore offices. This brought me to 23.5 miles for the morning and I called it a day. Instead of doing the usual drills, strides and stretches, I had to jump straight into the car and head back to the house as Julie was taking me to my birthday helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. I got out of the car and my hip had already stiffened up from how bumpy the road was. I was hoping I could ease it out in the shower and not be limping all day. I got out of the shower to find Julie had made me a huge spinach omelette, which filled me up for the morning.

We drove out to the canyon and arrived with plenty of time at the heliport. Julie gets travel sickness so she bought a dramamine to help with that and then we climbed into the helicopter. I think I got the worst seat on the helicopter as I was facing backwards and my legs really crammed up. Julie was really lucky and got the front seat beside the pilot. It was all judged on weight where you sit so I should have tried to lose a few pounds to get a better seat! The ride was amazing. I only got a little squeamish when we got to the edge of the canyon as the helicopter started to sway with either a temperature change or an updraft. I was fine for the rest of the ride and it wouldn't have mattered anyway as I would have been too distracted with how amazing the ride was. We flew over to the North Rim, where there was controlled burn going on, and then around a bunch of peaks and then back onto the track we flew into the canyon on. We had such a good time and decided to stop by McDonald's for an ice cream and then headed back to Flagstaff. My hip was feeling really bad but I knew it was just really tight so it wasn't going to lead to anything if I stretched it out. We got back and headed to church with Julie's family and then rushed home so Julie could make a bean dip as we were going to our friends house to hang out.

We drove out to the other side of town after I got pulled over by the police for driving too close to the right hand side of the road. I always seem to do this as I learned to drive with the steering wheel on the other side. The cop just wanted to know if I was drunk or not so he quickly let us go and we got out to Ponderosa Trails only 15 minutes late. We rang the doorbell and saw a flash from inside. No one came to the door so I rang again (Julie hadn't pressed it hard enough) and then the door opened. We were totally taken aback as a bunch of our friends were all sitting on the stairs shouting "SURPRISE!" They had put together a surprise bridal/wedding shower for Julie and I. We couldn't believe that they had put it all together for us (it was supposed to be the next weekend but I had changed my plans so I could race the Great South Run that weekend) and Julie's parents were even there. It was such a good night with a bunch of question games and embarrassing moments with gifts such as a tuxedo thong for me! It was such a great way to end a really good day. We were so tired when we got back that I don't even remember getting into bed.

Julie woke up early on Sunday (very unlike her) and I slept until 9.30am (very unlike me). Julie was running with her friend Carriee out on the other side of town to some trails that I had never been on so I said I would come out with her and check them out. We didn't leave until about 11.30am which was a lot later than I would have liked as I had to get in another run later on and wouldn't get that much recovery in between the runs. I wouldn't normally be to bothered but I still had a little soreness in my psoas so I wanted to give it some good recovery time. We finally got on the run and we hit some great trails that I had never been on before. I was glad I came out to see the trails as I know where to go if I get bored with trails near our house. I got 10.5 miles done and had to really slow down over the last half a mile as my psoas got sore. The girls would be another 10 minutes behind me so this gave me the chance to get some good drills and stretches done to try and ease it out a bit.

Once we got home, Julie's parents came around and Julie made a big batch of chocolate chip and apple pancakes. This was just what I needed after the morning's run and it made me brighten up a bit. Once Julie's parents left we sat in front of the TV for a couple of hours watching a Modern Family DVD and basically just being lazy. Once we got to the end of it I decided to head out for my second run. It was just getting dark so I was going to have to run round the streets next to the lights to see where I was going. Of course as soon as I stepped outside, it started to pour down with rain and I got soaked. I just ran very easily for 5 miles as I didn't want to aggravate my psoas and it actually felt ok once I got back. Julie had made some curry while I was out so I scoffed down a big plate of that before we relaxed in bed reading and fell asleep.

I would be training on my own on Monday as everyone else was heading down to Sedona for a track workout and I just had a 90 minute run. I left a little later than usual but that was good as the temperature was a little nicer. I got a nose bleed after one mile so I ran over to Buffalo Park to grab some tissue to stuff in my nose. It stopped pretty quickly and I could get on with concentrating on my run. I ended up running 15 miles in 91 minutes and it felt fairly easy. Usually I would be pushing it a bit at that pace but I was very relaxed and didn’t feel like I would be tired from it. The last 2 miles were all uphill so that slowed me down a bit and that actually ended up really tiring me out. I got home and had a big breakfast before falling asleep in bed and getting a good rest.

I woke up a little later than I would have liked so I quickly made some tea and answered as many emails I could for work before heading down the road to the YMCA for our core workout. We did our usual routine and then headed out for an easy run. The guys were only running 30 minutes so I ended up heading up to Buffalo Park and adding on another half an hour. That was my biggest day of mileage so far in this cycle with 24 miles for the day and it didn’t feel any different to any other day so I took that as a good sign. I headed down to the store right after to pick up some groceries and then picked Julie up from work as it was pouring down with rain outside. We had some leftover curry for dinner and then caught up on the TV shows that we had recorded for the rest of the night. I had a really tough time falling asleep for some reason. I think that I just wasn’t tired and I ended up wriggling around for 30 minutes before finally falling asleep.

