Mental strategies for marathon running

From a talk by Dr Tim Holder at St Mary's University 30/1/2011 for UKA

Tim started by emphasising that successful marathon running is an exercise in managing pain. The next few entries to this blog will explore this position in more depth. If you are taking part in a distance race it is hoped this advice can help you and you can try some of the tips in training.

During a marathon all runners at some point will experience physical and mental strain and pain. By accepting this and having effective strategies with which to cope can help an athlete achieve their goals for the race. In this and the next blog entry, I'll outline advice to use during training on goal setting to help motivate athletes and how to use coping strategies to reach their potential on race day. Evidence across a range of sports has shown effective goal setting can have a positive impact come race day. On the flip side, unrealistic or poor goal setting has been shown to lead to a runner feeling disappointed with their performance at the finish if they miss their goal/s.

Tim cited Paula Radcliffe, who motivates herself for races by aiming to run faster than she's ever done previously before each race. However, that is only one type of goal that you can use to help you.

Such a goal is described as outcome oriented. In sport, there are 3 kinds of goal that can be set. These are outcome, performance and process goals. An outcome goal is a comparison against another, e.g. "I am going to beat Haile Gebrselassie." For a competitive athlete like Radcliffe, this is a powerful motivating force. However, for the majority of runners in a marathon, aiming to beat a particular foe (or friend!) can be very negative if unfulfilled. Research has shown outcome goals provoke greater anxiety, as they are both uncontrollable and potentially unrealistic - as my example about beating Gebrselassie shows!

What has been shown as healthier to concentrate on are performance and process goals. These are both in the control of the individual. A performance goal is a comparison to an absolute measure. In marathon most often this will be a time an athlete is aiming to achieve. However, these can be unrealistic and can be 'all or nothing' in the mind of the competitor which can lead to anxiety. The best way to use these goals is to use different measures of performance to motivate you for a race situation. So rather than aiming for a 4 hour finish, Tim recommended:

A 'should goal': What you expect to do as a minimum
A 'could goal': When a time comes together (e.g. a personal best)
A 'just might' goal: The ideal scenario

In my case for London I'm aiming to improve on my PB of 3:27. So taking Tim's advice as an example:

My should goal is: 3:30
My could goal is: 3:25
My just might goal is: 3:20

Though my training is going well, I didn't get to do as much pre-training before Christmas, so I'm being realistic with my goal setting. If I finish with 3:29:59 then I'll be happy, despite this being slower than my PB - given my conditioning. Beyond that, my satisfaction will increase with every minute I take off that finish time.

To reach these performance goals, an athlete can enhance their running with process goals. These are specific aspects of your overall performance that fall under individual control. Your posture, cadence, strategies for dealing with fatigue (e.g. attention), pacing and building up mental strength can all be practiced and built up through training.

Given the 3 months required to train, not only should you try and work at your speed, distance and physical conditioning, training runs should be used to sharpen up mental strategies in preparation for race day. If you've prepared well mentally through training, come race day, whatever scenario might occur (from bad weather, to other runners, having a 'bad day' in the race, physical discomfort or whatever), you have a repertoire that can be drawn upon.

In my entry tomorrow, I will outline specific mental strategies you can implement as your weekly mileage goes up, to help you get to an optimal level of performance come race day.

What is the difference between Sport Psychology & Coaching?

This post should probably have appeared at the very beginning when I started this blog 3 years ago. Back then, I was a raw first time marathoner, blogging my experience, nowhere near the worlds of sport psychology or coaching.

Over time I've refined what I write to cover sport psychology concepts and advice about coaching - tied into my experience as I've developed my practice with athletes in both fields. Crucially (and wrongly) I've taken for granted that everyone who reads this understands what I'm talking about!

So, to be absolutely clear, I'm going to use this post to define both, explain the similarities and differences between the disciplines and where the work of the two professions overlaps. I've shot an interview with Dr Tim Holder of St Mary's University in which he explains how the work of sport psychologists has altered working with coaches over the last 20 years in the United Kingdom.

But first, the definitions.

What does an athletics coach do? According to the good people at Wikipedia, Coaching:

"...is the practice of supporting an individual, referred to as a client, through the process of achieving a specific personal or professional result." I had to use this definition, for when I looked at the UKA website (the body who administers coaching in the UK), it didn't have a definition I could use here!

