The Qwer Old Fella's Marathon Method

81.5 miles for the week. Took Thursday off as I wasn't feeling too good, but by Friday I was fine. No workouts. My piriformis and hamstring seem to be ok. I'll give them a test this week but nothing too taxing.

Congrats to Fionnuala Britton on defending her European cross country title - the first time any woman has ever won the title two years running. Plus, the Irish women won the team title. Maybe a race walker might not win athlete of the year in 2013. 

80 miles for the week. No workouts. One 13 miler with the second half as a hard progression to test my piriformis and hamstring - everything ok:) But, had to take a day off as the MTJ in the gastroc./soleus region of my left leg was giving me gyp. Everything tickety boo now.

I think I'll keep the mileage around the 80-100 mark until the end of the year and I'll refrain from doing any workouts too. But cometh the New Year - cometh the new man...

*I've just read the Debbie Heald article on Letsrun.com. It's a must read - I'm sure Jake will post the link later. Powerful stuff.

85 miles for the week in 12 sessions. No workouts. Everything seems to be working ok. One more week of conservative training and then I'll knuckle down.

Hope you all have a great Chrimbo.

And so this week brings 2012 to an end for me. A cheeky little 101 miles in 12 runs. An undulating 18 miler completed in a comfortable 2:01; a 13 miler with the final 6 done as a hard progression; a swift 6 with 4 at threshold and the rest of the runs done in and around 7-7:30 pace. A steady enough week.

Pleased with my first full year of training. And now that I have 15 months of easy/steady running in my old legs, I feel ready to start for real...

a.m. 15 mins AIS; 8 miles easy along the canal; quotidian core blast and a handful (20)of Jaycorns (push ups); 15 mins AIS and static stretching.

p.m. 7miles. 3 w/u 2x5x20secs at 3k pace off jog back rec and 5mins jog between sets, 2 w/d.

Great little session. The idea was to keep the efforts aerobic, while getting up on my toes and feeling fast and relaxed. Job done. The wind was brutal and I must have looked like I was flying - the wind was lifting me up off the ground. Although the effort was 3k, I was moving at around 200m pace.

AIS before and after the session. 

a.m. 15 mins A.I.S. . 13 miles. 2.5 miles at a shuffle. 3.5 miles easing through the gears. 5 miles at high-end aerobic pace. 2 miles warm down. 15 mins A.I.S..

Plan was to do 6 miles at high-end aerobic pace and then ease into threshold pace for 0.75 miles and then onto VO2 max pace for about 60 secs. But, when I hit the 11 mile mark (5 miles into the high-end aerobic phase) my right hamstring screamed blue murder - must've been yesterday's wind-aided strides; that'll teach me to think I'm a midget, codger version of Mr Bolt. If I hadn't managed to slam on the brakes, my hammy would've exploded. Jogged the two miles home and did the old AIS and some positional release. Hopefully, it should be ok for tonight's plod...

p.m. 15mins A.I.S.. 7 miles easy. 15 mins A.I.S..

As soon as I set off, I thought I'd have to stop. But after a few mins my hammy felt ok - just a touch tight.

So then, tonight, instead of going on the lash, I'll be bringing in the new year with a bowl of almond and raisin granola and a cheeky little pint of goji berry juice - oh, how times have changed. But the big question is, will I watch 'The Road' or 'The Godfather Part 2'?...

Happy new year folks!