I took Thursday as my recovery day as I knew I would need it after the pounding my legs took the day before. I headed down to the bagel run at 8am and we ran 10 miles nice and easy along the urban trails. It was good to just chat and relax and run slowly. We did get a little amusement when about 30 seconds into the run, a cyclist, who was carrying a tray of brownies, braked too hard with her front brake and she went flying over the handle bars. Miraculously the brownies were safe even though she had done an attempt at a superman onto the road. She was fine but a little embarrassed to say the least.

I had a nice big breakfast when I got home and tucked up in bed for a few hours before heading out the door again to do some core with the training group down at the YMCA (a 10 minute walk down the hill from my house). Its a lot more fun doing it in a group than on my own and its very laid back. Once we were finished we went for another easy run along some flat trails (the guys stopped at 30 minutes and I continued on for another half an hour). Julie got back not long after I did so she decided to make dinner for the night. We had some crock pot chicken (that she had put on in the morning) with some pearl cous cous with some beets and carrots. It turned out really well.

On the racing front, I got an email in the morning from my agent, Jurrie, saying that the guys at Nova had contacted him about me racing the Great South Run next weekend. He wanted to see what I thought about it so I talked to Greg and we decided I should run the race. It fits in well with the training as I would have a 25km tempo run that day anyway and it was a good opportunity to get in a competitive race. It will be a very short trip for me though...arrive on Saturday afternoon, race Sunday, and then fly back on Monday afternoon. It works out well with my training also as I can get a run in on the Monday morning and not miss marathon training. I also don't have to change any of the training leading up to it and will just take a couple of easy days before the race.

Friday morning we met out at Cheshire for the run and headed out the very steep hill that leads to a mesa with lots of trails on it. I was doing 85 mins and Brett was running 90 mins so it was good to have someone for the entire run. I felt pretty good and totally recovered from Wednesday so hopefully thats a good sign that my strength levels are improving with the marathon training. A couple of weeks ago my psoas was a little tender on my runs and would occasionally give out on me and I could feel it again today. I iced it once I got home and stretched it to try and ease it off a little.

Once I had taken a short nap, I headed downtown to meet my friend Martin for a coffee and get some work done. I managed to crank out a few training programs and answered some emails before Martin came and then we just relaxed and talked about running for a while. I headed back up the road around 4pm and started to clean the house while I was waiting to go for my second run. I wanted to run at 5.30 as we were going for dinner at 7pm and that would mean that I could keep the wait between running and eating to a minimum. I was going to do a trail loop that usually takes an hour but I could feel my psoas again so decided to stay near to the house so that if it did get any worse and I had to stop, I could just walk back and not be stuck out in the woods. I stopped at 46 minutes as I didn't want to make it any worse.

I quickly showered and changed and then did something that no guy ever likes to do. I put and ice pack down my boxer shorts to try and help the psoas. Its ok once its down there but its that initial placing of ice anywhere near the groin area that is frightening and very unpleasant. luckily we had to leave pretty soon afterwards and we headed downtown to grab dinner with Julie's family. We had a nice night telling some good stories and we all had a lot of fun. We headed home around 9.30pm and watched the most recent episode of 'It's always sunny in Philadelphia' before heading to bed.

Wednesday felt like a hangover for me. My quads and hip flexors were sore for some reason so I knew the hill circuits that I was going to be running would be tough. I got to Buffalo Park early so I could do a short jog and then some stretching before everyone got there to warm up. It was pretty tough doing my quad stretches but it was one of those "hurt so good" stretches. Once everyone arrived we headed down the trail for our usual 20 minute warm up. I would be doing the workout on my own and that was probably a good thing as I could have made my legs a lot worse by hammering every hard effort. The circuit is a 2 mile loop with 5 hard efforts involved. A 700m hill, a 100m slight downhill, a 200m steep uphill to flat, 700m downhill and then finish with a 80m flat stride. The long hill was really tough for me and I couldn't really get going on it. I was running against the wind but it wasn't so strong that it would slow me down as much as it did. I ran 2.22 on every lap which is a lot slower than I usually run it. I have run it in 2.03 before but I wasn't too bothered to be honest as no matter how slow you go on the hill, you still get a really good workout. I knew my legs weren't right when I found the flat and downhill strides tough to do but I was happy to get through the 8 miles. The warm down felt good on my legs as it helped them to stop screaming at me. I headed home after this, had breakfast (massive omlette and freshly juiced apple, celery and melon) and then passed out for two hours.

I woke up feeling so much better than when I went to bed so I brewed some tea and had some yoghurt to wake up a little. I pretty much just sat in front of the computer doing work and then watching TV programs until I had to go out for my next run. This was a day where I really needed to keep my feet up. The second run was a nice and easy 8 miles along the flattest trail I could find. It actually climbed slightly for the entire way out so turning round and running downhill felt a lot better. About 400m from the house I had a little stand off with some elk that were crossing the trail. This has happened quite a lot the last few days but they just run on after they have stared at me for a little while. I got back to the house and did my usual drills and strides on the road before heading inside and preparing dinner. I made some tilapia with mashed yams and garlic brussels' sprouts. It turned out well and filled both Julie and I right up. I say that, but there was still room to head downtown and grab a free birthday ice cream with a voucher I had been sent.

I slept well that night!

