Team Orange at Hastings Half Marathon
This blog should be one of pure positivity but the last few weeks have been a grind for me personally. My refusal to rest has led to a cold developing into a sinus infection and I’m approaching 2 weeks of feeling under the weather (I really should start listening to Jax 🙄) Sunday was great. […]
Paddock Wood I love you!
Paddock Wood, I absolute love you. I had to rewrite that sentence and remove the expletive, that’s how much I love this race. My first visit came in 2016. I’d just completed the Hastings Half in 2 hours and 14 seconds (another expletive removed) and rocked up at PW wearing my brand new Hastings Runners […]
Round and round we go!
Over the past 4 years, I’ve run 7,878.3 miles. This took me 1,140 hours and included 276,116 feet of elevation. That’s the equivalent of 300.69 marathons. But prior to Sunday I had actually only twice crossed the finish line in a 26.2 mile race. Sticking with the stats my completion rate in marathons I’d entered […]
Hastings Runners Awards Night
I’d be surprised if there is a running club in the whole of the UK that hosts an awards night quite like that of Hastings Runners. Just to be part of the special evening is a real privilege and to watch Team Orange pick up some awards was a proud moment for myself as a […]
Canterbury Doesn’t Disappoint
6 of the team made the 47 mile trip across the county border to tackle the undulating country lanes in the Canterbury 10 miler on Sunday. My entry was heavily influenced by my desire to return to the Veg Box Cafe in the heart of the city, one of my favourite vegan eateries. More on […]
Happy New Year
My facebook post summed it up nicely, but the blog offers me a little more of an opportunity to express my gratitude to those that have supported me over the past 12 months. Let me be honest. When I referred to my cash flow troubles, it was more a case of expenditure had exceeded income […]
Close to Capacity
Here we are again. Another Monday. Another Coach Simon Blog. They come around quickly don’t they? Mondays that is? I’m sure you can’t get enough of my musings. So what has happened in the past 7 days? Well after a short break to rest my painful foot, 8 days in total, I headed out with […]
Tis the season to be injured
Ah ball bags! I class myself as extremely lucky. For the past 5 years I’ve pretty much kept injuries at bay. A recurring hip/glute pain has prevented me from completing a few marathons but it’s never stopped me running for a prolonged period of time. Is luck the right word though? Or have I just […]
These are NOT PB Conditions
As the week progressed and I ticked off the miles and split squats the excitement grew. The weather forecast for parkrun was at last favourable and many of the team would get their opportunity to attempt breaking that elusive PB. That excitement quickly turned to disbelief as I drew the blinds, early Saturday morning, to […]
I said 60 minutes
Last week started with a lot of apprehension as my own training continues to build in volume. Looking at the week ahead I was a little daunted, and combined with a hectic work schedule, I wasn’t sure if I could complete it all. Looking back I needn’t have worried. As I always state, we can […]
One at a Time
It’s Tuesday morning. I’m a little weary with a creaky back having lugged some furniture around at the weekend, without bending my knees properly (schoolboy error). I feel like I have a sore throat coming on and the week ahead is a little daunting. I’ve reached week 9 of my 20 week plan. Having rested […]
Big Mileage Weeks as the Numbers Grow
I feel great. I’m sitting in the office with the heating on, and a hot water bottle in my lap, drying out from the Tuesday morning track session that was rudely interrupted by persistent rain. “Why do we do this to ourselves?” Claire question mid session, “we are paying for this, we must be mad?” […]
Beckley and Beyond
It was a pretty uneventful week right? We had a few drops of rain to deal with and a couple of puddles to hurdle, but that’s all part of being a runner. I still feel like I’m easing my way into this coaching lark but the past 7 days have been great. The arrival of […]
Burning desire to improve
It’s burning deep down inside me. More than ever before. I want to work so hard that the tears flow after a race. I want to roar in jubilation and sing aloud like the winning European Ryder Cup team. These multi millionaire golfers never have to worry about money again, but last week they were […]
Rye to Hastings Coach Simon Blog
I can’t recall an occasion when I’ve crossed a finish line and wanted to find a dark corner, slump myself down and have a little cry. That would have been a tad dramatic though, so instead I gratefully took my water from the delightful Jacqueline and wandered around to tell the other runners how little […]
One Step Backwards
Progress is never linear. Something I’ve learned over the past 5 years and often it’s important to accept that taking a step backwards is actually a good thing. I worked my skinny little arse off over 19 weeks to run a 10k personal best this summer. I took 7 days off and was then convinced […]
BBB10k Race Report
I’ll do a weekly round up of Team Orange in a second post but just wanted to share my own experiences of the BBB10K on Sunday morning. A race I last completed in 2019 in a time of 56 minutes. Having recently achieved my PB at this distance (have I mentioned that yet?) a few […]
Kings Head Canter 2023 Race Report
It’s 7 years now since my first half marathon and my race calendar tends to have a familiar feel about it these days. So when the opportunity sprung up to run a local race I’d yet to complete, I decided to get involved. Thank you to Marie, who lists the Kings Head Canter as her […]
Week Off!!
