Well, the taper is officially underway now. After the last longish run Sunday, Monday I just had one run of 8 miles to complete in the morning and then a good strength and conditioning session in the gym in the evening. Tuesday I just had an easy 7 with strides and an easy 5 with strides. Wednesday – home time, I just had one easy 7 miles to complete in the morning. I then got myself all packed and ready to go, had one last session in the gym and then at 4.30pm we embarked on our very long journey home. We left camp in a matato in the afternoon, and would not arrive back in the UK until 7am Thursday morning. It will be very tiring and difficult to get much sleep on the overnight flight, which was fully booked and very crowded.

My Husband Gavin collected me from Heathrow airport on Thursday morning. It was wonderful to see him and lovely to be home. I had no runs to do today, so we had a nice relaxing day and I enjoyed being home, having a proper shower, a cup of English tea and some food and luxuries I had missed over the last few weeks! In the afternoon I visited my Physio William Dykes at Martlesham, so he could give me a quick M.O.T  and ensure that my back had not tightened up with all the travel and flight. He said I was in great shape, possible the best he has ever seen for me, this is good news!

Friday I just had two runs to complete, and Easy 7 and Easy 5. I did the easy 5 in the morning, and felt good, I ran very easy as I knew my body would still be tired from the travel and lack of sleep. I met up with my mum for lunch, which was nice. In the afternoon I had a well needed massage from my Sports Therapist Gillian Shemming. Later in the day I completed the easy 7 with my Husband Gavin.

Saturday I had an easy 15miles to complete, I did this in the morning with Gavin, and felt ok, a bit tired and leggy, but I was expecting that. It was my Mum’s 60^th Birthday lunch so we were able to refuel sufficiently after the long run, and it was lovely to see all my family after my three weeks away.

On Sunday I had a tempo run to complete, of 5miles, with an easy mile warm up and cool down. I was very pleased with this session; I felt very good and managed to complete the 5 miles tempo at my target of half marathon race pace, which is about 5.30 per mile. I completed the 5miles in a time of 27.30, which is equal to my 5mile personal best! I felt very in control and finished feeling like there was plenty left in the tank, which was pleasing.

Sunday evening I had a rest, as no second run to complete. I thought to myself, this time next week it will all be over, and I will know the result of weeks and weeks of hard work, physical pain, sacrifices, dedication, determination and self-belief, not just by me, but by everyone who has supported me on this journey, my Coach, Husband, parents, family, friends. I hope it will be the result we all want and we will be celebrating!

Next week it is essential that I take extra care on my last few runs so as I do not injure myself at this stage and that I keep well rested, well hydrated, and relaxed and avoid catching a cold or illness. I do not want to do anything this week that may jeopardise my race on Sunday. It’s just a waiting game now, the worst part of the marathon training schedule, all the hard work is done and it’s all about waiting for race day to arrive. Lots of people will be feeling the same way this week!

This week my mileage will be around 25miles less. The real taper starts next week, two weeks before, but there is a significant reduction this week.

Monday I had to runs a easy hour in the morning, and an steady 45mins in the afternoon; the two runs came to around 15miles, I was feeling pretty good, a little tired from the previous days 22mile run, but otherwise good.

Tuesday, session day. Today’s session was a set of 10mins tempo, followed by 12 x 1min hill, with a couple of miles warm down, the session went really well, and I was using the same hill that used when I was out here last time and getting further than before. It’s called Helen’s hill, but I am not responsible,  it’s not named after me. It is because Helen Clitheroe was using it do her hill reps when she was out in Kenya. There was a few Kenyans on the hill doing a session as well, and they helped me up a few of the intervals, they looked like they were jogging!  I had a physio session and soft tissue treatment in the afternoon. In the evening I went t out with the group for an easy 40min run. The day’s mileage was around 16miles.

