Nick is Beacon’s marathon man
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Nick is Beacon’s marathon man
Seventeen-times marathon runner, including London in 2015 and two memorable visits to Snowdonia. Sub-4 is mine at last!
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It was Christmas week when I decided to resume regular running, cautiously optimistic that my injuries were healed and I could look forward to some better race experiences in 2018.
So I’m back on it – four times a week, adding distance gradually and mi...
After reading blogs about it for three years on the bounce and finding nothing but positive accounts from both runners and spectators alike, I decided to do some research into the Realbuzz marathon-of-choice that is Snowdonia.
A few Buzzers have been e...
So that’s what all the fuss is about. I guess over a million runners can’t be wrong, so on Saturday I finally broke my parkrun duck and headed to Sandwell Valley in West Bromwich for a 5k dash in the drizzle.
My brother has got back into running recen...
In terms of a running blog, this post really won’t take very long at all. I took part in the Birmingham International Marathon just over four weeks ago and it was only on Monday night that I finally decided to put my trainers on again. The end!
More ...
Do you ever get slightly unnerved by shuffle mode on your music player? I mean, I know it’s entirely random and whatever comes up from those thousands of digital files is just luck of the draw, but how is it that my iPod can sometime judge the mood of ...
A welcome distraction from the stresses and strains of marathon training has been helping my daughter to prepare for her first race, the 1.5k Mini Great Birmingham Run.
I’ve resisted the temptation to draw up a spreadsheet and intricately planned multi...
With the Birmingham International Marathon just three weeks away, I thought it would be a good idea to get some race practice in. That, plus I’m always up for a new challenge, and so I sneaked in with a late entry to Saturday’s Rodbaston 10k in Staffor...
It’s such a relief to type those words. At last, a training week passes by without any drama. No muscle strains, no sprained limbs, no pesky blisters, no trips or falls. I didn’t even have to get the ice pack out of the freezer.
Yes, I survived my l...
A few months ago I came back from a training run to hear the tail end of a conversation between my daughter and her granny (my mum). Basically it seemed that little one thought it was good that daddy did a lot of running because it makes you fit and on...
They say a change is as good as a rest, so I tried something different for this week’s long run. Instead of cramming in the miles early doors on a Sunday morning, I made arrangements to drop my daughter off with her granny on the Saturday instead and h...
I’ve tried to retain my sense of humour over this little episode and, it has to be said, things could have been an awful lot worse.
Picture the scene… I’m four miles into a seven mile Sunday morning tempo run and on the cusp of completing the biggest w...
…but I get up again. Cheesey 90s pop song perhaps (it randomly came up on my iPod in shuffle mode the other day!) but it neatly sums up how I’m feeling about marathon training at the moment.
The 24-week improver programme I’m following is divided into...
If you’d have gone down in the woods the other day you would have had quite a big surprise. A dozen men and women in bright red fundraising t-shirts gathered around a six foot fibreglass bear preparing to run a 10k trail in the summer sunshine.
To exp...
Only the other day I was thinking to myself, that pain in my thigh has gone. It wasn’t twinging after runs or when I climbed the stairs. I could stretch properly during warm up. Could it be that after more than three months of grief, I’m finally back...
I’ll never grumble about running in the heat again. Bring on the sweat and sunshine, because what I saw last week on my brief visit to the Staffordshire Ironman made me appreciate what battling against the elements really means.
To clarify, I had two ...
It’s like I’ve never been away! Four runs a week, short on a Tuesday, long on a Sunday. It’s almost becoming second nature.
I’ve just completed week six of the marathon improver programme which is taking me up to October for the Birmingham Internatio...
It was the running equivalent of panic-buying, like when everyone feels the need to buy several loaves of bread and a gallon of milk because the shops are closing for one day at Christmas.
But the message was loud and clear – a tweet from one of my loc...
They say not to meet your heroes in life for fear of disappointment, but that absolutely wasn’t the case when I attended a Great Run forum the other week to listen to a Q&A with distance running experts including the legendary Liz McColgan.
The eve...
Just a quick update from me on what’s been happening since the Manchester marathon. I’ve done the sensible thing and got myself checked out.
Self-diagnosis is a risky business whether you’ll ill or injured, and you’ve only yourself to blame if you sta...
No doubt about it, the Greater Manchester Marathon is a terrific event. Not the most scenic or inspiring route, but all the colour and personality comes from the wonderful people who line the streets and cheer you on.
For support, it’s about as close a...
Tomorrow morning the Manchester marathon will finally be underway. Time to put 16 weeks of training into practice and have a third go at the infamous ’26 point 2’.
Looking back at the updates I’ve posted along the way I fear some have come across as a ...
I read a great article the other week about ‘taper madness’ as a phenomenon and I can relate to pretty much everything it said.
Your mind and body find it hilarious to play all sorts of nasty tricks on you as you start to wind the miles back. For some ...
Take it easy, they said. You don’t want to risk an injury, they warned. You need to start tapering now, they reminded me.
Sorry…not listening! It’s 10am on a gusty Sunday morning and I’ve got my race face on for my first event of the year, the Staffo...
It’s nearly time to start tapering ahead of Manchester, but before then I have one little challenge left to tackle.
This Sunday is the Stafford Half Marathon, a race I’ve done for the last four years in a row and always thoroughly enjoyed. It’s usuall...
