New York City Marathon Week 5 / 11

Monday: core
Tuesday: 6 x 1,600 m @ 3:25
Wednesday: 60' easy (4:55) + hill sprints + plyometrics + core
Thursday: 7 km aerobic test in 25:29 (average HR 167)
Friday: 40' @ 4:27 + hill sprints + plyometrics
Saturday: 20' @ 4:27
Sunday: 10 km race (Madrid Corre por Madrid)
+ PowerBreathe + achilles most days
Total kilometers: 50

The observant amongst you - or indeed those that obsessively check my blog every day to see whether there is a new post - will be wondering how I can write up my week's training log on a Friday. That's because the training is in the bag, all but the race on Sunday for which I will be posting a separate report as usual.

As a result of the race, this week has been very light on kilometers but that is made up for to some extent by intensity. On the other hand it did mean that, for once, I was able to fit in two - yes, two - sessions of plyometrics and hill sprints. I'm no longer feeling quite so stiff after doing them the next day.

Over the last few weeks I've been building up the length of my intervals in exchange for doing fewer of them. However, last week was the peak in terms of total time: 8 x 5 minutes. This week was noticeably easier as I only did 6 sets of 1 mile (6 x 5:20).

But by far the best workout of the week was the "aerobic test" I did early on Thursday morning. It was cooler (14 degrees) than the last time I did the same test of 20 laps (7 km) around the football pitch aiming for a heart rate of 172 bpm. It was also less windy. In fact, I only hit the magic 172 bpm during the last 4 laps and recorded not only a record low average heart rate (167) but also a best time (25:30). The point of this test is to be a "sub-maximal test" that doesn't require days to completely recover from (unlike the 10K race on Sunday, for example) as well as being a fairly consistent benchmark to which I can measure my progress. The weather as well as accumulated training fatigue are factors which can significantly effect the results but here is a table of the 6 tests I have done so far this year:

The particularly encouraging thing is that this is at a point when I am extending my endurance to cope with much longer runs than I was doing back in April, say. Let's see if it translates into results in maximal tests.

New York City Marathon Week 4 / 11

Monday: core
Tuesday: 2 x 15' @ 3:45 w/ 3' active recovery + core
Wednesday: 60' @ 4:18 w/ hills + hill sprints + plyometrics
Thursday: 8 x 5' @ 3:25
Friday: 60' @ 4:41
Saturday: (evening) 60' @ 4:29
Sunday: (morning) 3 km easy + 22 @ 4:17 + 3 km easy (average 4:25)
+ achilles + Powerbreathe (most) days
Total kilometers: 88

Wow, 4 weeks already under my belt and "only" 7 to go. I'm quite pleased with how things are going so far. The trick is to judge that fine line between not stressing your body enough for it to adapt to the stimulus and stressing it so much that it breaks. Maybe this is a sign of having reached a new level of maturity but I find that if I run really well on a particular day then, of course, I am happy and think that my training is going well; if I am very sluggish - like how I felt at lunchtime on Friday - then I think I am doing a good job in tiring myself out.

I was a bit nervous about my impending long run at the weekend because I ended up "having" to do my run on Saturday the evening before as a result of family commitments. In my preparation for the Seville Marathon, I decided to alternate between two types of long run: one aimed at ìncreasing my fat-burning abilities that I would run on an empty stomach and tired legs from the day before, and one aimed at activating the fast-twitch muscles that come into play at the end of a Marathon by including higher intensity efforts. Although I did at least have breakfast before going out of the door, Sunday's run ended up being a bit of both, so I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't end up running out of steam halfway. This would have had two serious consequences: I would have taken many more days to recover from the muscle damage (i.e., stiff legs) and I would have been late getting back to the casa rural where we were staying with a bunch of friends and made my family miss out on the canoeing. We go to this house every year around this time and I did a slightly longer version of the run I did last year, coincidentally in the same week (4) of training for the New York Marathon that never was. I was pretty pleased with my run as I was able to keep safely under the Marathon pace + 20' (4:20) target I had set myself for the middle 22 kilometers even in spite of the wind (there are hardly any trees in Segovia for some reason that I have forgotten) and the moderate altitude (900m).