What does a Sport Psychologist do? and how does this differ to coaching? One of my heroes in the field, Dr Mark Anderson of Victoria University (AU) says in his book'Doing Sport Psychology (Chapter 1 p.6):

“My job is to talk to athletes about how things are going for them to see if there are ways we can work together to make their athletic involvement more enjoyable...to help with some of the mental aspects of training and competition.” Not much different from a coach right? Indeed, Doherty (1976) says “Not all the successful coaches I have known have been effective teachers of techniques, but with no exceptions, all have been effective on this human side of the coaching coin.” But coaches have to do more than teach techniques. They have to motivate their athletes, build team cohesion, goal set, and assist in things that are clearly psychological (Brewer, 2000). 

As Anderson and Brewer point out though, coaches have to be careful being sport psychologists as there may be a conflict of interest if they are simultaneously trying to help for both performance and clinical reasons. That is not to say that sport psychologists work solely on clinical issues (e.g. recovering from injury, retiring from competition, overcoming eating disorders, dealing with depressed or anxious athletes), though some do. More that coaches can't cover everything that their multidisciplinary role requires – e.g. they can advise on stretching/warm up as a physio would, but a physio can advise in greater depth as part of a multi-disciplinary coaching team. Ergo, a good sport psychologist can get to know an athlete in more depth about their motivation, their mental strength, anxieties and goals in a way a coach may not be able to.

In short, Anderson advocates letting coaches get on with enhancing their relationship with an athlete to aid their performance and achieve their 'overall coaching objectives', and allow access for sport psychologists to work with athletes to help the athlete understand about themselves and their (mental) strengths, enhance their mental skills, and where necessary, intervene in clinical issues as anyone would in a 'normal' therapeutic relationship.

The British Psychological Society (the organisation with whom I am an accredited probationary sport psychologist) outlines the following ways in which sport psychologists work: "Sport psychologists work with individuals, teams, and organisations in a wide range of contexts including:"

• Helping elite performers to develop preparation strategies to deal with the demands of competition and training
• Applying research into motor learning and psychophysiological processes to maximise practice and fitness regimes
• Assisting coaches, managers, and referees with enhancing their interpersonal and communication skills
• Counselling injured athletes during their rehabilitation

Where do sport psychologists do their work? "Some sport psychologists work as private consultants, or hold full-time positions with professional sports teams or national governing bodies of sport, but most combine their consultancy work with teaching and research in University departments." This is the area in which I am trying to move in my career.

To give you an example of what a 'real' sport psychologist does, I was kindly helped by Tim Holder of St Mary's University, who explained how the relationship between sport psychologists and coaches has developed over the last 20 years in the UK. I also asked him how the field is changing and what he is doing with the Endurance Performance and coaching centre at St Mary's University.

The goal of the centre is to "create a performance environment within which athletes are able to live and train together in high quality groups, whilst also offering a variety of educational opportunities.” At St Mary's student athletes train alongside international level athletes who use the facilities as their training base train and obtain support from coaches, nutritionists, sport psychologists, bio-mechanists and physiologists. Thus a multi-disciplinary team can help optimise the whole athletic experience. This is an approach that is on the increase, as described by Alberto Salazar with the US endurance teams use of a sport science team in the US's training for major competition.

Tim gives some interesting insights into the work he has done and how the work of coaches and sport psychologists has evolved. [Forgive the filming squashing Tim into the middle of the screen - this was my first attempt at filming via a phone for the blog!]. Afterwards I asked Tim, "Whats your view on Sport Psychologists conducting coaching as well? What warnings, from experience, would you give?"

Tim Holder: "From my experience sport psychologists can bring a great deal to a coaching situation particularly if they have a skill acquisition background as well. The only issue that can emerge is if you have a dual role as coach and sport psychologist - it is important then to be clear as to which role you are in (or which hat you are wearing) as expectations and responsibilities are clearly different."

This agrees with Mark Anderson's view, particularly for the sport psychologist who also coaches. Personally, I have spent the last six months coaching using some sport psychology techniques in the process (mainly addressing anxiety issues in athletes, and working on athlete confidence and preparation for competition). This is partly because I have been in training for coaching qualifications. Also I have been learning under the tutelage of head coaches at an athletics club and my role has been to support them coaching. Within this work (using the experience I have from my sport psychology training) I bring the appropriate level of psychology to enhance athlete performance. But fundamentally what I bring to all my work with clients, and at the core of my work, is care for the athlete. This covers the approach you take with the person, how you view them and their athletic potential, and ensuring that confidentiality and insurance are adhered to.

