I would like to introduce Brendan Merrosty and thank him for taking the time to contribute to my blog. Brendan has been one of my main sources of motivation over the years and has always pushed me to improve and believe in my own ability. He is an all-round athlete, excelling in  most sports he decides to tackle and always works hard to achieve his goals. Over to Brendan;

I am enjoying reading about your running, it sounds like you have it very sussed, and have learnt a lot from previous experiences and new encounters with experienced runners. I have been going ok, although have been doing less I feel than this time last year. It certainly has been harder not having Brendan to get up and train with in the mornings for shorter runs and hill and speed sessions (anterior cruciate remember).

So that has certainly changed my training, and I find myself doing more in the afternoon, rather than morning. I still make Saturday mornings my long one, mostly with the boys, but some on my own, and ran 30k yesterday, but have pulled up a bit lame which is a little concerning.

I have joined an interesting class also with the same intention of building strength, core and flexibility. It is called ‘Urban Gymnastics’, and it is basically for adults who have no formal gym  training but want to learn some new moves, learn how to do rolls, saults, flips, as well as develop some strength along the way. I have been for the last 2 weeks now and it is pretty awesome. I was very sore last week after doing an hour of strength, then an hour of practice trying to learn a back sault into the foam pit – very fun!

The first hour involves climbing those thick ropes as high as you can get, doing round offs and cartwheels, lunges, core exercises, walking along the pareallel bars (with your arms), chin ups on the horizontal bars, pull ups on the rings and a few other things. I understand why gymnasts pound for pound would have to be the strongest guys going around. I cant even pull myself up on the rings, very shameful. I am really enjoying it though as I am in a totally unfamiliar environment, and get a lot of satisfaction from learning a new skill each week. I will take you out mate when you get back, you would love it,  and you could wear your yoga tights…

Back to the marathon. My goal – I guess I have set myself up to try to break 3.10. As long as I remain relatively injury free, I think this is achievable, as I have been running between 2.12 -2.18’s for 30k over the last few weeks. I am trying to do what worked for me last year, and make my 10k splits similar in time, obviously allowing for a few ‘fatigue seconds’ in the latter stages. I feel I know my body better this time round, and haven’t trained with a polar for a long time now (probably because I couldn’t be arssed changing the batteries…).

I have enjoyed the odd podcast though on my solo long runs – I have listened to a few you have passed on, (thanks for that), and have downloaded quite a few from ‘Endurance Planet.com”. They have some great stories about running, and also some special guests who offer specific advice to runners/riders/triathletes on a bunch of topics. There seems to be a common theme amongst runners – everyone talks about the passion that running generates, and how it gives us an outlet. Nothing new I guess, but it is good to be reminded of that every once in a while. When someone talks about how running affects them, and how it is hard to go without for any extended period of time, I smile to myself as I plod along and acknowledge how that speaker just nailed my exact sentiments.