Maybe some of the credit is due to the amino acids I have started to take that I picked up in London along my run from the office to my brother's house. Since the Ironman I did over 2 years ago I haven't taken any supplements of any kind (unless you count gels in a race) but I have recently noticed that I haven't been recovering from one workout before having to do the next as well as I would have liked. Of course, it's impossible to tell whether it is the training effect or indeed the placebo effect but - what the hell - I quite like the flavour so I am going to keep taking them for the time being. Something I have noticed these last few weeks is that I find the quality sessions psychologically less taxing than the "fillers". I find it easier to do something challenging as there is a reward for having managed it; there is little gratification in completing an hour long "easy" run (unless you can enjoy the company of other people). Also, I find that I am usually more tired before the easy runs from the previous day than I am afterwards.

Another aspect of my diet is that I've been told by the doctor to cut down on my cholesterol. If I don't manage to reduce it there is a chance that I get prescribed statins which have, amongst their side effects: muscle soreness and weakness. My diet has been going towards more fish and less fatty meat of its own accord but fried fish is out, of course, as well as most sea food, milk, cheese (no!) and chocolate (!!!). The internet is a wonderful place where you can find whatever you are looking for, including articles that actually claim that jamón serrano is in fact good for your cholesterol. I'm not sure whether I buy that but I will allow myself to eat a little - life in Spain wouldn't be the same without it. On the other hand, dark chocolate does seem to be widely recommended although the idea is not to pig out on this either. In the end, my diet is similar to the one my youngest son follows as he is either lactose intolerant or unable to process milk protein. It's also a pretty good diet to follow for keeping trim but I have to make sure that I get the right amount of carbohydrates to fuel my training. The weekend in the casa rural was torture as it turned out I could eat practically nothing of the huge spread of tortilla, cold meats, roast lamb, seafood paella, cheese, biscuits, etc. I positioned myself on the kids table - who were mostly eating pasta - to remove myself from temptation: I am quite disciplined when it comes to choosing what to eat but not if it is put on a plate in front of me.

I'm still not quite making my desired quota of plyometrics, hill sprints or core exercises. Especially with the former, I have to be very careful not to injure myself so I avoid doing them unless I am feeling in good condition. The same goes for the hill sprints and core exercises: I wait until I am no longer stiff from the last time. In practice, though, I find that I either don't have enough time or motivation to do them regularly. Still, I am seeing an improvement and, as they get to feel easier, the motivational aspect will improve.

New York City Marathon Week 3 / 11

Monday: -
Tuesday: 15' @ 4:00, 15' @ 3:45 + plyometrics + core
Wednesday: 30' @ 4:06 + 40' @ 4:27
Thursday: 8 x 4' @ 3:25
Friday: 14 km (London)
Saturday: 40' @ 4:00
Sunday: 25 km in 1:51 (4:27) + core
+ achilles, Powerbreathe (virtually) every day
Total kilometers: 82

The training week got off to an early start on Tuesday as I decided to beat the sun out of bed and get my workout done on the track before breakfast. In spite of my GPS being all over the place, I was able to hit the rhythm on the dot, completing circuits of the 350m in 1:24 (15 kph) and 1:18 (16 kph) respectively. At lunchtime, I was back on the track to do my plyometrics: 3 sets of all the exercises from this article except that I only had one "box" (actually a bench) and no hurdles so I did tuck jumps instead. I had hoped to at least get two sessions of plyometrics in this week but with the extra complications associated with having a trip to London, I only managed one.

Feeling encouraged by the relative ease of my workout the previous day, I rather ambitiously decided to run for an hour around the track at lunchtime at an easy pace. That easy pace turned out to be a bit too fast for the midday heat - I enjoy the feeling of running fast much more than plodding - so I ended up cutting it short to only half an hour. My treadmill with the broken board had already been fixed so I figured I would try it out that evening and make up the rest of the kilometers. Amazingly, after ringing up only the Friday previous, the new board arrived on Tuesday and a technician was able to install it the next day. Just in time for my interval training...

Here's where my foot has broken through the board that runs under the belt

I had to get up at the crack of dawn on Friday in order to catch a plane to London. Between the early start and meetings all day long, the only opportunity I had to train was in the evening which was just as well, because it rained most of the day before brightening up in the evening.

