Today, I Have Been Mostly... by Rob_Barber

Maybe its in part due to the wind, but then again, its not always in your face, its sometimes at your back blowing you along the road, so can it really be a valid excuse?

Great to see Cross Country Championships from Edinburgh on the Beeb - enjoying that right now - things are looking good for Team GB .

Anyway, back to the bike; 30 miles took just under 2hrs 10mins. 1st hour was bang on 15 miles, dissapointingly slow for the half of the ride with wind assistance and downhills. 2nd hour 13.3 miles, pleasantly surprising for the half of the ride with the wind in my face and significantly more climbing. All in all though - it points towards that 100 miler turning into an 8hr epic , hence the title.

Haven't mentioned running for a while. Haven't actually been running for a while. Not sure if I mentioned it before but since about a week before Christmas I had a stinking cold, and it's only really been in the last couple of days that I've started to feel like I'm finally getting back to full health. Anyway, to review how things have been developing with my efforts to change over to a midfoot / forefoot strike, I reckon I've still a lot of work to do.

The "barefoot" runners all seem to be saying that running this way prevents injury. Well I'm not sure I've got it quite right in that case. After my runs I was getting a lingering tenderness in many parts of my lower legs - well what's that going to do over longer distances if not become yet another injury ? So, I'm holding off a bit.

I'm thinking hard about how my body should move when I run, how it does move move when I run, and what I need to do to get it to function in the way I want it to when I'm running. Some things I'm sure I'm getting right, my cadence I think is pretty good (though I will spend a few quid on a metronome and test this), my strides are comfortable and relaxed, my elbows swing back and close to my sides, my posture I think is pretty strong (based on comments from other people). Something is still not right though. There is much work to do.

I also need to work pretty hard on my core strength to get me through this monster bike ride too. After about 90 minutes or so the injuries I sustained 20 years ago this summer like to remind me that they never really went away - my back hurts .