Ben Moreau - Blog

Since my last blog I've returned from Kenya, spent three weeks in the UK, and now I'm in Portugal for the final stages of my London Marathon preparations. Three weeks ago I raced over the half marathon distance in Den Haag, Holland. The leaders were running at world record pace so I sensibly let them go and ran my own race! I was pleased to run a new personal best of 64 minutes 27 seconds, so the Kenyan training paid off and I'm in the best shape I have ever been in. This also placed me third in the UK half marathon rankings for the year.

I took a week to recover from the race with some easier running – I could barely walk for a few days and all my runs started with a hobble before I warmed up! Then I flew to Portugal to train with some people who will be my rivals at the London Marathon. It's been really useful to train with some other people and I've found I've lifted my game a bit on the hard sessions which has given me a good confidence boost. Training on your own is fine, but you never get the most out of yourself and it's also nice just to have a bit of company to share the hard work!

I've probably done the two hardest weeks of training in my life out in Portugal too. I've averaged 20 miles per day, and done the hardest marathon sessions I'll do in my build-up. For these, I tend to do 20-23 miles of running but some of it will be at my marathon pace or a bit faster. I've done three of these in the last two weeks and each time I've spent the rest of the day curled up on the sofa under a blanket! These are the runs that really get you fit for the marathon but you can't do too many of them as they take a while to recover from. I've also practiced my drinks routine for these, where I mimic the type of drink I'll take on at London Marathon as well as the energy gels. The main thing I want to test is that my stomach copes with them and my body can get used to taking on drinks and gels while running hard.

I can tell I'm pushing my body really hard as I've found myself sleeping a lot more as well as picking up a few colds which always seem to hit when my body's trying to recover. Luckily it's less than two weeks until the London Marathon now, so it's time to ease right down and just stay fit and healthy until the race. My coach always says that in the last two weeks 'less is more' and so I've got to force myself to scale back the training and get to the start line of London Marathon feeling fresh and healthy. I'll try and run the Olympic qualifying time here along with a few other Brits with the same game plan, so fingers crossed all goes well!

I now have six weeks to go until the marathon trials for the Olympics, at the London Marathon on 22 April. I am now back in the UK after a great time in Kenya. The conditions were great for training: sunny every day, 20-22 degrees, and an 8,000ft altitude! It was a really worthwhile trip. I joined some of the Kenyan training sessions that have produced so many world champions. It was amazing to see the sheer numbers of locals that turn up for training in a town that only has a population of 4,000. One session had 250 Kenyans at the start of it, and me. I ended up somewhere in the top 75 as we snaked around the dirt trails between the farms. After this session I needed a lie down because the hills and altitude make it very tough!

I ran twice a day, with one long run of 20 miles every week, totalling around 120 miles each week. I was careful not to overdo it and made my runs on my easy days quite slow so my body could recover. On almost every run I would be passed by groups of Kenyans out training. It's no surprise that they produce so many great runners when they have so many out training in these perfect conditions. The nearest school plants a tree for every world champion it produces; if you don't win, you don't get a tree!

Three days after arriving back in the UK I raced a local 10km to test my fitness. The good news is that I ran at a pace that is up there with my best times, but the bad news is I was so far ahead that I got sent the wrong way do ran an extra 700m so only finished fourth. However, I knew my fitness was good and I would have been close to my personal best for 10km even though I didn't have much competition around me.

The next step is to race a half marathon in The Hague, in Holland. There have been a few world records set here so the course is fast and I'm hoping to run a personal best before I head to Portugal for the final stages of my training. Having been plunged back in the cold of the UK, Portugal climes can't come soon enough!

The last month has been pretty interesting for me. I gave up work for three months to help me prepare for the Olympic trials. I immediately flew out to Kenya to train at altitude, experience the Kenyan training secrets, and improve my rest between training sessions so I can train harder.

The first week was just about getting used to the 2,500 metre altitude. I’m staying in Iten which is home to almost all of the top Kenyan athletes. In fact one of the schools – St. Patrick’s – plants a tree for every Kenyan major championship medalist. Running for Kenya doesn’t cut it: you have to win a medal!

I found the first few runs quite hard as my body acclimatised, but was still running between seven and 10 miles at a steady pace twice per day. After five days I decided to try a 25 kilometre run with the Kenyan runners. I was told there would be a big group running quite slowly. It turns out that this wasn’t quite true!

It was not a slow start, and it just got quicker. After mile three had passed in five minutes and 28 seconds (equivalent to a two hour and 25 minutes marathon pace) I backed off. I kept them in sight as they set off along a long dirt trail as the sun was coming up. It was an awesome sight to see 30 amazing runners loping along through beautiful countryside and if ever I needed a contrast to training in London, this was it!

After six miles a few Kenyans started coming back to me. Part of the culture here is to start fast and try and get noticed, and if you fall back so be it. Much the same as how Kenyans run marathons! You never see them starting conservatively and then moving through the field; they start fast and hang on for as long as they can.

I caught a couple of runners who seemed to be impressed with how I was doing and I ran with them for the final 10 kilometres, which incidentally was completely uphill! This is typical of runs around here. I plan to join in a ‘fartlek’ session which is a speed change session of one minute slow, one minute fast for an hour. Apparently there are 300 Kenyans who take part which should be an amazing experience.