In the next blog I will be passing on advice from Tim to endurance runners (predominantly, but not exclusively around marathon) from the UKA open day about mental strategies to help in training and races. I hope you found this post helpful and I welcome any questions or feedback.

UKA Training Tips for Marathons - St Mary's Uni 30/1/2011

Speaker: Mick Woods (UKA Endurance Performance Coach to Stephanie Twell and Charlie Purdue)

Throughout Mick emphasised the importance of preparation for the marathon event, from the beginning of training, to the day itself. Having competed in over 70 marathons himself, including the first ever London Marathon in 1981, he had experience as both a coach and as a runner.

Mick emphasised the need for Marathon runners to have an endurance base from which to build. In an ideal situation, you will have a good 6 months of running before the day of your marathon. The building of a base level occurs by running increasing distances over 3 months prior to starting marathon training. Ideally this then leads straight into the beginning of the 16 week Marathon training cycle. At the beginning of the 16 week build up to the Marathon event, you should add in more speedwork than you have been doing already.

If you have run a marathon in the previous year, your body will have adapted so that you won't have to go back to the same training plan and level of mileage/effort that you did previously. At the 3 month point (16 weeks before race day) you should begin your full plan, the likes of which can be found online and in Runners World.

We were then shown a chart devised by Jeff Galloway (1981) which Mick deemed the most accurate guide to the amount of weekly miles an athlete should be completing to reach a desired target time in the 16 week cycle:

3 hours - 45 to 55 miles/week

3 hours 10 - 40 to 50 miles/week

3 hours 20 - 38 to 48 miles/week

3 hours 30 - 35 to 45 miles/week

4 hours - 30 to 40 miles/week

So: In the case of a runner aiming for 3 hours 30, they should start their first of 16 weeks at around the 30 miles per week total mileage, and then build up to covering just over 45 in their biggest week. For all, the longest run should be about 25% of your total mileage. Before anyone says anything, I know this means that if our 3 hour 30 runner did 22 miles as their longest run, in theory this would mean they would cover 88 miles in total! Obviously this shouldn't be attempted. Instead, the role of quality running was emphasised, and so (in this case) the other 27 miles should be made up of speed/tempo work, maybe a hill run, and a steady run. Certainly by the time of taper core work should be much more prominent than at week 1 of the cycle. See my blog post for Alberto Salazar's views of using weights during marathon training.

Mick then gave us the golden answer to a question I'm often asked as a coach.

"At what speed should I run my long runs?!'

Answer: You should maintain a steady pace throughout and run 30 to 60 seconds SLOWER than your target time marathon pace.

e.g. If you want 3 hours 30, you need to run 8 minute miles in the race. In your long runs you should keep your speed between 8.5 and 9 minute mileing.

I'll put my hand up and say that for the last year I have been running my long runs at the same speed I race. This year I will follow this advice. However, in the last half hour, see if you can up your speed on a regular basis. I am also ignoring my new coaches advice to only run for 2 hours maximum prior to race day. I think it a foolish approach in retrospect.

"How long should your longest run (of the whole 16 weeks) be?"

Answer: About as long as your intended time (with a margin taken off).

e.g. If you are aiming for 3.20, you should run for about 3 hours on your longest run. Use this as a guide for your longest training runs. The importance of the time on your feet is that you should fully experience the physical and mental conditions of what it feels like for that length of time near to the race (however experienced you may be). Once you've done your longest run, then really really rest in your taper!

Many examples were given of good runners who couldn't resist the urge, with all their training under their belts, and with their engines 'revving', going out and either doing too long a run in the 3 week taper, or too fast in a speed session during this rest time.

A few extra tips:

Throughout training:

1) Monitor your weight. If you lose a lot, then you may be depleting your glycogen levels which you will need to ease past to 'the wall' in the race.

2) Make sure you take iron, vitamins C and D supplements - particularly in the taper as your immune system will be recovering from your max milling the week before and thus susceptible to sniffles/illness.

3) Within your 20 mile runs, include at least 1 race.

If you are over 3 hours in your projected time, aim to run your 20 mile race at just under marathon pace but faster than your normal long run. If you feel comfortable and able to in a 20 mile race, go at marathon pace in the last 20 to 30 minutes to build in speed as well as stamina.

If you are sub 3 hours, aim to run it just a bit faster than marathon pace.