Wednesday, me and the other marathon girls had arranged for a matato (Kenyan Taxi)  to follow us down the main road for our 90 minute run, to finish up at the giraffe park. We had torrential rain overnight, which meant the trails where impossible to run on, hence the decision to go down the main road first. It was so cool when we started our run we had to where long sleeves as it was only 15degrees. It warmed up later when the clouds broke, meaning I could enjoy the rest of the day off in the sun after my run, as I was not down for a second run today. I had a good session in the gym in place of my second run in the evening. The weather has been poor since Monday, it is actually coming into the rainy season now, and it may be cooler and wetter for the duration of the camp. The rain is pretty reliable though, and has only been falling over night, the mornings are fresh, over cast and cooler, but by lunch time the sun has normally burned through.

Thursday. Today I had a session, 6 x 5mins off 2mins recovery. A couple of the lads here had a tempo run planned straight down the rain road at 10am, with a matato booked to follow them and pick them up at the end. It made sense for me to do the same and so I did a 2.5 mile warm up around the trails, then started my session at 10am with the lads, it was helpful with the slight tail wind and downhill as it allowed my legs to get going and helped my leg speed. It was a tough session, and there is a steep climb around 5 miles down the main road which made the second from last interval a tough one. I was very pleased with the session; I was well over 7miles down the main road by the last interval and recovery. I turned and jogged back until the matato turned up with the lads in. Once back at camp I did a 2.5 miles jog to loosen off before heading in for lunch. In the afternoon I had a soft tissue treatment and then did a very easy 5miles in the evening, my legs where very tired from the session.

Friday and Saturday where both very easy days, with just one run of around 50-60mins per day. This was nice, as I ran in the morning both days and then had the rest of the day to relax and unwind. On both days I made use of the time and had a good gym sessions in the evening around 5pm for a couple of hours before dinner.

Sunday. Long run. Although as I am in taper now, not as long as normal, only around 15milles today. Me and the other marathon girls started at 9am, on the normal route towards the Giraffe park, with a matato following for drinks. I can tell that the taper is working already as I felt really fresh and bouncy today, and I was running much quicker than previous long runs, but still feeling very comfortable. It was a very hot and humid day today, which was quite draining but I really enjoyed the run, and felt like I could keep running forever, this is a good sign. The rest of the day was recovery and rest, the sun came out and I made the very most of it. Only 2 and a half more days and 4 more runs to complete before I go home on Wednesday!

Monday. Today is day 5 of my return to Kenya, back in the HATC in Iten.  First tough session at altitude completed. A long session consisting of some blocks of tempo pace and some intervals of varying length. I was very pleased with how I felt on this session, and I certainly felt much better than my first session up here last time, which is a good sign that I have acclimatised much faster this time. The session was almost 10 miles, and I then ran a further 9 miles in the evening.

Tuesday. Today I had an easy 12 miles; I completed this in the morning, around several of the hilly trial loops. I felt pretty good. In the evening I completed a further 7 miles easy, including some strides.

Wednesday. Today I had actually got an easy 8 for the morning, but Michelle and Amy (two of the other marathon girls I am training with on camp) had planned to run 90mins downhill towards the giraffe park, with a Matato (Kenyan Taxi) following them; I decided to join them.  It was a few extra miles than Clive had given me, but it did not matter as it was down hill which gave the legs a rest and slightly negates the altitude. I felt very fresh, and I was careful to run very easy to ensure I did not take too much out. When we reached the end of the run, we were very lucky to see an entire heard of giraffes in the vast open space alongside the trail which we ran on. In the evening I ran a further easy 6 miles.

Thursday. Session day. Another tough session consisting of tempo pace and varied length intervals, slightly longer intervals this time. It was a tough session, but I was very pleased with how I ran it. In the evening I ran another easy 5.5miles.

Friday and Saturday where a couple of easier days, in preparation for Sundays long run. An easy 5 & steady  7 Friday, and just one easy 10miles on Sunday.