Spot the London Eye

I designed a route to take me a long way round from my office near Warren Street to Stockwell, where my brother lives, via Regent's Park and Hyde Park. I got a little lost a couple of times - my Garmin has this infuriating habit of not updating the map when you are off course which is precisely when you most need it to - and had to stop for traffic lights more than I would have liked, so I got to my brother's house after my nephew had already been put to bed. I still find it weird that English people tend to put their kids to bed so early, only to be woken up by them again at 5 am.

I got back to Madrid just in time for lunch and did my 40 minute run on the treadmill before going out to a friend's 20th wedding anniversary celebration. Just as one should try to avoid going shopping when hungry, it is not a good idea to go to an event with a free bar when one is very thirsty after working out. I paid for it the next day with a terrific hangover which resisted 3 paracetamols and meant that I had to postpone my long run until later that evening; I had planned to run it on tired legs in the morning. For the first time since my last Marathon, I managed to get into the groove and it didn't feel too long or boring - maybe not listening to music actually helped me zone out. I went along an old route that I hadn't been on for some time - the one I used to use to commute to work before the Oriols fenced most of the area off. Most of the fences have been removed and not as the result of vandalism so I am very happy about that. It is a beautiful area only a few minutes away from my house where you can really lose yourself. In fact, the first time I ran there (before I even knew that GPS watches existed) I did exactly that and arrived home to find the car that I had booked to take me to the airport for my flight to Mexico, already there waiting for me...

There is only one thing that I can say that I like about running in summer and that is that I can jump straight in the pool afterwards to cool off. I suppose it is a bit unhygenic to jump in still in my running kit but it's my swimming pool and I'll do what I want to! My youngest son loves seeing me do this for some reason so I always make sure to call him first.

New York City Marathon Week 2 / 11

Monday: plyometrics + core + achilles
Tuesday: 7 km test 26:08 (169 bpm average)
Wednesday: 8 x 1 km @ 3:25 + achilles
Thursday: 60' @ 4:25 + achilles
Friday: 25' @ 4:00 + achilles
Saturday (evening): 60' @ 4:20
Sunday (morning): 21.1 km in 1:37 (4:36)
Total kilometres: 73

Monday was effectively a "day off" although the kind of day off that you feel stiff from the next day. All I did was an easy 10 minute warm-up run followed by some plyometrics (200 jumps in total), some core stability exercises ("planks" and so on) as well as some eccentric heel lowers in order to strengthen my Achilles tendons. But precisely because I'm not (yet) used to this routine, I felt it the next day when I had planned to do my aerobic test.

Every so often I run 7 km around the track (at work, if possible) keeping my heart rate as close to 172 bpm as possible. Any kind of sub-maximal test is going to be subjective and this is no exception: it takes about 8 of the 20 laps for my heart rate to get anywhere near 172 bpm so I really have to go by "feel" and hope that I don't have to slow down considerably over the remaining 12 laps. Having done the test several times before helps, of course, and it is useful information in itself if I find myself having to slack off to keep my heart rate down. To avoid the heat I got up early and started my run just before 8am, when it was "only" 17 degrees (compared to 7 or 8 degrees when I last did this test). The magic number of 172 is supposed to correspond to the pace at which I would run a Half Marathon, so a rough indication of my projected Half Marathon time is to multiply the time it takes me to run the 7 km by 3 (and a bit). I didn't do my fastest time - this was 25:39 just before the Lisbon Half Ironman - but it was, I think, my second fastest time of 26:08 which bodes well for the start of my training cycle and corresponds in theory to a projected Half Marathon time of 1:19:09 (my best time is 1:19:03). More than anything it is a useful benchmark against which to measure my progress over the following weeks leading up to the Marathon.

I must have done the plyometrics right this time because I was still stiff on Wednesday - otherwise known as "series day" (both in the sense of television and running). In fact, the last time I felt like this was after running a Marathon! There is something satisfying about "DOMS" (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) as it isn't usually all that painful but you feel like you are rebuilding your body and - if you care what other people think - you even get some sympathy and attention for the resulting limp. The downside is that you can't return to doing the same exercise safely until you have fully recovered so, in balance, the training is probably less effective than the "minimal effective dose".

Don't you f*cking look at me!

