Up to now, I've not been afraid to change things around a bit in the USA 2011 training schedule. The present time is no exception.
Despite running a fair few miles so far I'm not 100% happy with the way things are going. That's not too say I'm too unhappy, though, as I genuinely feel as though my stamina, strength and resilience have improved greatly. Confidence has never been higher too!
Already, I'm far better equipped than I was during the 874 mile run from John O'Groats to Lands End in 2007. That's no consolation mind because the experience I gained during that run, the 3 times I ran the 134 mile C2C route and the 84 mile Hadrian's Wall path tells me that I've got to run to a much much higher standard if I'm to successfully run from one coast of the USA to the other. It's a high standard I've been striving for, for almost a year now. At one point I was well ahead of schedule. I can safely say now that I'm starting to fall behind a bit.
But it's not all doom and gloom folks. A tweak, albeit a major one, is all it needs to refocus and get things back on track. My current routine of a running week followed by a gym week followed by a running week etc etc will be abandoned. I now intend to have two high mileage running weeks followed by a quality low mileage week. It is in the low mileage week that I'll slot in the personal training sessions with Mark Fleming and Beach Bootcamp with David Fairlamb.
The weekly target in the high mileage weeks will still be 90 miles and I think 30 miles is quite sufficient during the low mileage week. By my calculations that'll be 300 miles per month. That's more like it!!
Things will get off to a flying start this Sunday with a 10 hour run from Shotley Bridge, down the Derwent Walk to Blaydon, over the Scotswood Bridge, all the way down to Tynemouth then on to Blyth and beyond. This is a run I intend to repeat every few months. I should learn a lot from it as well as from the run the following day! I'll be taking my new Flip HD camera with me and it'll be interesting to see the inevitable deterioration over the 10 hours on video! Watch this space!