Sunday we all did our long run together, down to the giraffe park again, with a Matato. This was one of my best long runs up here to date, I felt really good, and I was maintaining a reasonable pace the entire run, and feeling strong. I completed 22 miles.

This is my last really long run over  20 miles until marathon race day now. It feels nice to get it done without any problems. This week is the last big week for me, 115 miles completed. Next week my mileage will reduce considerably, as I begin my taper towards the marathon. Over this next three week ‘taper’ period, my mileage will reduce by at least  25%, but I will start to do more pace work. The sessions will just be shorter and sharper to prepare my legs for race day, and the mileage less to ensure that I start to feel fresher and do not enter the marathon fatigued in the slightest.  Getting the taper right is one of the most crucial parts of the training. It is very tempting to keep running lots of miles, but you must remember that it all the hard work is done now, and the miles are in the bank. It’s all about starting to feel fresh for race day. It will feel very strange not running so much, especially being here in Kenya, as it is what you feel you should do, but it is important that I am disciplined and taper as I would normally, and use the spare time that I have to relax and let my body refresh. At this stage, less is more.

I travelled from the Park to my coach’s house to get an 18mile run done. We did this run on Monday as I am travelling to Kenya on Wednesday, so with the travel time and acclimatisation period I would not get a long run in at the weekend, hence why we did it on Monday. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and I felt brilliant the whole way.

In the evening I headed down to Northgate Sports centre running track, where along with my coach Clive we were meeting up with a camera man from Anglia TV so he could shoot some footage of me on the track in my GB kit for feature they would be doing about the regions Olympic hopefuls. It was great fun. This would be my last club night for a few weeks now.

Tuesday I had an easy 8miles in the morning, again the weather was delightful, and I felt very fresh, I had completed my run by 9am in order I could get on with packing for Kenya. I had a further easy 5 miles to complete in the evening. I felt very pleased with how I felt, and I was all packed and ready to leave at 4.30am the following morning!

Mum picked me up and transported my to the airport, we arrived in very good time about 6.45am, and the bag drop was open at 7.15. Once I was through security I had a coffee and some breakfast and picked a few supplies up for my fellow athletes in Kenya as they had emailed and asked for few things to be brought over that they were craving!  I met up with my room mate Alyson Dixon who I was out in Kenya with in January, it was nice to have a catch up, and we were delighted when we boarded the plane to see that it was half empty so we had plenty of seats to stretch out on for the 9 hour flight to Nairobi.

On arrival in Nairobi we are transported to a Hotel for the night, and collected the following morning at 5.30am for the domestic flight to Eldoret, this was at 7.15. We arrived in Eldoret at 8am and where picked up and taken to camp. The journey to camp on the road is most unpleasant part of the trip, its only 30 kilometres, but takes well over an hour as the roads are horrendous, and it is a little hair raising at times. On arrival at camp just after 9am, we were warmly welcomed by familiar faces and offered breakfast, and then we got settled into our room. I rested for the afternoon and then had a very easy 5 mile run about 5pm.

After a reasonable night’s sleep, I woke up at 6.30am Friday morning, feeling very jaded from the previous days travel and lack of sleep. I went for a 6mile easy run on one of my favourite trails at 7.30, I felt very tired and heavy legged, but this is normal at this early stage. I had a nice leisurely breakfast with the other uk athletes at about 8.30am. I went to the gym for an hours strength work at about 11am. I had a further 7miles in the evening and felt much better than I had earlier in the day.

Saturday was my first day to try a little effort, as it is ok to so on day 3 to just assess how you are feeling. The light session that Clive had down for me was 3 sets off  5 mins easy, 5 mins steady, 5 mins tempo with a longish warm down, I also did a few strides at the end of the run, and felt reasonably good, this was 11miles in total. I had an hour in the gym after lunch and then did a further easy 5 miles in the evening; I did feel a bit heavy in the legs for this run after having worked a bit harder in the morning.