Notes from UKA Endurance Conference 2010

Pretty much for those with an interest/Coaches only. Great advice from a star studded panel. For anyone coaching over 3000m this was all really good stuff. Email me for any more detail.

UKA Endurance Conference 2010 Q & A – Croydon Park Hotel 15 August 2010

Panel: Chaired by Tim Hutchings

Terrence Mahon (TM) – Coach to Deena Kashor (Winner 2004 Olympic Marathon, Athens) and runs the high altitude 'Mammoth Lakes'

Ricky Simms (RS) – Agent and coach to elite Kenyan Athletes

Alberto Salazar (AS) – 3 time winner of the New York Marathon, based in Portland, runs the Nike Oregon Institute. Coach to Karen and Adam Goucher, Dathan Ritzenheim and Galan Rupp.

The Talk consisted of 4 key areas:

1) The perceived role of economic motivation in adherence training and subsequent impact on results

2) Successful examples of training cycles used by athletes

3) The role of biomechanics in successful running

4) Sport Psychology and the role of coaches in developing athletes

1) Tim Hutchings asked the panel to comment on how coaches from the Western World should respond to the success of Kenyan and African runners over the last 20 years.

TM said that though talent plays a role in the success of the best runners, in the West, Science can be used to benefit athletes that is not possible for most of the Kenyan athletes. A shift in thinking was required by European/American Athletics to not try and compete with Kenyan runners by copying verbatim their training regimens, but instead to utilise the resources available here to tailor to athletes lifestyles here which are different to Kenyans. Everyone agreed that working 'regular hours' was more of a necessity to Western based athletes, whereas sport, and running in particular was a 'way out' for the Kenyans, and thus seen as more of a motivating factor over the last 20 years. Using science was seen as a way of giving Western based athletes a more equal footing with Kenyan runners timewise.

The role of recovery was cited as an example of the differences between the 2 sets of runners. We all know recovery is crucial to balance training loads. A lot of Kenyan runners are able to complete 2 runs a day, and take a midday nap, some even sleep 18 hours in a day! AS stated how with College level athletes he pushes them hard to nap to allow their bodies to recover. A privilege that once out of University, the athletes may lose. It was said that rest and recovery had to be adhered to in as disciplined a fashion as training runs.

The conversation shifted to training cycles. Again, the Kenyans were referred to, often undertaking long runs on a Saturday so Sunday can be a day of rest, with the country being more traditionally Christian. The panellists then spoke about how they conduct their training cycles.

2) TH stated the need for repetitive cycles throughout a 14 to 16 week cycle. RS stated that as a maximum he would allow 3 hard sessions a week. (And insist on at least 1 full rest day every 3 weeks – preferably more).

Alberto Salazar then spoke about what a typical two week cycle looked like for his athletes:

In week 1: Never run a total of more than 100 miles/week. Highlights from a week would look like this:

Tuesday: 6 to 7 mile tempo run (4.50 mileing) run on grass. Followed by 150s/200s on grass. This to be run in the morning, and then either straight after or later in the afternoon, and a weight session (more of which later)

Wednesday: Due to effort exerted on the day before, have a complete rest day

Thursday: 8 x 200 m hill session & 200s on the track

Saturday: 6 x 1 (4.25 minute mileing each rep)

Sunday: No long run – just something light, then:

Monday: A long run

Wednesday and Friday: Hard efforts (exactly what unspecified)

Then every week 3 x weight training for both upper and lower body strength

I) The role of weight training (it was noted that a weak point of the Kenyans training was weights and that a lot of their athletes state this is their least favourite bit of training and some actively try to get out of it).

Traditionally runners would undertake a session of 3 x 12 reps of body weights

But scientific thinking is much more about undertaking a lower volume of reps, but doing quality instead.

TM said that he is finding good results from lots of work on snatches, cleans and squats, progressively increasing as athletes age. Also undertaking hill sprints, plyos and gym work to help supplement explosive power. He said that he had managed (in his opinion) to prolong Deena's career by keeping the power in her weight work – she competed at 3 successive Olympics.

AS agreed with Mahon – Less reps, more quality, and light weights progressively increasing. To build strength, you have to build more weight and use bigger weights as the Athletes career gets nearer its conclusion. Currently he is working with Michael Johnson's trainer to use similar weight training programmes as sprinters, which goes against traditional distance running training thought.

ii) Periodization. Typically athletes in the low season do low intensity and high volume, increasing to higher intensity and lower volume in the main part of the season. Again, the Kenyans were cited as working at their training all year, working to a higher intensity throughout.