Tuesday was my birthday so Julie woke me up by making cinnamon rolls and coffee. It wasn't the best way to get the body ready for a 13 mile run but I drank plenty of sports drink to make sure that there wouldn't be too much of an energy drop after the sugar spike wore off. We've recently started giving each other "experience" gifts rather than things you can wrap (I took her to Vegas to see Lady Gaga). She did great this year with the gift of a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. I'm very excited about that as I've always wanted to ride in a chopper and doing it over the canyon will be amazing. I was quickly brought down to earth however with the email I didn't want to get. I wouldn't be going to China to run in the world half marathon championships. Over the past 2 weeks we've had nothing but trouble from the Chinese consulate and it seems like i've been sending extra paperwork everyday to try and get my visa sorted. UKA have been really good and trying their best to help with the process but its very hard from 3,000 miles away. I hadn't been given a reason why I wasn't given a visa and I couldn't get in contact with anyone who would give me an answer. The paperwork that I had filled out just arrived back to me and after double checking it I can see that everything is filled out correctly. This now means that I will just stay at home and train with no races before the marathon. I have over 7 weeks to go until the race so if I feel like I need a little test race then it shouldn't be a problem finding one. It will be good to see how I do off of no races as usually I like to get my competitive side going before my big races but I came out well this summer with the first race of the season so I am not worried about that issue.

I arrived out at Greg's house for the run at 8 am and quickly realised that I had arrived half an hour early. I just relaxed inside and kept Angus (Greg's son) amused before he had to go to school. The run was great as we were running nice and easy in wonderful weather. I added on a 20 minute loop at the end as everyone else was running 70 minutes. My legs felt fine although my quads were a little sore from yesterdays workout. I drove home after the run and scoffed down some granola and another cinnamon roll. A new addition to the house has been a juicer we were given recently. This has been fantastic as I love making just plain old apple juice with it. I have tried some different concoctions with varying levels of success and this morning wasn't really a great one. I added a couple of apples, some melon, 2 sticks of celery and a chunk of ginger. It may have been pretty good had I not added way too much ginger so had to just slam the drink to get it down my throat. My next creations are all going to involve beetroot so let me know if any of you have some good mixes.

I ended up in bed watching a couple of episodes of "Modern Family" that everyone has been raving about. I really enjoyed the show and even made it to the end without falling asleep. As soon as it was done however, I hit the pillow and had a great 2 hour nap. I woke up very groggy but a cup of tea sorted that out pretty quickly.

My second run was an 8 mile easy run along the trails. I wasn't feeling so hot but again, the weather was great so I enjoyed it. I actually felt better as soon as I hit the halfway point as it meant I turned around and ran back downhill the rest of the way. I got back to find Julie was getting dressed up nicely as she was taking me out to dinner. I showered and amused us both by shaving different patterns in my week old beard (it all came off in the end).

We drove downtown and ate at Tinder Box, a fine dining restaurant that is set in a more casual environment. We ordered some wine and toasted another good year before we ordered some great food. I, of course, had to get the pork belly for starters and Julie got a mixed green salad. We shared them both and waited for our main courses to come out. Julie had ordered a duck leg confit with their famous jalapeno mac 'n' cheese and I got a nice steak. There was a plan to go to the ice cream store afterwards but I was stuffed (I ate everything plus what Julie couldn't finish) and just wanted to chill. We drove home and relaxed in front of the new episode of Glee that had recorded while we were out. It was a fantastic evening to finish off the start of my 28th year.

Sorry I haven’t updated for the last few days but its been pretty hectic and then Julie and I took a relaxing day on Sunday so no computers! Its less detailed than usual as I’m really busy today but I thought I would fit something in as I’m waking up from my nap.

I took Friday as my recovery day as I knew I would be tired from the 10 mile steady state that I did the night before. Recovery days for me mean that I run the usual time on my feet but just very slowly. My morning run was 85 mins but only 11 miles so I knew I had done a good job in going slow enough. I was right that I was really tired so it was good to just go easy on the trails and enjoy the scenery. I had a nice long nap in the afternoon and then sent off a bunch of training programs to the athletes I coach. I got my second run in around 3pm and again at a nice slow pace. 60 mins and 8.5 miles later I got back to the house and quickly got changed so I could head out to time Jason’s workout. He was doing a hard run on Lake Mary road and it turned out to be a gorgeous night. The sun was starting to set and there was no wind so he had a pretty good run. Julie headed down to Phoenix for the evening so Carlson came over to the house and we had some dinner and then watched Book of Eli.

Saturday was a very busy day. I woke up at 5.30am and answered some emails while the coffee brewed. I had to be down in Phoenix by 11am to do some wedding stuff so it meant driving for an hour to Sedona (and getting my hour prep time for run out of the way) doing my run there and then continuing down the road to Phoenix. The sunrise when driving down was amazing as the sun was shining off the red rocks. I parked at Beaver Creek and did an easy 18 miles on the dirt road. The run was shorter than usual as I’ll be running the World Half Marathon Champs next weekend. It was nice just to tune out and run easy on the road all alone. It was very scenic and so quiet. I got back in just under 2 hours and then jumped into the creek for 10 minutes to cool my legs down a bit. I got changed and back on the road pretty quickly. I stopped at Camp Verde to grab a coffee and some oatmeal from Starbucks and then finished off the trip down the mountain.

