Time on Feet

Night of 10000m

Incorporating English & British Championships

Saturday 21st May 2016

Venue Parliament Hill Track, Hampstead Heath, London

The Night of the 10000m event at Parliament Hill track certainly lived up to my expectations. Definitely a great event and well organised. It certainly brought some excitement to racing, as my own personal opinion is that racing has gone particularly stale (for a wh...

BOOK 'A Clean Pair of Heels' (Murray Halberg)

Co written with Garth Gilmour, this book is a fascinating memoir of one of the great Lydiard athletes, Murray Halberg.

BOOK 'Scottie' written by Norman Harris

The era of the 1950s and 1960s is often looked at as a romantic time when viewing distance running. So many stars and heroes that captured the imagination of future generations. Indeed, what have we been captured by in the most recent decades? The pu...

The Lydiard Foundation conducted their first training clinic in the UK back in March.

It was led by Lorraine Moller (4 time Olympian). It was a wonderful collection of people learning about the Lydiard principles of training. A great weekend was had by all. We now have more affiliated Lydiard Coaches out there taking their new and improved knowledge to the various training arenas of Ireland and the UK.

Another clinic is being scheduled for later in the year. Current thinking is Oc...

As September is now in full swing, athletes are either returning to training or setting out the beginnings of a programme that will end in positive results for the cross country championships ahead. Although it can be a long season (October - March), getting things right early on is important. Ideally October and November is used to set the base of training into a strong pattern for the faster work and racing ahead. So establishing a routine is paramount if the early stages are to benefit the...

Having caught a cold this week my enthusiasm has somewhat waned. However, some gentle jogs in the 80-90 minute bracket have kept something together. The aim now is to start the summer build up, but to come in at a higher level of endurance thus making the peak to faster times better than before. A 10k time in the 33s for the Summer is a big target for me and one I hope I can achieve. Then looking ahead I would really like to be in a strong position in The Irish Masters track and crosscountry ...

I have now fully embraced my Lydiard coaching and with my development leading towards further accreditation I have now decided to tackle running fitness from its very beginnings - JOGGING!

Indeed Lydiard himself started with this initial approach to gaining health and fitness benefits and now Folkestone now has its own group which meets at 8am on Saturday mornings at St Joseph's RC Church, Ashley Avenue, Cheriton. Just around the corner from the Post Office.

Have been training strongly since September, so decided to take a couple of weeks to recuperate.

Season highlights

Kent County Masters 8th

Kent County 42nd

5 miles - 27.29

5k - 16.47

10k - 35.11

From having 5 years of injury to produce my best time in over 5 years, I have to be very happy. I definitely got theendurance and hill phases spot on. However, for me, managing the speedwork phase is the challenge. Making sure i dont do...

First race complete in the racing phase. 35.11 for 10k. Relatively pleased, but felt my race was finished at around 6k. Pace judgement was poor and felt if I had judged it right I could have ran a minute quicker. In the end I was blowing out the back door. Still there is more to come and I hope for progress in the coming weeks. Training well and now it's just a case of keeping bubbling.

Having completed 4 to 5 weeks of speed work, the phase comes to an end. Now a period of sharpening up to be followed by 3 or 4 races. Have had some tightness and soreness, but have put this down to speed work and not having sufficient recovery time between workouts. I think I need 72 hours to fully recover. 2 days is not enough. It's a case of having to make the right decisions. As the speed work only accounts for a small percentage of my total training it is important not to overdo it. The k...