Sunday some of the others that arrived last week at a long run planned down to the Giraffe park at 8.30am with a car following with drinks. As I had 90mins to do I decided I may as well join them and then jump in the car when I had reached my target, rather than run alone this worked out well as I ran with Amy Whitehead and she also wanted to stop at 90mins, the others stopped about 2 hours so we followed them and then we all returned to camp for around 11am. After Lunch I had another session in the gym, then some physio treatment. I am still acclimatising so it’s important not to overdo things yet, I felt good today and felt like running for longer, but knew it would be foolish to so at this stage.

It’s lovely being back here in Kenya training again, I am so focused on what I am doing and there is nothing to distract me from reaching my goal! I am feeling very confident. I am looking forward to some harder work next week.

Well, this week was my last complete week of marathon training at sea level.  Following the race last Sunday we had another  100+ mile week planned with quite a lot of hard work.

Monday we were still in Bath as we stayed the Sunday night after the race as well. So early Sunday morning after breakfast I did an easy 6 mile recovery run out and back along the canel with my Husband Gavin. Considering the previous day’s effort my legs did not feel too bad at all, which was good, as I had a heavy week ahead. After Lunch is the Cotswolds we drove back to Ipswich, once home I did another easy 30min run from Northgate Sports centre at Ipswich Jaffa running club, and then had a massage treatment.

Tuesday I had a 12 mile run in the morning. This went very well, and as I felt suitably recovered from Sunday’s effort I did further easy 5 miles in the evening.

Wednesday was a hard session with Clive which was a set of Kilometre efforts at interval pace, with rolling 2minute recoveries, followed by a set of 400 metre efforts at repetition pace with 3min jog recovery. This session was over 12miles in total. I had a massage treatment in the afternoon. In the evening I had an easy 6mile recovery run.

Thursday was a recovery day so I just had two shorter runs to complete of 5miles easy in the morning, and a steady 7miles in the evening.

Friday was the big session day. I travelled to my coach’s house for 9am to start the run from his. The plan was to run 26 miles progressive. This involved running the first 5 miles easy, the next 5 miles steady, and the from 10miles through to 21 miles I gradually picked up the pace every 2miles, to finish close to my marathon pace, then continued the final 5 miles of the run at easy/steady pace. I completed the run in well under 3 hours and I was very pleased with how I felt and Clive my coach was very impressed with session. Later in the day my right calf became very inflamed and tender, I was very concerned about how it felt, and a little puzzled as it had not bothered me during the run.

Saturday I felt very exhausted from the previous day’s session, but then I had run a sub three hour marathon, so that was hardly a surprise. As my calf was still very aggravated so I decided to miss my morning run, and wait to see what my massage therapist thought before I ran in the evening. We decided that the calf needed to settle, nothing serious, but it was very tight and very hot and inflamed, so not running on it was going to be the safest option in the hope that overnight it would continue to settle. I do not like missing runs, and this was frustrating, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

On Sunday morning I was travelling down to Great Bentley half marathon with my Husband Gavin, as he was racing. I enjoyed running around the course and supporting him and many of my friends and club mates from Ipswich Jaffa RC and other local clubs. I was relieved as I ran over 9miles doing this, and my calf felt much better. After the race we visited the Mum’s to wish them happy Mother’s Day. In the evening I ran a further easy 6 miles and my legs felt really good, and the calf was completely clear, which was a relief.

I am feeling very confident and pleased to be returning to Kenya on Wednesday next week in great shape and injury free.

Another successful week of consistent training under my belt this week.

I overcame the fatigue of last week, and bounced back this week. The mileage was to be a little bit less as I was finishing the week with blow out at the Bath Half Marathon, and I wanted to do it justice.