With training plan 13 safely and successfully negotiated it was time for the hardest thing for me to do, take some time off running. A week in fact. This is something I advise to all of Team Orange at the end of training block. Do they listen? Rarely! I’m not going to pretend it’s easy, […]
Training Less Getting Faster
Before I reveal my secrets I’ll start by talking about the Barry Richards 10K. A Hastings Runners club only race held every August. In 2016, my first year as a member I ran a decent time of 53:12. 2017 I was entered to run but actually chose to stay home because my mental health that […]
Holidays Hobbles and Headlines
It’s been a while since I put pen to paper (I’m not even doing that now, but you know what I mean) and kept you updated with the latest news from PBRunner. Late July and early August is a funny time in the running calendar with races drying up a little and families taking the […]
Team Orange Continues to Grow
It’s approaching 3 months since my 3 day stint in a real job and I’m now super exciting about the future of PB Runner and Team Orange. I’ve been dividing my time between the coaching and my old business but this weekend, with the addition of two more runners I now have the confidence to […]
The Handicappers POV
Normally our experiences of running are somewhat predictable. We might turn up at our local parkrun, knowing every inch of the route, running an almost identical time to the previous week and seeing the same faces around us as we cross the finish line. The Hastings Runners Handicap Race is different. From a running perspective […]
Trust the Process
It’s been a busy, but enjoyable week so far. Full days of work on Monday & Tuesday were followed by coaching duties in the evening. On Wednesday we headed over to Eastbourne to support Hastings Runners in the last leg relays. Thursdays is my day off during the week and we had a fantastic time […]
Wet in Wonderful Woodchurch!
I’ll be honest, the Woodchurch 5 Miler wasn’t on the top of my 2023 race wish list (a list which doesn’t actually exist by the way), but with a little persuasion I was encouraged to enter. Having attempted, and failed, for a 10K PB only 36 hours earlier down at the windy Rye Harbour, my […]
Breeze? That Ain’t No Breeze
With my confidence knocked after last weeks disappointing tempo session I decided to mix things up. I was due to run a 10k threshold on Friday but with the weather forecast looking fine, I thought I’d enter the Rye 10K Summer Series instead. I spent most of my waking hours in the early part of […]
Coach Simon Blog Intro
Hey! I’ve been inspired to write more. A lovely rest day at Bateman’s has encouraged me to try and spend more time sharing my thoughts with words and not just pictures. Rudyard would be ashamed of how we choose to spend our hours, gawking at selfies and obsessing over the opinion of strangers. I can’t […]
Pacing at Hastings Half Marathon
Pacing is tough. It’s bad enough for 5k on the perfectly flat Hastings parkrun route. Try pacing around one of the most undulating half marathons in the country. But if anyone was suitable for the task, it was surely the dude that a week prior to the race wrote a km by km guide on […]
Coaching Philosophies
In this day and age we are spoilt for choice when it comes to information. There is so much knowledge to be gained through social media channels. What’s important to grasp when searching for more expert opinions to improve your running is it’s not always a case of “right or wrong”. Success can be achieved […]