I've also started to use my PowerBreathe device again - 30 breaths until failure, twice a day. The image of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet always comes to mind while I am sucking the air in. I find it quite embarrassing to use in public and yet I often forget to use it at home, so I have struck on the idea of using it in the car (not while driving, obviously!) as people tend not to look inside parked cars unless they themselves are up to no good. On the other hand, it is harder to do and probably less effective when sitting down rather than standing up. In spite of not having used it for 6 months, I'm already on level 3 (out of 10) - I started back in March on level 1.5 and managed to get up to level 4.

This summer has been the summer of things breaking: the treadmill, my moped (twice), a Kindle and a camera (this probably had something to do with my wife dropping it). It turns out that my treadmill has been "deaded" again. A month or so ago I replaced the console which gave up the ghost after being bathed in my sweat one time too often; now it is the board over which the belt runs that has split along the middle, so that it feels like I am running in a perpetual ditch. I hadn't realized that it was getting progressively worse until using it after the pounding I gave it this week, running at its maximum speed. By the end of my hour run on Friday, it was starting to bother my feet and I found myself swerving from side to side depending on exactly how I trod, something which is generally not recommended on a belt which isn't much wider than my hips. I'm getting this fixed, too, but I can't help wondering if I am throwing good money after bad and what will be the next thing to "go" - the motor, maybe?

I rather unwisely decided to try for a 40 minute run at a pace of 4:00 min/km on Friday, over and above what I had planned for the week. Had my treadmill not died this might not have been such a bad idea but, as it was, I had to choose between running outside in the heat or running inside in the heat. The first 20 minutes I ran on the track outside but it started to feel harder than it should. I could have finished it but it would have required such an effort that it would have turned into a different type of training altogether and put my workouts at the weekend in jeopardy, as well as creating a mental association between a high level of discomfort and running at what was, after all, the pace I ran my last Marathon at. I went back inside to try to complete the second half but I still found it too difficult. It turned into one of those demotivating conversations with myself where I alternate between beating myself up mentally and beating myself up physically. It really felt like the worst workout I've done in a long time and I ended up telling myself I would do such-and-such to compensate, then pulling out of that and then telling myself I would do this other thing and then not do that either. Very unsatisfying. The only good thing I can say is that it is worth being reminded every so often not to get complacent and I'd rather be reminded of this in a training session than in a race.

The kids spent the whole week with my in-laws, while my wife was in Kenya. I went to pick the kids up from Ciudad Real and spent the weekend there. Two consecutive weekends with the suegros is not the best way to keep my weight under control! Although it doesn't really have anything to do with my training plan or indeed anything to do with this blog, I can't resist including this video of a water rocket (thanks to Juan Alberto, its creator) that we launched in a nearby field:

As far as actual training went, I deliberately left my Saturday run until late on in the evening, partly to avoid the heat, partly to give myself a bit extra recovery from my aborted session in Friday and, more importantly, to make my long run on Sunday that much more challenging. That it was - I was really quite tired by the end. It wasn't the first time that I did the arithmetic wrong and divided 21.1 by 2 and got 10.05. This meant that I had to tack on a little bit at the end but it also tricked me into thinking I was running a lot faster than I really was - that I could have believed I was running at a 1:31 Half Marathon pace when it was more like 1:36 shows just how tired I must have been. One takeaway was to remember to start putting some vaseline "down there" - even if 21 kilometres doesn't register anymore as a "long run", after months of not running any further than 15 kilometres at a time, it's not all that surprising.

New York City Marathon Week 1 / 11

Monday: -
Tuesday: 30' @ 4:00 min/km
Wednesday: 8 x 1K @ 3:25
Thursday: 60' easy
Friday: 60' easy
Saturday: 40' @ 4:00
Sunday: 80' @ 4:30
Total: 70 km

It's nice to have an objective once more and to again be ticking off the training sessions as I do them. This first week has been just the right balance of challenging versus daunting. It doesn't look like much compared to what I was doing just before I went on holiday but that was some time ago already. In fact, the so-called "easy" runs were the ones that felt hardest after being used to not running more than 40 minutes at a time and considering that it is still hot in Madrid even if it has cooled down somewhat (about 33 degrees at lunchtime). I realized that I have only carried water on a run once the entire year (not counting taking gels in the Marathon) - that is definitely some sort of record.