Monday was a session day. The weather was appalling, so Clive my coach did his best to try and pick a reasonable route, however it did mean coming back into a strong head wind. The session was a mile warm up, followed by 10minutes at Tempo pace, followed by 3 x 5mins hard and 5 x 3mins hard. I was very pleased with the session, the wind behind me for the first efforts allowed me to test my leg speed, and the wind in my face for the next set of efforts was a good test of strength. I had another easier run later on after a sports massage treatment.

Tuesday was two medium length runs, an easy 8 miles and steady 6miles. I also had a good strength and conditioning session in the gym.

Wednesday was a long run. Again appalling  wet, windy and cold weather made for very unpleasant running. But I felt very strong and was pleased with my strength and endurance and I was able to pick up the pace towards the end of the run. I finished the run at Clive’s house and we then had lunch and after I had warmed up and recovered we popped down to the local radio Station to air on radio Suffolk on Lesley Dolphin’s afternoon show. On the show she discussed with us how the training was going in the build-up to Virgin London Marathon. Once I was home I also had a massage treatment to help my recovery from the long run earlier in the day.

Thursday was two smaller runs, one 8 miles easy and one 5 miles steady. Friday was one also two runs, but due to my right calf becoming very stiff and tight after the mornings 8miles I was sensible and did not venture out for second run for the sake of it. I did not want to do anything to jeopardise all the hard work, or hinder my chances of a good performance on Sunday.

Saturday morning I visited my massage therapist for a pre-race massage, before driving down to Bath with my husband Gavin. Clive my coach was going to meet us on the race morning. We arrived at the hotel in the afternoon and attended an evening meal put on for the Elite field by the event management at a restaurant over the road. I was in bed before 9pm to prepare and be rested for the following morning.

Sunday morning I felt refreshed after a good night’s sleep, and we attended breakfast at 7am and walked down to the race at 9am. The Elite tent was full of familiar faces, and I began to feel very nervous. I was concerned as I had terrible nerves in the morning and had struggled to eat much breakfast, but hoped things would settle once I was in race mode. The race started at 11am, so at about 10.15am I went for a warm up 2mile jog with Gavin. 10.55 and we were lined up ready to go, I was asked to step forward and wave at the crowds as one of the Elite race favourites and it gave me a real lift.

The race was a two lap course, mainly flat with a couple of gentle climbs each lap and a drag up to finish. I was pleased to finish 3^rd lady unexpectedly, out of such a strong field. I was second British behind Susan Partridge who ran for GB in World Champs last year, but finished strongly in front of big names such as Liz Yelling and Louise Damen who boasted much faster times than me going into the event.

I was satisfied with the result. I felt fatigued for the race due to heavy mileage of marathon training, and my stomach was playing up all the way. So to achieve another PB of 72.35 and a podium finish, the second in a fortnight, was a delight. It means things are going very well for the marathon.

After Sundays exploits on my half marathon Personal best, I have been left feeling rather jaded this week. Partly as a result of the big effort I made on the Sunday, and partly an effect of the return from altitude.

After the race on Sunday, I was still down for some fairly big miles on the following days. I had an 8 mile run and a 6 mile run to complete on the Monday. I was very tired for both these runs, but still on a high from the previous days race pace, so I did not notice the doms (delayed onset muscle fatigue) effect too much.

Tuesday I was hit with doms, and exhaustion, but determined as ever to stick to the training schedule I proceeded with my scheduled 15mile run in the morning. I could tell my system was not right, I felt very out of sorts on my run and reduced it to 13miles. I had a gym session later in the day and completed a further easy 30 minute run. I booked in for an emergency check up with my Physio William Dykes, as I knew something was out of line with my biomechanics. I was right, the impact of Sundays race, and the high mileage that followed had left me fatigued and William needed to perform several manipulations on my back, pelvis  and realign me. He also needed to work extensively on my left foot/ankle which had stiffened up, which it has a tendency to do when subjected to hard work.  My physio advised I reduce the following days’ work load in order to allow my system to settle and recover. I decided I would see how I felt in the morning.

