Lloyd Biddell

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!

After my post earlier in the week I've been using a large amount of Vicks First Defence as I had developed a very slight dry cough. I was worried that it might develop into a full on cold but thankfully it didn’t and on Friday I went for my final 3.5 mile run which confirmed things were not as bad as I had first thought. At 7.30am I set off for the Draycote Water Marathon and arrived at 8.30 giving me 1 hour to get ready. The temperature was very cold early on with a low of about -2 degrees (-4 when I set off from home!) just before the start and was predicted to rise to about 7 degrees later on. There was also no wind and it was sunny therefore making the conditions as near to perfect as possible. As it was quite cold early on I decided to wear my Helly which is unusual for me along with a woolly hat which I would throw to my friend later on who had come to support me. The total field for the marathon was only about 100, but there was a 35 mile race with another 100 people st

Theres a cold being going round work over the last week and looks like I'm going down with it too. Started to feel a bit chesty and my throat is starting to feel lumpy. To say I'm annoyed is an understatement - worked so hard for this and I've been screwed at this late stage. Will make a decision closer to the time whether I run, and if I do whether to race it.

On Monday I rested as planned and followed this up with a 10k run on Tuesday. I've changed to a new pair of trainers and could immediately feel the difference in cushioning. Having said that although my knee felt a little better its still quite sore which is a little worrying. On the plus side I've got plenty of rest days planned between now and the marathon a week on Sunday. As for the run itself I just aimed to go round at my marathon target pace of 6.52, but ended up completing a little quicker at 6.42 min miles. I felt really strong throughout, I guess partly because I'm quite well rested and it felt like I was just jogging and I struggled to go any slower. Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed that my pace has improved substantially, the standard fare for a 10k run was about 7.30 pace, and now anything under 7 min mile pace is the norm - that said I feel like I've put in a lot of effort in my training recently and I'm now beginning to reap the rewards.

Now that I am in the beginning of my taper I was thinking about taking the Monday off, but in the end my mind was made up for me as I felt dreadful all day. I suspect eating a large bag of Haribo Tangfastic's had something to do with it as a colleague worked out that I had consumed about 250g of sugar in that sitting alone, forgetting everything else I had eaten that day as well. Tuesday was back to the 10km on my usual route. I was thinking about doing 7.15 pace, but had a change of mind whilst out and aimed to do marathon pace of 6.52. As I set off the weather was just about dry, but gradually deteriorated with heavy rain in the second half. In the end all timings just went out of the window as I was soaked through so ended up averaging 6.38 pace. I suspect I quickened just to get out of the rain! On Wednesday 6am I set off for my 12 mile run to work. I ended up intentionally running a bit quicker than normal and got round in a new record of 1.25.41, about two and a half minutes