I arrived in Mesa right at 11am and met Julie and her parents at our wedding reception venue, Regency Garden. We were finalizing the last details and I was actually seeing the place for the first time. It was really nice but I wasn’t being very enthusiastic as I was really hungry and tired from running and driving all morning. We left and headed straight to a deli to get some food and life was suddenly all better. As soon as I started to chow down I felt good and had energy again. We stuck around for a few hours so we could go to church with Julie’s family and then headed back up the road. We grabbed some food on the way up and then went to bed soon after we got back as it had been a long day.

I woke up early on Sunday morning to watch the live stream of the Chicago marathon. The finish was incredible and I didn’t know how I was going to run after watching that without going all out the whole way. Unfortunately the guys from the training group that were running didn’t have a good day but that experience will make them stronger and they’ll be back to fight again another day. My run was really nice as again the weather was perfect and I was trying a new route. It turned out that the run from door to door was exactly 10 miles so I guess I have found a new easy run route. I got back to find Julie getting ready to head out the door for a run so I made some pancakes while she was out. When she got back she made some apple pancakes, which put me right to sleep. I passed out for about an hour in front of the TV and woke up to find Julie painting in the back room. She has been working on a painting for above our fire place and it’s turning out really well. After having some tea and waking up a bit, we went for a drive up the mountain to see if all the aspens were turning colour yet. There were some but I think next week will be a lot more golden. We took a walk on the trail and had a really nice time just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery. I decided to take the evening off training as I was already at 125 miles for the week and I didn’t want to do much before the half marathon next week. We got home and made some pizza from scratch. Garlic, peppers, mushrooms, chicken and some eggplant chips that I fried up were all added as toppings and it filled us right up. That meant that we really sleepy right away and we just passed out early.

I met Carlson in the morning for our usual pre race workout. We were running 5*1km with 2 mins recovery on Trina’s loop. It was a perfect morning for training so that made it easier for the both of us. We actually didn’t run that quickly but it was good to get rid of some of the rust in our legs. We ran between 2.58 and 2.49 for the reps and we both felt good to have got it done. It was a strange feeling to be putting in a lot of effort into the workout but not running that fast. We weren’t bothered by this but it was just a strange feeling. I headed back to the house quickly after the workout so I could have some breakfast before getting a massage at 10am. It was great as it was putting me to sleep right at the end of it so luckily I only had a one minute walk back to the house where I could just crash into my bed. I had to do a lot during the day as I would be heading out to China the next day so once I was awake I was in work mode. I got all my washing done and wrote a few training programs before heading out for a second run of 50 minutes. I then headed out again to ride the bike beside Jason as he went through his workout. The gears slipped at one point and I smacked my knee against the handle bars. It was really sore and I was worried that it was going to be tough to bend my knee for a few days but I think because I kept riding and continuing to move my knee, it didn’t stiffen up. We had leftovers for dinner and then headed out to do something that I have to keep secret as it’s a surprise for our friends. It was a really long day for me so again I headed to bed pretty early.

Yesterday was a strange day as Carlson and I met up at Lake Mary Rd to get our workout done and ended up scrapping it to do it later when the wind would be less strong. Neither of us felt very good so instead of being demoralised by slogging against the wind for 12 miles, we just did an easy run and do it later when we would hopefully feel better. Carlson wanted to do his on the treadmill and break it up a little so I figured I would be doing it on my own either way. That would be good as I wanted to do something that would be mentally tough as I am working on that side of performance. I ran 6 miles and then we went out to the 12 mile mark where we had dropped Carlson's car off and then drove home. I rested up and tried to sleep but ended up just watching episodes of Breaking Bad on my computer. I ended up getting out of bed around 1pm and had my usual cup of Yorkshire tea (i'm loving having decent tea in the afternoons now) and a Power Bar to get ready for the workout. I killed some time by cleaning the house and realised my legs were quite tight. I wanted to feel good for the workout so I took a hot shower so that my legs would be warm and I could do some foam rolling and stretching. This worked a treat as I felt so much better afterwards and drove off to Woody Mountain Road for the workout.

Carlson was going to meet me at there at 4pm so I arrived early and warmed up on the road so I could see what kind of condition it was in (its a forest service road). I got back to find Carlson waiting for me there so I changed clothes and grabbed my new racing flats and he drove me out to the 10 mile point. It seemed so long driving the route especially as we couldn't drive that fast because of the ruts on the road. I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere but at least it made sure that I was going to have to run all the way back. I did some drills and strides to get ready and started off quite easily. I had never realised how hilly the route was for the first 5 miles but at least it made sure that i'd started off controlled (after all it was a steady state run and not a tempo). I got through the first 5 miles in 26.38 (5.21s) which was great considering it was almost all uphill. I then started to run pretty quickly as there is a mile long down hill and only small uphills from there to the finish. I had read a quote from Bill Bowerman during the day that kept me going through the workout - "there is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people". That just repeating and I started to feel very easy right to the finish. I ran 25.22 (5.04s) for the final 5 miles and finished in 52 mins flat. That was a 5.12 average and it felt easy. That was great for my confidence as my legs didn't feel beat up and I know I could have kept pushing on for a while. My new flats were great also. I wore the Mizuno Ronins and was very pleased with how cushioned they felt and how comfortable they were, even on the rutted road. After a 20 minute warm down I drove home and Julie and I quickly got dinner together as we were having our friends Rob and Jill over for a mini birthday bash for Rob. He said early happy birthday to me and I was a little confused about that until I realised that its my birthday next week. We had a really nice night with a good dinner and good wine. We relaxed and chatted all evening and then fell asleep very quickly when we climbed into bed.