My stomach is still not quite back to normal, neither are those of the rest of my family. It has made running a bit uncomfortable at times but has not actually interfered with my training as yet. On the other hand, I suppose it has helped shed some of the excess weight I had accumulated over the holidays...

I'm happy to be back running on my treadmill, although I think I will have to get it serviced professionally after all: it has a disconcerting tendency to stop, suddenly and without warning, after about 30 minutes of activity. Considering that most of human evolution took place before treadmills were invented, I find it surprising how instinctively I react to what feels like the carpet being pulled out from underneath my feet: before I even realize what has happened, my body has made all the apropriate adjustments to stop me from falling over. More than anything, it is just annoying and breaks up my workout.

If I do any more early morning workouts on the treadmill, such as the 40 minute Marathon Pace run on Saturday before heading off to Ciudad Real, I must remember to warm up. After about ten minutes, patterns started to appear in the center of my vision - like those I used to get preceding a migraine when I was a teenager, or those you get from staring too long at the sun - and, apart from making it rather difficult to follow the episode of  Under the Dome that I was watching, it was distracting enough to put me off running. After all, I really didn't want to end up fainting: can you imagine the "carpet burn" you'd get if you face-planted a moving treadmill? I had to stop and put my head between my legs until the blood was flowing properly. This is something that happens to me now and again but it seems to be influenced by (a) the time of day (mornings are worse), (b) being in a dark basement watching a projection and (c) the intensity of the workout (neither too easy nor too hard). A bit of digging around on the internet has thrown up the intriguingly named "Scintillating Scotoma" as a possible label for what I experienced. One article I read suggested it was an "exercise induced migraine" without the headache. The migraines I used to get were ferocious and seemed only to go away once I had thrown up. One time I got the "signs" just before an exam and was able to postpone sitting it until later that afternoon (all the while being kept in solitary confinement in case I was tempted to cheat by talking to one of my classmates who had already sat the exam). I became quite paranoid whenever I saw those signs that I would immediately stop whatever I was doing and put my head between my knees. Whether it was as a result of that or simply that I grew out of them, I had my last migraine (with headache) when I was about 17, during a rowing training camp.

The rest of the weekend was spent with my in-laws in Ciudad Real. Glad for any opportunity to do my "long run" (not really very long just yet, although it did feel long) anywhere but near home, where I am quite bored by the usual routes, I set off along the Ruta de Don Quijote, leaving the house relatively early (9 am) to avoid the heat. The Ruta de Don Quijote seems to be a bit like the Camino de Santiago in that it is less of a specific route than a bunch of different paths you can take: for example, it is almost impossible to go anywhere near our place in Asturias that does not claim to be on the Camino de Santiago. Some of the paths are quite stoney - in fact, I'm fairly sure that it was on one of these that an unfortunate stepping on a stone in Vibram Five Fingers initiated what eventually turned out to be a metatarsal stress freacture - enough for me to decide to retire my VFF Spyridons, in which a hole in the sole has appeared.

Back to work in more ways than one

I've been extremely lazy lately and haven't even been updating this blog. But I think a holiday in the 21st century has to include not only a break from telephones and emails but also a complete unplugging from the internet.

The rest of my holidays in Asturias was very enjoyable. I finally caved in and bought a longer (and garishly red) seatpost for my bike:

I now have my seat about 2 cm higher than before - what a difference!

which made an enormous difference, especially on the hills. I found I could climb the usual hill to the house in 3rd gear instead of 1st gear, and with a higher cadence. Bolstered by this new source of power, I decided to cycle to Gijón the next day, assuming that the route would be no more difficult than following the N-632 in the other direction to Llanes (along which it's actually possible to go from Pis to Poo)

From Pis to Poo

I was wrong.



It also turned out to be a very rainy day, or rather one of those typical Asturian days which exibit a selection of all the types of weather you are likely to experience in one day. My idea had been to cycle back after a lunch with the family but I was too tired and fed up (and I had used up most of my wife's patience too) so I put the bike in the back of the car instead. I later discovered that there was another route which practically avoided that second puerto (mountain pass) at the cost of only a few kilometres more. I often find that the actual difficulty of a route has little to do with how it looks on paper but, suffice to say, next time I will try this one.

