Lloyd Biddell

Another 5 day week this week, but of a far higher quality... On Monday I had the day off as per the norm at the moment. The following day I did a hard 10km session averaging 6.10 min miles. On Wednesday I did a 12.5 mile route at an average of 6.39 min miles and felt pretty good all of the way round which was surprising considering I had such a hard session the day before. This was followed up on Thursday by going out for a 7 mile run on my 'summer' country route averaging 6.33 min miles. Again I felt pretty good all of the way round. I hadn't done this route for a while as its not really possible to run here safely in the dark and the road becomes almost impassable with heavy rain. As I had the week off work, it was good to do this route again. Friday was another rest day before deciding to go for a long 20 mile run on Saturday. I haven't done one of these in training for a while, the last one about 2 months ago before tapering for the Draycote Marathon. As seems to be...

Couldn't be bothered to post last week as it was just going to be the usual mindless drivel. After the half marathon my legs were fairly stiff so didn't run on the Monday and wasn't going to on the Tuesday either before having a late change of heart. As I've said in earlier posts I've lost a lot of motivation after working so hard for the Draycote Marathon I've been finding almost any excuse not to go out for a run. Anyway this first run was my usual 10k route at an easy 7.12 min mile pace. The following day I ran the 12 or so miles from work back home. I normally do it in the other direction, at the crack of dawn and with a rucksack. I managed to run home in a record time of 1.21, but to be honest the majority of the difference was due to not wearing the rucksack. My legs felt dead most of the way round and it was a bit of a struggle if I'm honest. I think part of this might just have been as a result of having done a full day at work and the half marathon ...

Results are now out and I came 35th out of 2,000. Well it turns out that I actually beat my 5km PB by 6 seconds which is a bit embarrasing. At the 10km mark I was 13 seconds outside my 10km PB. And now for the photos. After my fashion faux pas at the Draycote Marathon I opted for a little black number this time... This was around 5 miles in. Just been overtaken, again... Not far from the finish

As my legs were feeling really drained the first week after the marathon I decided in the end to do nothing this week - yep zip. As a result I've let go a bit and have been eating just about everything that's bad for me, and been drinking a fair bit too. Although I wont have lost much fitness I've no doubt put on a couple of pounds this week that will need burning off when I start re-training properly. As you can probably tell I really wasn't bothered about the Milton Keynes Half and right up to the middle of Saturday I was thinking about not bothering to turn up. Normally when I feel like this it means I end up running really badly as the motivation just isn't there. On the day I went down with a friend from work who is using the event as part of his training for a marathon at the end of April. As I was warming up my bad knee jarred slightly and felt quite sore which was a bad omen. I lined up at the start and tried to stretch it a bit and a few minutes later we we...

Since my exploits at the weekend I had rest days on Monday and Tuesday. My joints were a little sore on Monday and there was a bit of stiffness in the muscles. Most of this went by Tuesday except some continued tightness in my quads. On Wednesday I went for my first run and to be honest I felt pretty good although it was clear that my legs felt tired. I did my usual 10k route at an average of 6.55 min miles which was fairly quick all things considered. The following day I did a 3.5 mile run at pace averaging 6.18 min miles. Although my legs still feel tired I just cant seem to help myself and ran fairly hard. I know that I'm meant to be recovering but I find it easier said than done! No pain, no gain as they say! On Friday this was followed up with a 9 mile run at an average of 6.38 min miles - again pretty quick. My legs still felt like they were running on empty. As a result I had to have a rest day yesterday as my legs need the time. If I'm honest my legs could probably do w...

My run from the weekend has now been added to the rankings list so as of today I'm 11th, although as I said in my earlier post I'll probably be around 600th by the end of the year! A couple more photos floating around the net: Probably taken at the start of the second lap Getting a gel out of my pocket - honest! Probably end of fourth lap - hence pained expression! I've been showing some of the photo's around work for a bit of fun. I did receive a comment about whether I'm running in my boxer shorts and forgot to put any shorts on! Now that its been a few days since the event I'm more pleased with how I executed my run rather than the end result. I really wasnt expecting to run a negative split with each mile beyond half way getting faster and faster. It shows that the long runs must have been doing some good as I was strong right to the end (even if I didnt feel like it!). I never really expected to run as quick as I did although I did think that as a best...

First photos from the Draycote Water Marathon below. I have to confess that I'm not particularly proud of my dress sense, especially the bottoms which are actually my swim shorts! All the photos during the race must have been taken quite early on as I took off my woolly hat half way round the third lap. I'm sure they'll be more photos in due course. Me leading just after the start Chatting to the bloke next to me - about half a mile in Start of third lap (12 miles), still feeling ok. Jimmy Saville towards the rear of the photo - being lapped Getting a prize!