Yesterday was supposed to be a big workout day with a 12 mile steady state run in the morning but Greg cancelled it last minute due to weather conditions (impending tornadoes). I was a little frustrated by this as I was feeling great and really wanted to get the long workout in as delaying a day meant that it was a day closer to the world half marathon champs. I spent most of the morning filling out more visa forms and sending my passport off to Washington DC so I can get into China. I then headed out for an 80 minute run on my own around the country club area of town. The weather was pretty good and the wind was behind me on the way back so I got a really good run in...until about 60 minutes in. It started to rain pretty heavily and then the hail started. It started off light and then started coming down really heavily. I was getting torn to pieces so I found a tiny tree to hide under until it died down. 30 seconds later it laid off a bit so I started running down the road again only to be hit by a second wave of bullets. I stood flat against a wall and was well protected from the hail until it stopped again. I was only 2 miles from home so I ran pretty quickly back to the house to try escape anymore onslaughts of weather. It felt so good to get back and have a nice hot shower and some breakfast. I fell asleep in front of the TV and got a good hour nap in.

Once I woke up I got a bunch of work done and then headed out to A1 to meet Jason for his long run. I had him do a 21 mile run on the A1 loop and I was going to join him for the middle 7 mile loop. He got up to 7 miles without much incidence and then I parked the car and joined him. About 1 mile in we hit a section of the road that was blocked by a fallen tree. We didn't think much about it and continue on the road ahead. We then witnessed what the mornings tornadoes had done to the forest. You could see the path of the tornado where all the trees were knocked over and covering the road for quite a section. I had never witnessed anything like this before so it was pretty cool to see the power of mother nature. After we got through that section the rest of the run was fine. I finished the section of the run with Jason and quickly got into some dry clothes and followed him in the car as the light was starting to fade. Within a few minutes it was pitch black and Jason was running by the light of my car. He had a good run and had come back well from a hill workout he did on Monday. I rushed home as I was really hungry and arrived at the same time as Julie. We made a really tasty dinner of crusted stuffed pork chops with garlic greens beans and mashed golden yams. It really hit the spot so we relaxed in front of the TV watching Ocean's 13.

Yesterday's running was interesting to say the least. We met up at observatory mesa (we have an observatory above the town that is the reason behind Flagstaff being a low light city so it doesn't affect the telescope's star gazing ability) and headed out on a rough trail. I don't know who's idea it was to meet there as it had been raining throughout the night so it was going to be very muddy no matter what. We slogged through the sticky mud for a mile and a half until we got to the forest service road where it was a little better under foot but still had a lot of soft slippy patches. It was the kind of mud that when you take 2 steps forward, your taking one step back. This was frustrating as I was wanting to get a decent run in. Although we met as a group I actually ended running on my own as everyone had either raced at the weekend or are racing this weekend and were running pretty slowly. I was also going longer, doing a 90 minute run so I was going to have to add on loops somewhere in the forest. I did the usual loop but then strayed off on a path I hadn't been before. I started getting a little worried about where I was but I had my GPS on so I could always check which direction I was running in if I really got lost. I was a little relieved when I saw a car driving on the trails and started to follow it. I actually passed it pretty quickly which tells you about how muddy the trail was. I could see some light shining through the trees so I followed that and I finally knew where I was. I still had 20 minutes of the run to go so I followed the trail down to railroad tracks and followed them back to the town. My shoes had gotten so heavy at this point as the mud had caked onto them and wasn't shifting. It started to come off once I hit the road and I suddenly felt like I was running in racing flats. The only problem with getting back to town is that I would have to get back to the observatory which meant running steeply uphill for a mile to get back to the car. This was really tough and I must have been running around 15 minute miling at that point. I finally got back to the car at 88 minutes and 13 miles behind me. I was covered in mud but luckily I had some dry clothes in the car. The mud had really hardened up on my socks and shorts so much that I couldn't even pick the chunks off. It felt so good to get into some dry shoes and a warm car and head home. I took a nice hot shower and felt so much better.

I made some scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and ate it while I did some work on my computer. I took a nice long nap on the sofa and felt a lot better afterwards. I decided to finally unpack my bag from the weekend and get all the loads of washing done before Julie got home. My second run was to be just 30 mins very easy so I was holding off until it stopped raining and lightening to do it. I then got an email about my visa application for going to China. I have been having a really hard time with this as they keep sending me stuff saying that I am missing documents or information. The process was supposed to take around 5 days total and it is already 9 days and I still have other things to be processed so it is going to be very tight to get my passports and visas back to me. The email said that they now needed my US passport as well as another $110 processing fee to prove that I was living in the US legally. They said they only needed a photocopy so I rushed down to the shop to fax them a photo copy only to find that when I got home there was another email saying they needed the actual passport. The shop was now closed so I would have to go first thing in the morning to send it off overnight to arrive on Thursday to be processed. By my calculations and without any more delays, I should have everything back on Monday, the day before I leave for China but knowing what I have already been through I am expecting something else to be thrown into the mix to delay my application further. I don't know what I do if they don't send me back my passport and visa as that means that I can't go to China. I'll just hope for the best and keep pestering them with emails to try and make sure they rush the process.