AS said that now in America, similarly his athletes were working at speed and doing short work all year.

e.g. Running 200m in 25, 26, 27 seconds in November onwards, building up to 24, 23 seconds in June (in time for the season). He used the expression “microcycles of peaking for March to August.” It was said that he found the more dramatic changes to peoples cycles through a year, the more likely people would get injured hence keeping cycles more similar help prevent injury better.

He described the concept of Date Pace and Goal Pace:

Date Pace: the majority of intervals (4.20/4.30 min mileing)

Goal Pace: 30 seconds for 200m x 8

And how in the off season (Sep to Nov) he would train athletes at 65s for 400m, next train athletes at 50% goal pace/50% date pace and at peak 400m at 60 seconds.

In addition always take off 3 to 4 weeks a year, then come back to running by doing 3 weeks of easy jogging before picking up the training as described.

3) Biomechanics Great insight again by TM and AS on the importance of biomechanics. Fundamentally, AS believes Biomechanics is the number 1 important thing to get right through an athletes career. Its important to get right as after about 23/24 years old it is very difficult to make changes or advances in an athletes biomech or gait. So it is crucial to get right early. TM made a very good point that changing the biomechanics of a runner was a difficult task, as by altering one aspect of their running there is most likely a knock on effect elsewhere in their skeletal structure. So he warned coaches to be wary of making changes without keeping an eye out for possible problems elsewhere.

4) Sport Psychology

TM spoke about motivating athletes to keep them at a consistent standard and how they could stay level headed about success and achievement. He always advocates young athletes to be the best they can be. To avoid focussing too hard on equating personal success with medals, placing, titles. You have to use an individuals growth through their career as a motivating factor. AS agreed that you have to instil that the greatest joy is in improving yourself, not the outcome. Thus Performance and Process Goals > Outcome goals. ADVICE: Emphasise the joy of improving the self and as the athlete gets better, the medals and accolades will follow.

He said how many good athletes drop out an early age as they go from being the best in their area to 3rd or 4th in bigger districts or national level. But this is not a bad thing, as it gives athletes something to work towards. A few poor results often leaves these kind of athletes thinking they've peaked and not continuing.

A lady in the audience who trained a bronze level Olympic athlete agreed. She cited how she says to young athletes under her tutelage, that athletics ability varies like a waveform and is not linear. This she works into her goal setting with them and in the expectations of their parents who often see achievement solely as exponential. As athletes grow, the role of rest is also necessary to emphasise as many British athletes seem to worry they have to be training all the time and would do better with longer recoveries.

TM said that if an athlete goes off form, he often says to them that they should get back the 'fun' reasons for why they started in the first place. He'll ask them:

“Why isn't running fun any more?”

“Tell me what you were doing when you enjoyed running most” - he called this the 'return to innocence' and is the way to get runners back to a good standard – being the best they can be.

AS said that for both young people (12. 13, 14) and Kenyan runners, they see running as fun, and as a coach, you can help by making training sessions varied, do different exercise other than just running. By doing this RS said that Kenyan runners seem more adept at changing their Pbs across different distances more easily than their Western counterparts. Also, Kenyan runners are able to cope to setbacks of bad runs or performances better. Put a bad result into context and get on with the next race. Also Kenyan runners trust their coaches more (on the whole) and do what they are told to do with less fuss. The importance of relationship between coach and athlete is what drives their success forward. The athletes trust their coach more and get greater rewards. So as a coach build rapport and trust with your athlete. Don't just look to improve performance.

Finally, AS made some great points about his work with Sport Psychologist Darren Treasure in their work with US athletes. They room together and the team know the role of the coach and the sport psychologist so that if they have a specific problem in one of these areas, they can talk to the relevant person, in confidence, to help them. Both professionals respect each other and allow the different individuals to offload, work with them and advise their charges to utilise both services. Where Salazar says 'talk to the SP' and an athlete asks why? he'll say “well if I bought in an amazing conditioning coach who could improve your times, would you use their services?”

UK Athletics Elite Endurance Training Day - Mile End 25/1/2010

So again, a while since I last wrote on the blog. I've got about 10 pieces of work to write up for Sport Psychology accreditation in the next few weeks, which is taking up more of my time. But thought I'd stick up my write up of my day's workshop at UK Athletics Endurance Training day this Sunday as it was so inspiring and broad enough to be of interest to many.