The second part of the holiday was another trip to Morroco, this time to Marrakesh and Essouira - a place I hadn't been to in 23 years and one which had obviously changed quite a lot in that time.

Marrakech was bastard-hot, reaching 49 degrees in some parts, but the mornings were fairly cool and, surprisingly, not so full of people bumbling about as I expected (and at least it was a dry heat!). Essouira benefitted from being by the sea, so it was much much cooler, but it was also extremely windy: running back along its infinitely long beach I struggled to even simply move forward. The other problem was that it was high tourist season - not only foreigners but in fact mainly nationals - this meant that there was a shortage of water which no doubt contributed to the chances of diarrhea, something from which almost all of us suffered at some point or other. I took this week very easy and only ran every other day: the important thing was to be fresh both mentally and physically to start...

My training plan for New York City Marathon

So it's time to start training "properly" again and that means I need a plan. I thought I would do something along the same lines as my plan for Seville Marathon although I cannot ignore the fact that I had prepared another Marathon only a few months before that one and so I had a more appropriate base on which to build. This time I hope that some of my speed from the shorter races before the summer carries over, as well as a general freshness (which, I have to say, I don't feel particularly today, on my first day back to work and with a dodgy tummy). The tweaks I have made are to add a few extra ingredients into the mix as well as to converge more on the idea of inverse periodization.

- Hill sprints. My intention has been to incorporate these into my training plan for Seville but I ended up skipping them for one reason or another.
- Plyometrics. I believe that these jumping / bounding exercises are very effective both for development of speed as well as helping prevent injury (provided they are done properly, which is far from trivial).
- Achilles. My left Achilles tendon has been nagging me for the last few months, in spite of a significant reduction in volume (but perhaps aggravated by an increase in speed work). I had hoped that the holidays would give me a chance for it to clear up completely but I still notice it slightly sore after running (if I pinch it hard). My idea is to start doing eccentric heel lowering exercises.
- Core. Here I refer not to doing abdominal crunches which supposedly help you develop an impressive "six pack" (supposing you can eliminate that subcutaneous fat) but rather to "plank" type isometric exercises which help develop stability in the core muscles.
- Powerbreathe. I started religiously doing breathing exercises every day and did indeed notice an impressive improvement in my ability to do those exercises but little else. It's not to say that it has no effect on anything else and, as it is fairly time effecient, I thought I would give this another go.

In fact, all of these "extras" are relatively time effecient but need a bit of discpline to make sure that they don't just get put off indefinitely. Just as it is often your friends who live closest who you see less often because you can "always" see them, I find that the easiest exercises often get put off until late in the evening becaue you can "always" do them watching TV etc, by which time you can't be bothered to do them any more.

As before, rather than working back from the Marathon itself, I started from the peak week (9) with the training load I would like to be challening but acheivable. The rest of the plan is really just building up to this moment. I've also included a 10K "tune up" race (Mapoma "Corre por Madrid" on the 22nd of September) as well as a Half Marathon (Alcázar de San Juan on the 6th of October) which I will run at race pace (that's to say, not at Marathon Pace as I have done in the past). I've also added a few 7K "aerobic tests" which have been a useful benchmark to gauge my fitness (20 laps of the 350m track at work at a heart rate of 172 bpm): based on these I may have to revise up or down my training paces.

Lastly, I'm going to try a little experiment based on Matt Fitzgerald's latest book "The New Rules of Marathon and Half Marathon Nutrition" namely a "Fat loading" stage prior to the classic "Carbohydrate loading" (which, seen another way is a kind of carbohydrate depletion) as well as a "Caffeine fast" which, according to the author, will make caffeine that much more effective during the race. I'm also going to cut my alchohol consumption down to virtually zero, more than anything else, to keep my weight down (which has inevitably crept up over the last few weeks).

This first week of training is just to ease back into following a plan. Next week is when it all starts good and proper.

We're all going on a summer holiday...

At last, I'm on holiday and, and such, I'm going to keep this post short because one of the things I enjoy about being in Asturias is being away from computers. I also enjoy being away from the searing heat of Madrid although next week, we are going once more to Morocco, so I'll have to make the most of it while it lasts.