The rest of my days are spent resting, walking around the town and doing more of the stuff I never had time to do when I was working full-time, such as stretching, gym work, and physiotherapy sessions. Hopefully I will get through the final two weeks unscathed, which consist of up to 130 miles per week of running on these hills!

Since my last blog I’ve had some great boosts to my preparation for the London marathon on the 22 April, which is my Olympic trial. The most significant one was the generosity of Experian in giving me a grant to help towards training camps and physiotherapy. This has allowed me to book three and a half weeks in Kenya, and then three and a half weeks in Portugal to boost my training. It has also meant I can get regular physio which has already shown rewards with the successful treatment of a niggling hamstring which might have caused me to miss training if I hadn’t been able to treat it so quickly.

Experian are the parent company of Techlightenment, a social media company I have worked at for more than three years.  They have offices around the world and are certainly a successful ‘grown-up’ company. The fact they are willing to support me is fantastic and shows that they care about their employees and will support them with their goals. I am extremely grateful for this. Techlightenment have always supported me and allowed extra time off for big events and important training events.

I will be in Kenya for most of February where the plan is to train at altitude to gain extra red blood cells and build a really good base for when I come back down to sea level. My training will consist of lots of running. It needn’t be that fast or intense at this point of my build-up, and the harder sessions will focus on length at a moderate to hard effort, rather than worrying about speed. I will train with a few other British distance runners who are out there, as well as some Kenyans, which will be an eye-opener!

When I come back from Kenya I will focus a bit more on my speed and running faster than marathon pace for 10 miles +. I will also race a half marathon in Holland to test my fitness. Then I head to Portugal where it all starts getting pretty serious. I will mainly train with two other guys who have similar aspirations to mine and will benefit from this training group where we can push each other really hard and focus on pace and very hard marathon sessions.

I come back ten days before the London marathon, and so that will just be about relaxing and taking it easy until the big day!

My next blog will come from Kenya hopefully! I’m amazingly excited about training in the Mecca of distance running and if that doesn’t inspire me, nothing will!

Hi all,

So training has been going really well, I’ve been setting new personal best times for my training road loops in sessions and I’ve also raced a few cross-country races which have gone ok but I’m not as strong over the mud and hills so I didn’t expect fireworks! I finished 26th in a highly competitive British trial race for the European Cross-country championships and I was a little disappointed with that, hoping for top 15, but I keep telling myself it’s all a stepping stone to greater things!

Since my last blog, one of the three Olympic marathon spots has gone to Scott Overall who ran 2.10.55 earlier this year. This was Scott’s first marathon but he is a seasoned Great Britain international over cross-country and 5k so he is a talented guy. There are still two spots to fight for and so I’m still focused on taking one!

Experian have agreed to sponsor me to help with overseas training camps and physio. Experian bought my company, Techlightenment, at the start of the year and I’m extremely grateful for their help! This means I can have physio every two weeks to help ward off injuries as well as book my trip to Kenya and Portugal to help prepare in the best environment and with athletes of similar ability to get the best out of myself. It’s wet and windy outside as I write this now so that can’t come round soon enough!

I have a few weeks of easier training ahead of me now which is really just the calm before the storm (not the storm going on outside my window, a metaphorical storm) before I commence proper marathon training. It’s important to be fresh and revitalized before I start, but also fit enough to cope with the workload. I’ve put together some good training over the past few weeks so I’m feeling fit, and so a couple easier weeks now will just freshen me up.

I will be training over the Christmas period – I always enjoy my 10 mile run on Christmas Day! The roads are empty and anyone who is actually out is always happy! Luckily running is an easy sport to fit in training around busy schedules. I can just go out the door and run! I don’t have to travel to gyms or swimming pools, hoping they will be open. The world is my training site!

See you all in the new year,

Ben

Hi All!

My aim is to make the team for the marathon for the Olympics. To do this I have to run under 2 hours and 12 minutes and my personal best is 2.16.46 so it’s a steep ask. However I set my best time in 2010, and this was a 5 minute improvement on my 2009 time. 2010 was a great year for me: running for Great Britain at the European Championships and for England at the Commonwealth Games.

This year started off really well, and I believe I could have run 2.13-2.14 but picked up niggling injuries which kept me out of proper training for up to 8 months. This was very frustrating and I missed out on two opportunities to attempt the Olympic time and so all my eggs are in the 2012 London Marathon basket in April. This is the very last day qualification can be achieved and I am planning on giving myself the best possible chance to do so.

I have a full-time job and so have to fit my running in and around that. This doesn’t affect my training a great deal but it affects my recovery between training and adds stress to my life as well as meaning I get less sleep than I would like and less physio treatment to help my muscles recover. I am going to leave my job in 2012 for 3 months to focus on running to try and improve. I will also train at altitude in Kenya. This simple life worked well for Mo Farah, culminating in a gold and silver medal at the 2011 World Championships for 5,000m and 10,000m respectively. It also allows me to focus on running in an amazing setting, and importantly at altitude. Altitude causes an increase in red blood cells over a few days or weeks and so can improve performance through increased oxygen absorption when back at sea level.

Importantly, I’m fit again and seem to be the over the injury issues which bothered me for 8 months. I’m training a fair amount at 100 miles a week but not quite as high as the 120-130 miles a week I run when I’m in full marathon training. I will start this in January and just focus on training well without stressing my body too much at this stage.