Go with the flow

Hope everyone is doing well. My Osaka Marathon build up is starting to gain steam but got a nagging feeling I will hit the line Oct 30th a little underdone, and the last 10K is going to hurt like the dickens!

Anyway it's good to be back into training and apart from the usual soreness that comes with it I'm not suffering any injuries, although I'm finding my self hobbling for the first K or so every run now until I warm up.

Two days ago at my local pond loop I spotted and talk to Mr. Yoshimura (7 down) a 2:15 marathoner, a local hero, who is also training for the Osaka marathon. (Fantastic fella) He said he was not in real good shape and said he was finding it a bit tough but he certainly looked good flying around the course relaxed with a big smile on his face. At those kind of speeds I look more like one of those giant Japanese Carp trying to suck in a bit of bread!

Rob thanks for asking the question about food I wish I had a better answer but there is no real secret with my diet when I'm doing high mileage. If anything I eat less not more because I'm trying to lose weight by start time. Not eating much the day before and morning of a long run really makes it a tough run but I've always done like this and I can tell you that it pays on race day when you're carbed up you feel so much stronger like you could run forever. For mine, it works, giving me the confidence I need. (Sorry about that last sentence, just practicing for the day I might be approached to promote Body Spray).

From now until goal race day I have a race every weekend, a half next week and three 10K races right up until the week before. Although I'm not expecting to do particularly well in these races they will get me "race fit" I figure that by the time I hit goal race I'll be at least fast enough to PB and I'm just going to have to tough it out the last 10K.

Anyway I can tell you if I'm on for a PB by 35K not even cramps in both legs and a bottle in the head from the crowd will stop me going for it in my 1st full length home town race. (You may wonder who would want to throw a bottle at me and if you do you mustn't know me and/or be a new reader! Welcome by the way).

You don't know what I got!

The blog's title is in reference to the song "Little Deuce Coupe" that I was listening to on today's run. The line "You don't know what I got" is apt for me as at this stage of my marathon build up, I don't know what I got.

I mean starting to be more consistent but 7 weeks out and I'm struggling with the heat, my stamina is not good and speed less than I would expect at this stage. Pulled the stitches out of my lip yesterday and don't have a scar but nose and teeth are still aching and I'm still battling with a chest cold I picked up in Taiwan.

The good news is that not really being able to eat solids with my mouth the way it was has enabled me to drop a few kgs and the hope is that by next week I'll be fully back on track!

I seem to thrive on high mileage and know if I can get a couple of 160K weeks in my body will respond. This is kind of anti intuitive but you will find that in most cases a 180K week will have you feeling stronger at the end then a 90K week if you've built up to it. What's your experience with high mileage?

My first real long run tomorrow Sunday morning (30Ks) and a day with the Missus for her Birthday and back into it next week. Hope you're all well.

I'll leave you with a nice story about the original "Little Deuce Coupe" and its history.

Face Meets Road

Looked worse when it was bleeding and I was spiting out asphalt!

Running in the rain today and slipped, coming down on my face. Pissed off at my arms as they didn't want a bar of the road a threw themselves up out of the way leaving my poor old kisser to bear the brunt.

Got 4 stitches and chipped and sore teeth but the hardest thing will be how to convince my wife of the need to do my long run tomorrow(Sunday).

Back and ready to run!

The first two photos taken in Taiwan on the way home and the others are of family and me in Australia.








Hello all! Is anyone still reading this blog? I know, I've not been around here that much myself these days but I'm back and determined to post more regularly and reconnect with you all.

Here's the basic situation with me. I've 8 weeks before I run the Osaka marathon, I'm all but over my bum injury but still having Achilles problems with both feet.

My plan is to keep on training and do the best I can in the next 8 week block to put myself in a position to at least PB. I'm going to have to bump up my weekly mileage between 120K to 160K a week starting this week and I hope this combined with a healthy diet (put on 7kgs in Australia on holidays) will be enough to help me meet my goal. Probably the shortest build up to a goal marathon I've done but as I'm in a good place mentally and wiser from experience I reckon that 8 weeks will see me peaking! I think I'm the type of runner who burns out, peaks too soon, with a traditional 18 to 16 week build up.

While I really had a good time, love Australia, I'm frankly glad to be back and more convinced than ever that it was the right decision to make my home in Asia! I'll leave you with some photos of my summer trip and head over to see what you've been up to.

Talk soon