Lloyd Biddell

On Tuesday I took part in my first bleep test in around 10 years. I was quite looking forward to it and made my way to club training at Walton High School for the first time since joining the Walton Chasers in 2002. Unfortunately it wasn't how I remembered and dropped out at Level 12.4 even though I could have continued for a while further. I found the constant turning and re-acceleration stressful on my feet and knees and felt that had I continued I was ripe for some sort of injury. I almost dropped out at the end of Level 8 but then mentally it was too much of an easy option. Having said that my legs did feel surprisingly heavy from the 10k at the weekend which wasn't helping either. After I stopped I became quite annoyed with myself as I didn't try hard enough - will I be doing this at the MdS 2009? I then went for a 35 min run with Iain Stamp and Jonathan Howell - around 4.5 miles. On Thursday I ran again to work (11 miles) with my backpack but decided to take a sl

I've found a site that accurately measures your runs/bike rides http://www.mapmyrun.com Not only does it work out how far you've gone, but also gives you mile markers on the way. Attached is an example of my recent run from home to work - its a zoomed out version but you can make it as detailed as you like...

Another 10k this weekend this time down South at Carterton in Oxfordshire , just a mile or so from RAF Brize Norton. Although its a fair distance from home I decided to enter this as it was billed as a fast flat 10k. The weather was overcast but with a reasonably strong breeze which was not likely to help things. The field for this event was about as small as it gets - just 350. I knew I would be reasonably near to the front as last years times were slow. I was carrying a pace card set to 36 mins (3.36km) and I had decided to try and stick as close to it as possible to hopefully stop me burning up so early. The only exception was that I tried to stay a few seconds in credit in case I tired later on. The first km I did in 3.24 and the next in 3.32 which felt reasonably comfortable and gave me 16secs of credit. Over the next 3 km's I lost around 6 secs of this advantage. It was at the end of this first lap after 5km that I realised that the course was not as flat as I was led to

At the weekend I went to the qualifying round of the Compass Sport Cup held by OD at Hay Wood & Wroxall . I've been to Hay Wood for a night-o a couple of years ago and remember it for the thickets, but also for the burnt out car being marked as a feature on the map! When the start lists were published I was surprised that I was last off for the club - Iain rewarding me with my recent good form (or it could just be chance...). A number of people thought it would be perfect terrain for me as Wroxall is just parkland, but having already seen the Hay Wood map I knew the area wasn't really to my liking and that the omens were not good. Well to cut a long story short the race was a total disaster for me and one of my worst runs in the last couple of years. I hit very few, if any controls cleanly even in the parkland. At number 2 I made a 90 degree error and lost 2 mins (even though I supposedly took a bearing), and by control 7 having got lost several times (once I only manage

For the Marathon des Sables I need to know my blood group when the registration packs get sent out in a couple of months. The organisers do sell a DIY kit (which isn't 100% accurate) for £10, but decided to go down to my local blood donor session earlier today http://www.blood.co.uk/ It beats paying £10, its free and am doing something useful in the process. If nothing else comes out of the MdS at least I have become a regular blood donor. I'm expecting to hear my blood group within the next 2-4 weeks. It was a very painless experience, everyone was very nice and the blood bit only took around 5 mins , though if its your first time you have to have a health screening. One tip though - although you can just turn up its best to book in advance. I didn't and had to wait 40 mins . After that there was a free cup of tea and biscuits for all! -------------------- The other thing I've done today is to sort out a podiatrist. I've seen and heard numerous scare stories a

Although I haven't stopped thinking about the Marathon des Sables (which is still two years away!) I had a 10k race at Fradley to distract me today. The weather was dry and sunny with a temperature of around 13 oC . There was a moderate cooling breeze which couldn't be felt for the most part except on a small section of the course when you were running into it head on. The course was mainly flat on country roads, but there were a few long gradual inclines here and there. During the week I felt that I was running around 36 to 36.30 pace though training is one thing, doing it is another! I did write the target times for each km that would equal 36 mins overall on a piece of card to carry, rather than having to work it out as I went round. The start went off pretty much on time and I was near to the front for the first km but soon settled down to a more suitable pace. I went through the first km in around 3.00 mins - I think the markings were slightly dubious! I felt reasonab

Over the last few years I've become aware of what was billed as ' The toughest foot race on Earth '. This is the Marathon des Sables which involves running 150+ miles, in the Sahara over 6 days, reaching temperatures of over 50 degrees during the daytime. You are expected to carry all of your kit and food and are limited to 9 litres of water a day. On Monday registration for the 235 places reserved to British runners opened at 10am. By 10.10am all of the places were taken, including the 100 reserve places. Unfortunately things didn't go too smoothly for me - at dead on 10am I added the item to my basket, registered my details and payment method, then pressed confirm. Throughout the whole process the server response times were extremely slow, presumably because the website was being overwhelmed. At the point of paying the screen froze at the 'Contacting Bank' stage. I gave it a couple of minutes but nothing else happened. I contacted the helpline, but there was

This week I had the opportunity of having a week off, going to the LEI or EPOC regionals or the West Mids League held by HOC at Hawkbatch . In the end I opted for the latter, even though I had a hard gym session on Friday; doing 10k on the treadmill in a time of 38.49 - just 49 secs slower than my pb ! It was dry when setting off for the event, but as the forecasts predicted the heavens opened at about 10am. As usual I did the Brown course which was 8.0km with 250m of climb. By the time I started the rain was quite hard and it stayed this way throughout. I had a pretty decent first couple of controls which is unusual for me as I often struggle getting into the map. I pretty much took a compass bearing on each leg and hit the controls bang on. 2-3 was ok , but when I hit the main track I cut the corner and went left before quickly realising and correcting the error. I don't know why I made this error and probably lost about 20 secs. 4-5 was a fairly decent control cutting off f