I went out for my second run with my rain jacket and cap incase it started to rain again and indeed it poured down on me about half way through the run. I was glad I was only going for a short run. The worst part was doing my drills and strides outside of the house when I knew that it was nice and warm inside. Julie was waiting for me with a big towel to dry off with. I quickly had a shower and got changed and then we headed out to my old workplace, Karma Sushi for dinner as we were celebrating 3 years together. We had a great dinner and it felt good to be sitting at the tables rather than serving at it. We ate quite a lot of sushi including my favourite, Albacore Tataki with wasabi aioli. We headed back to the house and caught up on the last 2 episodes of Glee and then headed to bed. The only problem was that the storm outside was very loud with the thunder and lightening going off every 30 seconds or so. It was crazy how long the thunder lasted also. Each time was about 30 seconds of thunder. That made it pretty tough to fall asleep but we eventually managed to. Not for long! We both woke up at around 1am with some more heavy storming going on outside. I think Julie fell back asleep ok but I was awake for about half an hour before nodding off again.

Here is another video I did for Mizuno while I was back in St Andrews. They have done some fine editing to remove my shivering and squirming during the takes.

VIDEO

I managed to sneak in my second run of the day and last one in Louisville before we headed back to Flagstaff on Sunday evening. I ran the same amount of time as I did in the morning but ran a mile further so that was comforting. I actually got back right as we were planning on leaving so I quickly showered, packed the car and said our good byes. We'll see the newly married couple in a few weeks for our wedding so there were no tears between the girls. I drove off down the road realising I had no idea where I was going but we managed to find the airport and return the car safely. The flights back were eventless so they went by pretty quickly. We grabbed some sandwiches from Paradise bakery in the Phoenix airport so we didn't have to wait until we had driven the 2 hours up the road to Flagstaff for food. Julie's parents brought the car to the airport for us so we could leave directly from there and cut a little bit of time off the journey. Julie started the drive so I could eat my food and then we swapped after 30 mins so she could take a nap and eat her food. Once we arrived back at the house we managed to make it into bed and fall asleep within 15 minutes of pulling into the garage because we were so tired. Carlson agreed to push the journey down to Sedona for the morning workout back to 8am so I could get a little more sleep.

I woke up still feeling a little tired but managed to meet Carlson on time and we headed down to Sedona together. Right before we got out of the car I was feeling really sleepy and tired and didn't know if I would make it through the workout. We warmed up and that didn't help matters. I did my drills as best I could and just hoped for the best during the workout. The session was 24*200m with 200m jog, which is one of my favourite workouts, so I knew how to run it and how to get through it successfully. The first 2 reps were just used to getting into the workout and our legs ready and they were run in 32 and 31. The rest of the reps were run in an average of 30 seconds with reps 12 and 24 in 27 seconds to get our legs going a bit. There is something about doing marathon training that really helps me get through every run and workout. I am focused most of the time but during my London build up and since I started training for Fukuoka last week, its like a switch is flicked and I don't let anything get in the way of doing my best every day. We both came out of the workout pleased and headed off on our warm down as usual. We stopped at 9 minutes to have a pit stop and I heard from behind me, Ow! There was a little sprinkling of hail that suddenly turned into a down pour of golf balls on us. We struggled to get back but we managed to keep going because we were laughing so hard at each other. We were constantly squealing like little girls and shouting obscenities as if it was going to make a difference. At about 800m back to the car it all suddenly stopped and the sun came out. Our shoes were destroyed with the mud and we were soaked through to the bone. Luckily we had some dry clothes in the car and we didn't have to walk through Safeway creating a trail of water behind us as we grabbed some food for breakfast.

We got back to Flagstaff just after 12pm and I dumped my stuff on the floor and lay on the bed as I was feeling pretty tired. Next thing I knew it was 3pm! It felt great to have slept so much but now I was in a time crunch as I wanted to run before I met Jason who I coach but I just figured I would wait and do a run afterwards. I made a big cup of Yorkshire tea and felt a lot more awake after that. I headed over to Buffalo Park where Jason was doing hill reps and luckily I brought my rain jacket. It started to sprinkle a little before it turned into a down pour with lightening going off every few seconds. We cut the session short to be safe and I went and picked Julie up from work. I took her back to the house and went over to the gym to get my run on the treadmill as there was no way I was risking my life by running outside! I got 8 miles done and headed back home to a nice dinner of pecan crusted tilapia with potatoes and asparagus that Julie had made for us. We relaxed for a few hours before we headed to bed at 9.30pm. Julie has been feeling a little ill so it was a good idea to get to bed early and have a long nights sleep.

The wedding yesterday was great. Mike and Erica had a flawless wedding and Julie was doing a great Maid of Honor job and keeping everyone and everything in check. The food was really good with the halibut and salmon being sent down from Alaska where Erica's brother and uncle had caught it all. I was feeling pretty tired during the reception and i'm not a great mingler so I stuck as close to Julie as possible she is an expert at these things. After everything at the hotel was finished, everyone piled into the limo and headed down town to the 21C bar again. I drove the car there so we had some way of getting people back to the house. We ended up leaving about 2am so I could get some sleep and for the third night in a row, passed out immediately.

