A busy weekend, with a marathon-focused workshop for England Athletics in Stockport that seemed to be well received by all.  

http://www.englandathletics.org/news.asp?itemid=12645&itemTitle=Training+for+the+Spring+Marathon+workshop+sees+excellent+turnout§ion=000100010002001300020001

 Away from the Church Community Centre and out on the mud it was County Cross Country Championship weekend. Extremely muddy weather seems to be a bit of a leveller whereby aspects like balance, coordination, fearlessness, lactate tolerance  and maybe even peripheral vision become much more relevant than when running round a 400 metre track or a flat stretch of tarmac. So one chap I coach had a fine run in Berkshire while another one had a more downbeat effort in Middlesex.

Training hero of the day was the runner who did 17 miles in 6.20 per mile on a breezy wet morning. Oh, and then minutes later, with no carb intake to top up the glycogen,  he won a 10k race in just over 34 minutes. That wasn’t exactly what I had suggested he do but was slightly beyond what I’d plan for a training session 13 weeks before a target marathon. Let’s see how the next three months pan out. He did have a large and long lunch afterwards