Wednesday morning I awoke feeling like I had been hit by a truck, so based on this I contacted my coach and cancelled my scheduled hard session, and on his advice reduced the days work load to two very easy 5miles, one in the morning, and one in the evening. In between runs my physio had prescribed a sauna and steam to help my muscles recover, so I did this in the afternoon, and had a little swim. By the time my second run was due, I was feeling much fresher. I needed to listen to the signals and respect my body today.

Thursday I was feeling much better and the sun was shining. On my morning run of 10 miles I felt much more myself. I had a bit of down time after this and met my Mum at the Suffolk food hall for a 3 mile countryside walk and a bit of lunch. I ran a further 7.5miles in the evening. The lovely weather really helped today.

Friday was my long run day, 24 very chilly miles. I travelled to Clive’s (my coach) house, and started the run from there, accompanied by Clive on his bike. Neither of us was impressed by the extreme temperature drop from the previous day, and the cold made it feel much more of a struggle. However, both of us where very pleased with how I ran the 24 miles, my endurance and strength is fantastic at the moment, and I felt like I could run forever.

Saturday, was my easier day, which was nice, just one 10 mile run in the morning. My husband Gavin was doing a long run today of 18miles, so he did 8 miles and then collected me so I could do the second half of his run with him.

Sunday, the weather was incredibly unpleasant, cold, windy and freezing rain. I endured 10 miles in the morning, and I was feeling very tired indeed. I felt a little fresher for my evening  5 miles, despite having to run in the sleet and snow showers! I am very much looking forward to returning to warmer climates again in a couple of weeks. I am pleased with this weeks training, considering I was feeling very tired and had quite severe doms effect from the race, I still completed 110 miles.

Well what an eventful week. Monday to Wednesday I was still in Kenya, at the HATC in Iten.  Monday I ran a lighter session in the morning, as you have to be careful not to work too hard in the last few days before travelling home. The session consisting of 3 x 10min tempo with 3mins recovery after a 2mile warm up, followed by a 3mile cool down, totalling about 12 miles, I ran a further 5 easy miles in the evening.

Tuesday was one easy 15mile run, I did this in the morning, and finished up at the track about 1.5miles from The HATC, to observe the Kenyan’s doing their track sessions, quite a sight to behold, dozens of groups of Kenyan’s, men and women, all doing various sessions, charging around the dirt track, in a cloud of dust, they all finished covered in head to toes in dark red dust.

Wednesday was travel day, so one easy 7 mile run before breakfast, then gym, then packing. We departed the camp at 4pm to travel to Eldoret for the internal flight to Nairobi, then it was a 9 hour flight to LHR. I arrived at my home in Ipswich at about 9am Thursday morning.

Now it was my recovery week, so I just had a few easy runs planned before a rest day on Saturday and a Half marathon at Tunbridge Wells to test my fitness on Sunday. I went out for 6 miles easy after getting home on Thursday morning, to jog the travel out of my legs. I felt groggy from the travel, but otherwise ok. On Friday I enjoyed catching up with Husband and family, and ran an easy 8miles, I was pleased with how I felt, my legs felt very fresh. After running an average of 15-20 miles per day for the last 4 weeks, my legs where thanking me for a few lighter days!

On Saturday I had my first complete rest day for 31 days! Everything fell nicely into place for the race on Sunday, which was a hilly challenging half marathon course at Tunbridge Wells. I felt a little apprehensive and nervous before hand, as day 4 of coming down from altitude can be a little bit hit and miss, as you do get a few down days which tend to fall between days 3-8, pre and post this you feel great. Also, it was in the back of my mind, that due to injuries last year, I had not raced since August, and was hoping I could switch my race head back on. I did not need not worry, I had the best race of my career to date, I was 1^st lady and 7th overall, ran a personal best of 72.40, slicing nearly 90 seconds off my previous time. I beat the course record by over 1 minute as set by Liz Yelling last year, and this performance currently places me top of the 2012 UK rankings list for half marathon. I am delighted, and relieved that all the hard work has paid off. I am very excited about what is to come over the next few weeks.

