Fried

That's how the legs felt after today's 20 miler! Tim and I set off at 5.45 to check out the Hit The Brixx 10k course that we'll be racing at the end of Sept. First half all over 7 pace, put the hammer down for a couple of miles around 15-17 and then the Randolph Hill sucked all the remaining energy out of me. Stopped for some water and then took my fried legs the three miles home at 6.30 pace which was faster than it felt i was capable of doing!

Mile splits were 8.00,7.32,7.19,7.13,7.08,7.02,7.00,7.05,6.37,6.45 for the first half, then 6.43,6.38,6.38,6.42,6.04,6.11,6.40,6.24,6.25,6.37 for the second half, so big negative split and another confidence boosting run. My last 'proper' long run for a few weeks. When I restart them in September, they will become more marathon focussed and I'll start practising fluid/fuel intake strategies- I certainly 'bonked' today, as soon as I got home I took in as many calories as possible!

And so I come to the end of the 65,65,70 mile week section of my training plan which was intimidating when I first saw it but has proved successful. The next couple of weeks see me taper down a bit so I can put in a good show at the Cleveland River Run Half in two weeks followed by a recovery week and then ramping it up again in earnest from the middle of September (8 weeks out from Richmond). I need a couple of easy weeks to consolidate my recent gains and freshen the legs up for the final push, so this schedule should work well.

Below is a picture from yesterday's race as I was reeling in the second placed guy and holding off the guy who eventually finished third



The Marathon was unbelievable last night! How Wanjiru maintained that apparently suicidal pace from start to finish was unbelievable and what a silver for the Morroccan who kept getting dropped but pulling himself back into it! And then 4th for Merga who was responsible for the pace almost all the way through but then hit the wall big time leaving the opportunity for his compatriot to grab the Bronze- these guys are mortals after all.

Was very annoyed with the amount of commercial breaks though! It seemed like every 2 minutes they were leaving the action and as expected we missed Merga's initial 'collapse'. I found the coverage of the Games in general to be very poor. The announcers are fantastic, but the coverage of the track and field was so frustrating. No events were shown live and you never knew when, or even if, they were going to show them in the evening. Still I got to know all the nuances of beach volleyball, gymnastics and diving I guess!! Viewing figures and revenues rule, that's for sure

Overall though I loved the Olympics, always have done, always will- very excited about them being held in London next, especially bearing in mind the successes of the GB team (apart from the track and field general mediocrity). Pretty impressive I think to be 4th in the Medals table, I mean just look at the size and populations of the three countries that outdid GB!!