The week before we left for Asturias, I continued my experiment of short, sharp training: rarely slower than 15 kph (4:00 per km) and rarely longer than 40 minutes. I managed to build my intervals up to 4 lots of 2 kilometres at 17.5 kph (3:25 per km) which I was quite proud of, considering that I had started with 8 lots of one kilometre just a few weeks ago. Despite my constant paranoia that the treadmill is getting slower rather than me getting faster, it certainly sets a new high water mark in my training.

Monday: -
Tuesday: 4 x 2,000m @ 3:25
Wednesday: 40' @ 4:00
Thursday: 2 x 20' @ 4:00
Friday: 20' @ 4:00, plyometrics, 20' @ 4:00
Saturday: - (Asturias)
Sunday: 60' run with hills, 30 km MTB with hills

Perhaps as a result of my intense training lately, I've noticed my left Achilles tendon a bit tender after running, particularly if I pinch it hard. The last thing I want to do is start my specific training for the New York City Marathon with a latent injury so I've decided to back off a bit on the running and make use of my mountain bike while I can (in Morocco I'll have little option but to run).

The first couple of days with the bike didn't start off too well as I made the same mistake both days of leaving the bike out in the sun with the tyres pumped up to the max: the heat was enough to burst the inner tube thanks to - is it Boyle's law? But it was thanks to Sod's law that my bike pump on both days broke, the second time after investing in one of the best pumps money could buy (in the local bike shop). Unfortunately, this made me so mad that I snapped the damn thing in two; had I not done this it's quite possible I would have been given a refund. Instead, I bought another pump, this time even more expensive and robust (looking).

Another gripe with the bike I have in Asturias is that the seat post is infuriatingly just short of the ideal length, so that my legs get uncharacteristically tired, especially when climbing sitting down (during one of these such stretches, I was passed by a car coming in the opposite direction and received an ovation from the driver - ironic or congratulatory, of which I am not sure). I asked in the shop whether they had any longer seat posts to which they made a suggestion that perhaps the frame was a bit on the small side. "Erm, considering you sold me the bike in the first place, what solution can you recommend, other than buying a completely new bike?".

On Tuesday I tried to repeat my feat from the previous week of 4 lots of 2 km at 17.5 kph at the local gym in Villaviciosa. After having to wait a fair while for a suitable treadmill to become free (one was out of order and another was restricted to walking pace only), I started to pound away at the machine, making an impressive racket that I could hear even above the drum 'n' bass music I was listening to. Perhaps because I was tired from the hills from the previous days, perhaps because I started to overheat or perhaps simply because I was on holiday and therefore less in the mood to "macharcarme" as they say in Spanish, I had to break the third and forth set into two pieces.

Normally, that workout would have easily covered the work quota for the day but later on an emergency meant that I had to run for an important cause: my lunch. We went to a beach which had an access via a long gravel path of about a kilometre, where there was no shade and only a small chiringuito which served food and drinks but, crucially, did not accept a credit card. Having only 15 euros between us to feed the whole family, I realised that I would have to run to the nearest cashpoint, some 6 (hilly) kilometres away in the merciless glare of the midday sun. Still, with it being a matter of eating or going hungry, I had enough motivation - so much, in fact, that I was unaware of the huge blister forming on my "bunion" from running without socks.

The rest of the week included a longish cycle ride that culminated in me running out of gas during the torturously long ascent up to the house - obliging me to down a couple of (non-diet) cokes in a bar half-way up - and a 40 minute run (with hills). By Saturday, I was getting tired of hills - one of the problems of "living high" is that what goes down, must go up and I generally prefer to have my cake and then eat it, rather than eating it first and then having to earn it. So I decided to "cheat" and started my run from the bottom of the hill along a fairly flat stretch by Asturian standards. Later that day we went to Ribadesella to watch the tail end of the "international descent of the Sella river" - the famous canoe race which attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators to the event. One year I want to take part, even if canoeing has little in common with rowing, the sport I was fairly good at in my youth.

Monday: 35 km MTB with hills
Tuesday: 2 x 2,000m + 1 x 500m + 1 x 1,500m + 2 x 1,000m @ 17.5; 12km run with hills
Wednesday: 55 km MTB with hills
Thursday: -
Friday: 40' run with hills
Saturday: 60' brisk easy run
Sunday: 30 km MTB with hills