Getting old but feeling good

I may be getting older (turned 32 on October 18th) but after a few weeks of good injury free training I am starting to feel like a proper runner again! I have my flights booked for the 20th November to go back to Iten and starting last week until I fly out I am working on my strength an speed whilst also building up my basic endurance. This training phase includes fast reps, hill reps, strengthening exercises, tempo runs and the good old long runs. I definitely have no problem finding hills in Torquay as where I am living is on the top of a 400m long hill.

Last Sunday I cycled to Totnes to join Adharanand Finn for a long run, he is doing the New York marathon on the 6th November and this was his last long training run. Apart from getting soaked on the cycle to his house the weather turned out to be beautiful and we ended up doing about two and a half hours around the countryside and country lanes of Dartington/Totnes. The first part of the run was on the route of the Totnes 10km which must be one of the most picturesque 10km in the country but probably not the best course for a pb! All in all a great run and I'm sure Finn will run a good time in New York.

Adharanand and myself in Iten

This week on my birthday I was treated to a tough hill session and then got stung by a wasp on my evening run, lovely birthday presents! Looking forward to seeing my Kenyan buddy Edwin Kipyego who comes to the UK next week for another series of races. He tells me he is in good shape so hopefully if he gets a good race with good conditions he can break his half marathon pb of 61.23. It seems this year that half marathon and marathon running has really moved on with a number of people running 58 minutes in the half and 2.03 in the marathon, crazy stuff!! Edwin really needs to knock a minute off his time to start becoming competitive with a lot of his fellow Kenyans.