I woke up at 8am so I could get an hours run in before heading to church. I literally woke up, had a glass of water and a bit of muffin, and then headed out the door. I was running very slowly (which I always like to do on a Sunday) but it seemed slower than usual. I managed to find some rough trails to plod along on and pass the minutes. I managed to run 7 miles in 56 minutes and was happy that I had managed to run nice and slow (I sometimes find this hard at sea level). I quickly had a shower and headed out to the church but we passed another one that had mass at eleven so we headed right to the wedding brunch and chowed down on a major amount of food. The food was so good and I filled myself up tot he point of only being able to have one slice of cheesecake afterwards (that is not like me!). We let everyone to go to mass and then I headed back to the house afterwards to have a nap while Julie helped Erica with odds and ends that needed to be done. I passed out hard again and woke up nice and refreshed after 90 minutes.

Everyone just arrived back at the house so I will go and get my next run done while the bride and groom open their presents and Julie packs up her stuff. One last really hilly run for me! I'm looking forward to getting back to Flagstaff as Carlson and I will start doing our marathon training together tomorrow. I think its 24*200m so that should be fun (one of my favourite workouts). We get back late tonight as we arrive at 8.30pm and then have to drive up the mountain to Flagstaff. I plan to catch up on a lot of sleep over the next week.

The last 24 hours have been hectic. We are in Louisville, Kentucky as Julie is Maid of Honor for her best friend, Erika and her husband to be, Mike Friedburg. Julie has been rushing about with the girls doing things and I have been trying to be helpful but also stay out of the way and get a little rest in between runs. I had a good second run yesterday and felt pretty strong and loose on the hilly terrain of the nearby parks. As soon as I got back and had done my drills and strides, I had to shower, change and then head straight out the door with all the girls in the car to go to the rehearsal dinner. We arrive right on time at Z's Fusion, a really nice restaurant in the downtown area. I met Steve Slattery (international steeplechaser) there with the rest of the University of Colorado team that were featured in the book "Running with the Buffaloes". Everyone had had a pretty crazy night the night before as it was Mike's bachelor party so I just tried to keep up with the stories of the night being retold.

We sat down to a great dinner (I had the steak of course) and just chatted for the rest of the evening at our table. I was glad of this as I was pretty tired and didn't want to be on my feet. From there we moved down the road to 21C, a hotel/bar/art museum that seriously cool. I had actually seen a bunch of the art before but not up close so it was a great experience. The highlight, for me, was the mens bathroom where you pee against a glass wall that looks out at the guests and passers by. Its a 2 way mirror so they can't see you but it still does enough to make it hard to produce anything! We sat at the bar for a while as I got more and more tired. I was the designated driver so being up so late without copious amounts of alcohol was pretty tough. I slept very well when we got back.

We woke up in the morning when our bodies told us too (9.30am) and Julie brewed up a big pot of coffee while I chowed down on a PowerBar and some PowerBar Endurance drink. After some coffee and answering emails, I drove out to the back side of Seneca Park where there is a flat, one mile grass loop that I was planning on doing most of my long run on so that I could grab my drink every 3 loops. After one lap I was bored and ran a hilly two mile loop that I had found the day before so that made it a little easier on the brain instead of 22 loops. I felt pretty tired for the first 9 miles until I had a caffeinated PowerBar gel and that perked me up a little. The only problem was that as I ripped it off of the bottle, it split down the side and half of the gel went down my chest (I was t shirtless) and I was now very sticky. It started to dry on my chest hair which wasn't pleasant but what made it worse was that my earphone cord was stuck to the hair and my chest. It was pretty annoying but at least the cord wasn't flapping about anymore so I just decided to leave it and get on with my run. I made a decision to skip the next drink as I wanted to run over to the other park close by and get a loop in there. It was very hilly but I knew the route pretty well from the past couple of days runs so I knew where to ease off and where I could roll a little. I got back to the car for my next drink at 15 miles and then just did a few more combinations of the 1 and 2 mile loops. It actually started to get pretty cold and windy in the last 10 minutes of the run so once I was finished I quickly got into my warm ups and got straight to my post run drills and stretching. I was pretty happy with the 22 miles I ran but I knew I was going to suffer later if I didn't get to put my feet up before the wedding.

I got back and showered off all the gel that was all over me and headed out to pick Julie up and grab some food. Just as we headed to get a sandwich, it started to rain and the clouds came over head. This wasn't good news for the wedding as the whole ceremony and reception was supposed to be outside. There is a back up plan to do everything inside so I guess they will have to do that. We got back to the house so that Julie could get ready and I could hopefully rest. FAIL. I had to write out Julie's speech onto note cards and then take her and another bridesmaid back to the venue. Luckily it is only 5 minutes away so I drove back and writing this has been the only time I have managed to get my feet up today. I guess you have to make sacrifices on special days like this for your loved ones so i'm not too bothered. I haven't told Julie yet that I have decided to stick to the training program and do a 25km tempo on the morning of our wedding. Greg offered to change it to mid week but I figured I could get up early and get it out the way and have a rest before I need to be anywhere that day so hopefully that works out! I think I will offer to be the driver again tonight as I have to get an hour run done in the morning before church at 8am as we have a brunch to go to at 10am. Its going to be a long day as we leave Louisville at 5pm (a second run before then also) and get back into Phoenix at 8.30pm. That means we won't get up to Flagstaff until about 11pm so I'm just looking forward to getting a lot of good sleep when I get back.

