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Monthly Archives: May 2011
Training diary: w.c. 22/5/11
Things definately on the up following almost a week out after Manchester 10k with a cold and dodgy stomach all week.
Weekly mileage still pretty average at around 80miles as I continue to focus a little more on quality. Was really encouraged by my K’s on Saturday – one of the first times I have attempted this session.
Here are some of my key workouts (decided that the American’s are right – sounds much better than ‘sessions’!) from the week:
Sun – 2 hour steady
Mon – Drills, strides and core.
Tue – 10x2mins (90s) on grass – felt really stong on this, almost went off too hard but rallied well on the final few reps.
Thu – 30minute tempo on road – quite a hilly, windy and twisty loop around Loughborough campus but managed sub 5:30 miling so pleased with that.
Sat – 10x1k (90s/200mjog) – windy day and had to train @ 8:30am due to an impending school trip to Barcelona later in the day. Managed to average 3:11 so really pleased. Just wish I had Oslo this weekend! Oh well, will save myself for later in the year.
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UKA don’t want Gold at Euro Cup 10k
Don’t get me wrong, UKA are doing some fantastic things for UK endurance at the moment to try and raise standards including a raft of opportunities to go and train at altitude in Kenya and Font Romeu. However, their recent selection decision to not take full teams to the European Cup 10000m championships in Olso is, in my mind, completely against their ethos to reward hard working athletes the chance to improve their performances.
Obviously I’m going to be biased towards Sonia, but here are some facts around why we feel her non selection was unjustified:
- She is currently ranked number 1 in the UK and number 3 in Europe
- She has achieved the EAA qualifying time for the event by over 2 minutes!
- She’s shown current form, running her 10000m PB only 4 weeks ago in the US.
- Together with Helen and Charlotte they would stand a very realistic chance of winning team gold at the championships.
- Such an opportunity to run a fast track 10000m are extremely rare (only 2-3 womens races of such a standard per year outside of major champs) so why not give her a very rare opportunity to improve at the distance?
I did speak to UKA but they offered no explanation as to why their selection was made in such a way to exclude Team GB from a chance of winning a team medal.
We’ve tried all routes possible to influence their decision, however nothing can be done. Time to move on and focus on the next challenge. Good look to Helen Clitheroe, Charlotte Purdue and John Beattie in Oslo.
PS – please leave a comment and/or ‘like’ this if you disagree with the selection decision.
Nick
Posted in All Categories, General Updates
Tagged European cup 10000m, european cup 10k, oslo
1 Comment
Lemon’d
Wow, I got a mention in Andrew’s blog this week!
http://www.runnerslife.co.uk/andrew-lemoncello/blog/starting-fresh/904
Good luck in London on Monday Andrew!
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Manchester 10k
I was really looking forward to racing the Manchester 10k and testing out the legs. However, on the day of the race things took a turn for the worse, I woke up with a sore throat – a feeling that most athletes dread when they know they are in good shape. Maybe I should have read the signs but I decided to race anyway putting my sore throat down to the air conditioning in the hotel. Not so, I set off, wind in my face trying to remain positive.
I know I am in trouble when I pass 2k, Nick shouts encouragement from the side of the road and my eyes meet his, the look says it all, I feel awful but I won’t give up.
I finish in a disappointing 9th and time of 33.43, my slowest road 10k to date. It wasn’t me out there today.
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Web News: Gebrselassie and Clitheroe win 10km, Gay shines on track in Manchester – Athletics Weekly
Katrina Wootton was the next best Briton in seventh, clocking 33:14 after a fast first half, while Hannah Whitmore (33:37), Sonia Samuels (33:43) and Laura Whittle (33:47) also made it into the top 10. Following the long distance events in the morning,
Full article at: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEzWreZcCTaBLGwGBW_3bbJUTRYeg&url=http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/gebrselassie-and-clitheroe-win-10km-gay-shines-on-track-in-manchester/
News courtesy of http://www.athleticsweekly.com/
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Web News: Gebrselassie set to star in Manchester following Radcliffe’s withdrawal – Athletics Weekly
The women's domestic line up also includes Sonia Samuels, Emily Pidgeon, Julie Briscoe, Sarah Tunstall, Hannah Whitmore, Claire Martin, Holly Rowland, Susie Bush and Katrina Wootton. David Weir heads the entries for the wheelchair race.
Full article at: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGapnS3II3Exd-lfZRZAlamzN2K0g&url=http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/gebrselassie-set-to-star-in-manchester-following-radcliffes-withdrawal/
News courtesy of http://www.athleticsweekly.com/
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Training diary: w.c. 8/5/11
Having really focussed on lots of heavy endurance work over the winter including, 100+ mile weeks, 12mile+ tempos and large rep sessions such as 3x(2k,1k) I’ve decided to switch focus a little to some shorter sessions to try and sharpen up for 3k & 5k races.
I’m hoping that this will also benefit my 10k by making the pace feel more relaxed.
As you can see below, I still want to keep my toe in with a little endurance work just to make sure the winter work is not fogotton by my legs! Still feeling in a little lull having come down from altitude but things have been improving as the week has progressed.
End of the week is very easy in preparation for a good hard run at Manchester on Sunday.
Sun: Medium length run – 1h 45m – Don’t want to cut back too much on the miles quite yet.
Mon am: 1h with 30m pickup (6.15/ml) @ 2000m altitude (chamber)
Monday pm: 45mins easy
Tue am: 35mins easy
Tue pm: 10x300m (200m jog) in 50/51s – wow, definately needed that, makes a change to 1k+ reps on the track
Wed am: 45min easy
Wed pm: 6x3min (1min) on grass. Took this 80-85% effort just so my legs didn;t get complacent!
Thu - rest (parents eve so big day at school)
Fri - 20min jog, frustrating but Nick wouldn;t let me do any more, can’t remember the last time I ran for this long!
Sat - 20min jog – the bugger did it again!
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Race video: Stanford 10k
Here’s the video from Stanford 10k. A little work to do to match Kipyego and Flanagan!
Video courtesy of flotrack.org. Watch more video of 2011 Stanford Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational.
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Running photos from Flagstaff
Here are some of my running photos from Buffalo Park, Flagstaff.
It’s a great place for medium to long reps (surface is a little slippy for anything too much faster) and steady state runs.
Did see Bernard Lagat doing some mile reps here the other week so mustn’t be too bad a place to train.
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Manchester 10k Preview
A week to go now until Manchest 10k. This will be my first road outing over the distance this year and I’m aiming to improve on 10th place finish from last year’s event.
Pete and the guys at Nova have organised a top quality field so I should have a great opportunity to test myself. On Sunday I will have been down from altitude for just over two weeks, which, according to the experts, is the first chance to reap the benefits.
Off out for a long, relaxed Sunday run now. Going to go solo today so that I can reherse a few options over in my head for next week.
For a full list of entrants plese see: http://greatrun.org/Events/Information.aspx?ctid=250&id=4#Women
