As I rounded the final corner to the finishing sprint of the Edinburgh Marathon, something finally made sense to me. I've read countless books and magazine articles on pacing your race, fuelling right and getting the right kit, hungry to know what I needed to do to get better.One piece of advice stuck out at [...]
When people hear that I'm running two marathons in the space of six weeks their first response is 'Wow' or 'Rather you than me'. This came about rather by accident than overly confident planning, but now that I'm in the process of training for it I'm less impressed with myself than I was.Training for a [...]
On day three of my taper I woke up very tired; ducked out of a 3-mile race I'd challenged three much faster, non-tapering colleagues to; and then I did this...Edinburgh marathon 2012, see you Jimmy! London marathon is clearly going to reject me again in October and after Nottingham I'm not going to fancy entering [...]
Eight weeks ago my campaign for a sub-4 marathon began in Greece. It was a boozy week that included a bit of running - but I did hit my mileage targets despite it being hotter than the sun even at 7pm when I was heading out for my sessions.Two months later the mileage has picked [...]
Yesterday my waxing woman told me I'm her best customer. Not because I leave her the biggest tip (although I do think it's a wise move to tip people who can weild such power over you when you're at your most vulnerable) and not, I should add, because of any resemblence to sasquatch that makes me [...]
I don't have a child, so I've never given birth but this week I feel like I know a little more about being a mother. As I was describing how my marathon training is going to a colleague the other day, she said: "Ah, that must be what it's like when you have a baby." [...]
With less than two months to go until marathon training starts in earnest, I've been spending more time than usual looking at training plans, comparing them and itching for training to start. It seems odd that I don't see the running I'm doing at the moment as 'training' but more 'maintenance', and as a result [...]
2,500 years ago Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens where he proclaimed 'We have won', then collapsed and died - and so a worldwide distance running event was born. Most accounts of this story - usually told by those that want to reason that marathon running is dangerous leave out the fact that earlier in the week [...]
The 'wall' as referred to by marathon runners, while metaphorical, is actually a real thing that happens to the body when all of the glycogen in the body has been used up and fat has to be burned as an alternative form of fuel. Fat isn't as efficient as a fuel for running - a bit like [...]
This morning I read an interview with British ultra-marathon runner Jez Bragg. Jez is the first Englishman to win the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc so he knows a thing or two about running really, really long distances.As I've said before, I'm aiming to run an ultra in the next couple of years - probably [...]