Breaking news at time of writing our weekly update is that London Marathon applicants are finding rejection letters on their door steps as the get home this evening. I'm hoping that some are also finding confirmation letters, but I've only heard from two people so far and they've both had rejection letters, though one is now boasting the ownership of a nice new red jacket.
If you haven't gotten in to London don't fret there are other options. I believe Brighton is now full (though spots might open up due some people being successful in getting into London) there is the Bungay Marathon locally. There is the Sheffield Half on the same day as London. For those that can travel there is the Boston Marathon on the 19th April (a Monday). And for inspiration on other overseas marathon's it's worth having a look at www.209events.com
I tried to run round UEA lake yesterday and was stopped on the bit running up the East side of the lake before turning right onto the decked pathway. It looks like they are in the process of making this a proper pathway, or perhaps just a hard core pathway. It will certainly be an improvement on the twisty man worn muddy root prone trail that was there. A fair amount of progress has been made since JT and I ran this route 2 weeks ago so hopefully it won't take them long to complete, but in the interim be warned that you might have to make detours if you are running in that area for the next couple of weeks.
I've got a coach. A sports science undergraduate has asked if he can coach me through to my next Ironman. He's confident that he can help improve my time, so we'll see. The 25 week schedule starts Monday. Looks like I'll be doing less volume but far more quality (efforts). I'll be working in blocks of 3 weeks with the third week being recovery as before, but this time round it will be a run focused week with some biking, then a bike focused week with some running then a recovery week. Idea being to balance out the loading on the legs from biking and running so as to get the most gain from both. Fortunately the swimming is easier to fit in around these. The upshot is that I won't have a regular weekly routine which should be good
Been lent the "Lore of Running" by Tim Noakes. It's a hefty tone but well written and comprehensive. There are various models in there that I've scanned, but the intro gives the impression that the South African author Tim Noakes is about to disprove them. One model predicts running performance from VO2 max, which would put me at a 1:24 half marathon and a 2:56 marathon. I'd love to do those times so hope he'll tell me how to achieve them, but as graph a few pages on shows the PBs of various distance for Seb Coe plotted against those for Halle Gabrielselassie I suspect that when I read the narative I'll find out why the model shouldn't be taken as gospel. I have started reading the chapter about preparing for Ultramarathons and being South African he has a strong focus on Comrades. Afraid you guys might get fed up hearing about Comrades.
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