Picture courtesy of Lawrie Procter

Well things have gone extremely well  here, with over 120miles run this week in the skinny air of Iten in Kenya.

The week started very well with a tough session on Monday, including some tempo/interval and rep paced work to total over 13 miles, followed by another easy run in the evening.

Tuesday was an easy 15miles in the morning and another easy 5 in the evening, although nothing is really very easy here and I was feeling very tired on Tuesday.  I was taking care to keep the pace very easy to ensure I did not dig myself into a hole. Fortunately, after a good night’s sleep, I bounced back and felt spring heeled for both my steady runs on Wednesday.  I could tell I was feeling good as I was pushing up the hills – and there are a lot of steep hills –  and the Kenyan children could not live with my pace on this occasion.

Thursday started with a beast of a hill session, to include some tempo work first, followed by 20 variable length hills and a recovery run back to camp, to cover 15miles in total. During my warm up to the hill on which we do this session, we saw a sight to behold. Over 300 Kenyans did a set fartlek session on this day (2mins hard, 1 easy x 20). The lead group was thundering down the hill on which we were about to run, so we leapt into the ditch to avoid being swept away. The speed  they were racing down the hill was easily sub 3 min kilometre pace; they looked to be sprinting! They left a cloud of dust in their wake, over 100 Kenyans in that group and the front runners would most definitely have included a few world record holders, not that they could be identified though the dust and dirt which surrounded them and covered their faces and clothing. It certainly inspired me as I had a tremendous hill session following that encounter. I still managed an easy run in the evening, on very weary legs.

I woke Friday with a very stiff right shoulder/upper back. It was very painful and probably the result of the arm drives on yesterday’s hill work. With some help from Clive, I was able to release it but not without some severe pain. Thankfully it did ease by the end of the day and Friday was an easier day of two moderate length  runs, in order that I could recuperate some energy for the long run on Saturday. This was an adventure, as a group of us Brits hired a matatu (Kenyan taxi) to follow us on our 21mile route down from camp into the valley to finish at the Giraffe Park. Clive (my coach), and one of the other British lad’s girlfriend, were in the matatu to hand out drinks to us on route. This was a fantastic way to finish my final long run out here and it went really well. We entered the park, with a guide, to hunt down the giraffes roaming wild with in the vast area. There are a total of 13 giraffes protected within the park and we spotted 8 of them. To get within a few metres of these magnificent creatures was really something.

The week is topped off with one easy 10 mile run on Sunday and a couple of gym sessions. I am definitely ready to go home now though; it’s been a magnificent experience but a very tough and tiring one at that.  Only a couple more days left here now and then it’s time to fly home and see my husband, family and friends who I have really missed. I am looking forward to testing my fitness with some good work outs and races at sea level next week, where I should reap the benefits of a month of hard work up here.

The effect of training in thin air is such that the body naturally produces a hormone called erythropoetin (EPO) whilst you are acclimatising, which stimulates the production of red blood cells which carry oxygen to the muscles. Up to a point, the more blood cells you have, the more oxygen you can deliver to your muscles, this should produce a very positive effect on training and performances when returning to sea level. So far I have been running between 110-120 miles per week and feeling fantastic. It’s very hard when your training, but the best things about being here is there are no other distractions, allowing me to focus totally on training and resting.
An average day here will consist of getting up about 6.30am, for a run or breakfast at 7am (before breakfast if easy run, after breakfast if hard session or longer than 10miles) a Gym session at about 11am for Strengthening and conditioning, lunch at 12.30, rest after lunch, snacks at 3pm, another session in the gym for core and stability workout, run at 5pm, return to gym for 45mins of stretching/foam rollering, dinner at 7pm, in bed by 9pm.