I’m still here…
I haven’t blogged for a few days but I am still here. It is funny - once you miss a couple of days it is really hard to get back on your blogging horse again.
I went for a great run on Sunday night and played an hour of 5-a-side football on Monday. I am feeling generally fitter - I recover faster and don’t find it as hard to get my second wind.
I now feel as if the stomach bug I had last week is finally out of my system - the last two or three runs I’ve done I have felt like being sick the whole time during it. The only way to stop yourself being sick while running is to concentrate on your breathing pattern - even if you have to do this for 30 or 40 minutes. The technique I use is to take one breath in and two breaths out. By blowing all the air out of your lungs you are able to train the whole of your chest rather than just the top bit. This forces you to take a deep breath and really load up on oxygen. You may sound a bit like a bloody steam train as you are running past people - but hey you can’t have everything.
I have been doing 5K runs in the last week rather than 10K runs because I’ve been feeling sick the whole time. Because of this I’ve tried to increase my speed - which has been pretty effective - I had a new personal best for 5K after each run. The Nike+ with my iPod rewards you with a special message from Paula Radcliffe or Lance Armstrong. Cheesy as fuck but it makes you feel like a hero in your own little world 
Cheers, Mark