Week 12 Weight 71 Rory DNF

This leg is not getting any better. I believe to be  a minor tear in the hamstring  now. I am not training faster as the leg keeps flaring up. My weight is gradually moving in the wrong direction as well.  I feel a fast coming on

Plenty of swimming and a massage booked.  Iced all weekend

Just a few gentle runs this week and then the final 50km  in  Eschollbruecker

Goals for the race are as follows

A 3:50
B 3:59
C 4:03


Let us see after Sunday if I need proper treatment on the leg

Week 11 Weight 69.3 Rory 3 :45

My leg is still not right when running fast. I didn't want  to  push it as I have  a race in two weeks  time.

I  am  convinced  it is a nerve issue, like the phantom pain associated  with the hernia operation.  Therefore nothing to worry about and I  will keep running.  I  will  book a few  massages and I  am  swimming  twice a week  which helps. I have also made sure I am doing  core body work, another help.

The worst news of the week was that I  did not make  the ballot for Spartathlon, although  I  am 25th on the overall wait list and 4th on the British one. It was a bit of a shock at first. However I am determined  that this will  not  bring me down. The only person I can blame is myself for not being  fast enough for  an automatic  place.

I will carry on training  and working  on getting  sponsors for the team. I just can't  throw my toys out of  the  pram or walk away. That would  be  so selfish and in the end, stupid. Besides getting  the  sponsors helps me stay involved. I  firmly believe  that  this is the best team of the last few years. A podium  finish is definitely on for the British Team.

As for myself something will come up.
And if it doesn't...well I am already working on being so fast that I get  an automatic  place next year.

I know it is a rather hackneyed  phrase but I just...

Keep calm and carry on.

Just like as I do in a race.

Week 10 Weight 69.7 Rory DNF

Getting the training  right the week after a race is a challenge. Do too little and you feel dissatisfied. Do too much and you  injure yourself. Ease back into too gentle and you end up with  a false sense of recovery.

This time I did the later.
I took three days off and then did a light 5k on Wednesday  morning.
This was  followed by two  20km slow evening runs on Wednesday and Thursday.
Friday was a 5k warm up  followed by hills
Saturday  some swimming.
All this was very  light and I had no reaction to the 50km the previous  weekend.
This meant I went for broke on Sunday  with the pacer set to 4:55 for the Rory.
By 17km  in I had two issues. My left leg had gone dead and I  was in need of a major dump.

Hence the DNF.  Slowly back into is what I  should  learn.

Tuesday  and the leg is just back to normal...

Week 9 Weight 70kg 50km 4:02:46

I had a fitful night’s sleep the night before the race and was rudely awoken by noise from outside. It was only a catalogue dropping into our post box at 5:30 am on Saturday morning.

After going back to bed and snuggling up to my wife I realized how lucky I am to have supportive wife and family who allow me to spend weekends running.

We got up at seven and I got ready:

• Leukotape on my nipples.
• Vaseline on my nether regions.
• Sudocream on my feet.

I wore a 17 year old Asics top that has flaps at the end of the arms that fold over and effectively turn into gloves. On top of that, my C2CUltra top, which I wear with pride. I had a pair of Asics shorts that have two handy pockets for gels on the thighs and back pocket for my S Caps. My socks were long dry max and I wore my new Asics GT 2000-3.

I always like a big breakfast before a race and this day was to be no different. Two poached eggs on heavily buttered toast. Stick to FAT!, heh Nicky? We set off around eight am and drove the 70 km to Marburg, a pleasant  university town with a lovely old quarter nestling in the banks of the river Lahn.

The Lahntallauf is a fifty km race run on a ten kilometre, mainly tarmac loop. I left my bottles of SIS energy drink and twenty odd gels on a camping chair near the start, so that on each loop I could pick them up easily. I took a gel every five kilometres and an S Cap every ten. Although I hard prepared five 500ml bottles of SIS go I only drank two and a half of them.

The race started at ten am and I kissed Chrissy goodbye. She went off to explore the shops and old town rather waiting to see me every hour or so for a few fleeting seconds. It is a mass start of ten kilometre, half marathon, marathon and fifty kilometre runners. This makes the course quite crowded for the first two loops, but it then empties out quite a lot. This leaves great empty long stretches of flat tarmac to run on. Lovely,  you can really focus on form and lose yourself in dreams of victory.

I set the pacer on my watch to 5:00/km and soon found I was going at least thirty seconds too fast. I struggled to slow down and eventually settled on an average pace of 4:50.  I felt very comfortable at this pace, which was a pleasant surprise. Obviously, the hard training in bin bags and a weighted jacket was paying off. I was two and half kilograms lighter than at the end of January when I ran the Rodgau fifty kilometres in 4:18. My C goal was to beat this, my B goal was 4:10 and my absolute dream, A goal, was sub four hours. I completed the first half of the race in two hours and was on for a sub four hours. Sadly the second half didn't go quite as well and I dropped three minutes over the second half. I really want to do a negative split at the next race!

I saw Chrissy on the penultimate lap and then as I crossed the line in 4:03:46 and collapsed into the camping chair which she had thoughtfully tidied up and packed away the water bottle and empty gel packets. Did I mention I love that woman?

I was so happy to have finished fifteen minutes faster than in January even though it was really hard to maintain the pace on the last loop.  I  had to shout my mantra of

• Don't be shit!
• Fuck average!
• No more girly bullshit!
• Don't be a cunt!

Out loud on many occasions. My fellow runners notice I am shouting, but fortunately, being German, don’t have a clue what it is I am saying.

I received lots of congratulations throughout  the  rest of day which really meant a lot. Even Mark Cockbain thought it was good.

The next morning Chrissy greeted me with a cup of tea in bed and warning that I was not to mention running at all today. She is good, but not that good.

The pace on the graph is, just as at Rodgau this year, pleasingly flat.

Time per 5km 

I really have not got that mean and keen 100 yard focused stare yet. 

 On to Eschollbruecken 50km to the end of March and a sub four hour result.