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Training: Week Beginning 1 August

Sunday 7th August 2011

Possibly my hardest week ever.

Monday: 12 miles. Felt sore. (12)

Tuesday: AM 4 miles easy. PM 3x3k all just under 10 mins off 200 recoveries plus 6×200 at 3k pace. (16)

Wednesday: AM 6 easy. PM 8 easy with quick finish (14)

Thursday: 4x6x60m hill sprints with 4 mins jogging between sets, ran to track, 4x(500/300) with 300/100 recoveries in 84/48/80/48/82/47/81/48, ran home. (13)

Friday: AM 6 easy PM 6 easy. Tired. (12)

Saturday: Cannon Hill Parkrun 16:10. Not all out effort, started slow. Long warm down (12)

Sunday: Pope loop – 1:59. Hard. (21)

Week total: 100 miles

2011 total: 2190 miles

Taken from my training log.

Training: Week Beginning 25 July

Sunday 31st July 2011

Monday: 5 recovery. sore. (5)

Tuesday: 3 mile warm up and 5x(7min hard / 2min easy) and warm down on a 10 mile loop. Hot. 1:27 total running time (13)

Wednesday: 12 mile trail run. Sopot to Gdynia and back along hilly coastal route. Pushed it on the hills. 1:26. (12)

Thursday: AM warm up, 10x(1 min hard / 30s easy), 5 mile tempo 29 mins, 10x(1 min hard / 30s easy), warm down. 1:49 total for 15 miles. Tough. PM 5 mile beach run (20)

Friday: 7 easy. (7)

Saturday: 10k tempo on track. 34:46 – 17:30/17:16. Very hot. Stiff from flight. (11)

Sunday: 22 slow (22)

Week total: 90 miles

2011 total: 2090 miles

Training: Week Beginning 18 July

Monday 25th July 2011

Summary: A 5k PB and a great long run. Hit 2000 for the year.

Monday: 11 easy, 75 mins (11)

Tuesday: 3 x 1mile off 2 mins and 1 x 2miles on track – 5:00/5:00/5:02/10:38. Ran there and back. (10)

Wednesday: AM 5 miles 38 mins, PM 9 easy. (14)

Thursday: Gloucester White Horse 5k. 3rd in 15:31. PB. Long warm down including run back to station. (11)

Friday: AM 5 easy. Edgbaston and Vale. PM 8 steady, approx 50 mins (13)

Saturday: Rest. Travelling to Poland.

Sunday: 15 miles increasing pace on a 5 mile loop: 36:46/30:47/28:51, 6 miles easy. 2:20 total. (21)

Week total: 80 miles

2011 total: 2000 miles

Training: Week Beginning 11 July

Sunday 17th July 2011

Summary: Cut the mileage a bit but got 3 hard days in. Felt very worn out by the end of the week.

Monday: Rest (0)

Tuesday: Grass session at Metchley. 5x960m ish off 90s – 2:56/54/56/55/55, ran home (9)

Wednesday: AM 5 easy 36 mins. PM 8 steady 48 mins (13)

Thursday: Rowheath 5k inc. Warwickshire championships, 5th place in 15:55. Best time on that course. Ran home. (12)

Friday: AM 3 slow. PM 8 slow. Felt tired. (11)

Saturday: 4 easy. Felt tired. (4)

Sunday: 21 easy. Sutton Park and back. (21)

Week total: 70 miles

2011 total: 1920 miles

Taken from my training log.

Hard Training can be ‘Performance Enhancing,’ Say Experts

Sunday 12th June 2011

High levels of intense training, coupled with good diet and plenty of rest may have performance enhancing effects, a new study has shown.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Academy of Research in Sports and Exercise (ARSE) has shown there to be an overwhelmingly strong correlation between the volume of training undertaken and the performance level of a sample of both elite and non-elite athletes. In this groundbreaking piece of research, athletes were given a 6 month training schedule devised by the world renowned coach, Dr Gillian McKeith, before undertaking a 5km time trial. The results were staggering. Around 98% of participants showed an improvement over the half year period, whilst the other 2% made some excuses about the conditions not being right on the day.

This news comes after the recent Prefontaine Classic, where Mo Farah beat a world class field to win the 10,000m in a new European record and Moses Mosop broke the world record for 30km. Asked afterwards what the main factors in his success were, the Kenyan Mosop replied “I just run 200 miles a week no slower than 5 minute mile pace and when I do this for a while I feel quicker,” whilst Farah said “Usually I train 4 times a day, except during Ramadan when I cut it down to 2 sessions a day. Oh, and when Wimbledon’s on the telly.”

When questioned about the project, McKeith said “I am extremely proud of the whole team at ARSE. This is a huge discovery and will forever change the way sports scientists view elite level athletics.” Her claims have been supported by a number of high profile former athletes. The former world record holder at 10,000 metres Haile Tergat, now president of Eritrea, said “In our day it was all blood doping this and EPO that. No one ever said anything about training hard. Yeah, we used to run a bit but it was mainly about who could inject the most oxygen-rich blood into their bloodstream before a race without getting caught.”

However, as with any new discovery, some sports scientists remain cynical about the new research. It was previously thought that talent was the key factor in determining the potential of an athlete and that training had a negligible effect of performance. Most leading academics used to believe that it was God who would determine who would win a race, but this theory was called into question earlier this year after Richard Dawkins’ scientifically rigourous proof that God doesn’t exist.

Meanwhile, amateur runners all over the world are taking to the roads and tracks in order to try out this new ‘training’ phenomenon. Roger Hammond, caretaker at the athletics track at the University of Hemel Hempstead, said “the place is packed now. The university has doubled my hours because of the demand. We used to just get the odd skinny middle-distance type down here knocking out a set of 400s, but now it’s the world and his dog. Literally.” Hospitals are now at capacity due to the number of runners who have been struck by cars, thought to be linked to the increase in the number of people training on the road.

It remains to be seen what the long term impact of these new findings will be, but it is widely believed that the athletics record books will have to be rewritten to reflect the huge leaps in performance that are now inevitable.