I'm now looking at the clock and realizing that I have to be at the wedding in 15 minutes so I'd better get into my suit pronto. I'll try update tomorrow if I have time but I probably won't get time until Monday to do so.

This is a 3 day update as I have been busy travelling and haven’t had time to get any updates up. I get back to the house on Monday so I can get back to daily updates then.

I arrived at training on Wednesday morning ready to take on the 12 mile steady state that was originally planned for the morning workout. I had felt fine on my second run the night before and woke up feeling almost 100% so I was looking forward to getting back on the marathon program. I left early so I could get a 5 minute jog and then stretch in before the others arrived. Once I got out to Greg’s house, he decided that we should back off of the workout as I would still be feeling the after effects of being ill. He said I should just run 6 miles at a pretty easy pace and call it a day. I was a little bummed not to be getting in the distance but I knew he was right so I was fine with his decision. Once I had warmed up with the guys, I set off on the workout alone (Fasil and James were doing one of their last marathon workouts of 2kms) on the 6 mile steady state around a 1.1 mile loop we call mountain shadows. Greg wanted me to run at around 5.30 pace and so I set off very conservatively and was surprised how easy the first mile of 5.17 felt. I was running with the brakes on and I felt as though I was doing an easy run so I was happy with that. This continued until around mile 4 and although I kept the same pace, it became a little harder as my lack of energy crept in. I finished up fine for the 6 miles in 32.04 and then warmed down with the guys followed by some more stretching. I got home, had a shower and some breakfast and then spent the next 90 minutes trying to sleep but to no avail. Julie and I had slept so much over the past couple of nights that I think I was simply sleeped out. This was probably a good thing as I had a lot to do before Julie got off work and we headed down to Phoenix. I rushed out to the mall to get some suit trousers and then quickly packed my bag (we’re heading to a wedding over the weekend) before heading out for a run on the trails before Buffalo park. It was such a nice day so the run was really enjoyable. I really didn’t feel tired from the morning so that was a good sign that my strength is coming back. I didn’t have time to do any drills or strides after the run as I had to quickly shower before picking Julie up from work and heading down the mountain to Phoenix.

I woke up yesterday morning at 4.50am so that I could get 10 miles in before we left for Louisville, Kentucky for our friends, Erika and Mikes wedding. It was a really nice temperature outside and not the oppressive heat that I am used to running in when I am in Phoenix. I did a few loops of my regular running routes and then quickly showered and ate before we headed out to the airport for our flight at 8.15am. Luckily I now work for Greg and his online coaching business so I’m able to work as long as I have my computer and an internet hook up. This allowed me to design a few training programs on the flight and kill some time before catching our next flight in Memphis.

We arrived there around 4.50pm and made out way to the rental car area. I had booked a car from National and I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that the car I was supposed to get wasn’t back yet so would I mind if I got a free upgrade to a Buick Lacrosse or a Chevy Camaro…Um, Camaro please! Julie looked at me very strangely as she had no idea what either of the cars were. She quickly got the gist when we got to the car and there was a shiny transformer ready to be driven off. We headed out to Cherokee Park where Erica was having a BBQ with her family and friends and the first thing I noticed was how many runners and cyclists there were. This made it easy for me to quickly get changed and follow the hoards around the park to get my second run in. It was, however, very hilly and I was tired from the start (probably from the early morning and travel also). I just jogged around and tried to familiarize myself with the area as I would probably have to do my long run here on Saturday. I stopped after 50 minutes and guzzled down some food at the BBQ before we headed off to Erica and Mike’s house. It turned out it was just half a mile away from the park so at least I had somewhere to run all weekend. We all showered and headed out for a quick celebratory drink before crashing hard in bed.




I woke up this morning to bright sunshine blasting through the windows. There were no curtains so it was nice way to wake up but when I looked at my watch it said it was 4.30am. I was a little annoyed as I wanted to sleep a lot longer until I realized that I hadn’t put my watch forward yet and it was actually 7.30am. Better… Julie and I headed out to a local coffee shop to wake up a little before I went out for an 80 minute run around the area. I wanted to scout out a flatter option for my long run and finally found a 1 mile loop at an adjoining park that would make my life a little easier tomorrow morning. It’s going to mean a lot of loops but there are a few detours I can take to make things a little more interesting instead of the dizzying thought of 22 loops. I felt pretty tired for the first 30 minutes of the run until the coffee kicked in and I started to feel a lot better. I finally shifted out of first gear and got rolling on the hills before heading back to the house. The girls were all heading out the door to get their nails done so that left me with an quiet, empty house to fall asleep and rest in for a few hours before I head out for a second run. Erica informed that they don’t have an iron in the house so hopefully I won’t look too tatty at the posh restaurant we’re going to.

I think there is a pre wedding long run tomorrow morning (both Mike and Erica were good collegiate runners and are now bike nuts) for the guests and friends so hopefully I can persuade someone to give me my drinks and gels on my run. If not, I guess I will just stick to the mile loop and grab my drink from the car every 3 laps.

We fly back on Sunday evening to Phoenix and then either have a late night drive up the mountain or a very early start as both Julie and I have to be at work and training at 8am.

I may not be able to update the blog over the next few days as we’ll be busy with the wedding but I’ll certainly have something up on Monday. I hope everyone has a good weekend and enjoys the autumn weather!