I snuck in as a coach at my club and claiming my Sport Psych credentials. Talking to the group of elite standard runners and coaches from the South-East was Bud Baldaro (above) and Bruce Tulloh. In their field of Endurance coaching in the UK over the last 30 years, the two of them have plenty to be proud of. Bud is the UK Athletics Marathon Coach, who has coached Olympians, Commonwealth medallists and World champions. Whilst Bruce coached Mike Boit, a Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist at 800m and the African record holder for the Mile, and Richard Nerurkar who was Britain's leading distance runner in the Nineties. Richard won the World Cup Marathon in 1993. Not only that, Bruce himself broke the record for running from Los Angeles to New York in 1969 running 3000 miles in just under 65 days, reducing the previous record by 8 days. His last serious marathon was completed in 2hrs 47 in London, 1994, at the age of 58. He’s quite a remarkable character!

From a Sport Psychology point of view, Bruce believed that the key to coaching a distance athlete’s success was through tuning into their individual motivation. He felt this should be done by setting successive goals over time, varying training regime and setting different periodisation through the year. He offered good advice about how coaches should build young runners up, from their late teens, through University or higher education using mainly interval work, before upping their mileage totals in their early twenties.

Bud also concurred that at the point in life when top University athletes in the UK leave University (or return from countries such as the US where they have received great coaching) juggling the commitments of full time work and pushing on to the next level of running and achievement is difficult to manage. However, both believed that as successful UK distance runners in the 80s and 90s had shown, the talent within the country exists.

In Bud's opinion, when I asked him his views on Sport Psychology and what the most important mental aspect of coaching was, he stated it was building up a runner’s confidence. This should be done through soft skills, one to one with athletes, that naturally varies given an individual's nature and temperament, level of experience, and how a coach brings them along in a season and career. For instance, he cited that sticking a developing athlete into the London Marathon as one of their first races would be counterproductive. This is because it is likely they would come further down the field to elite athletes for whom the race is prestigious and where they may have had prior experience. This could dent a young athlete's confidence and subsequent results in later races.

Instead, he thought it better to identify a less well known marathon in mainland Europe where a top finish was more likely early in a runner's career. "Following up" with athletes was seen as crucial by Bud. He said he thought the current system lets down young athletes as they transition through their career, and it is the support team around them, under the guidance of coaches that helps determine runner’s success, both immediately after races and through each season.

Both Bud and Bruce made reference to the success of Kenyan runners. Peter McHugh from Victoria Park Harriers gave an impassioned talk about his recent trip to some training facilities there. All highlighted the benefit of group training amongst runners of similar ability (regardless of club affiliation) and how matching runners of similar, or slightly better standard against each other, raised the quality of all. The stats produced for 'average' Kenyan runners were staggering. From their finish times across different distances, to the level of their training facilities (or lack of them - running on dirt tracks, up to 300 runners at one time), to their stamina (running up to 3 times a day) and using sheer mountain tracks to test their strength.

Overall, it was a fantastic day. In my formal write up I'll include more stats on what was recommended, so if you are a distance runner yourself you can benefit from the knowledge shared on the day. Please email or message me if you want more info.

Put to the sword in Rome

Last night saw my beloved United of Manchester lose a game that many had them down to win. However, Barcelona, my favourite Spanish side and much better version of the team I used to see at Camp Nou, dominated a United team that despite a promising opening 10 minutes were made to look average at times. I was sure as the game went on, that the experience of the United manager (40 odd trophies won in his career) and players could and should have influenced proceedings, but it wasn't to be. Novice manager, Pep Guardiola picked up the Champions league trophy to add to the La Liga and Copa del Rey. Barça played with verve and comfortably ran out winners in the end.

When your team, or any team for that matter, have been very good and consistent, it is strange watching them come off second best. But that’s what happened. Ferguson has been noted as gracious in defeat, but then he can't be much else. When asked if the loss would affect his or the teams desire last night, the offending journalist was given short shrift. The manager will take on board the way Barça operate beyond what he had done already in the pre-match build up, and as someone said on one of the Guardian message boards: if anyone can embrace any change it's probably Fergie.

One thing that does bode well for football next year is this. With Liverpool feeling they will want to come out and make up for second place in the league, and United wanting to avenge last night in Rome, motivation of those teams should provide another interesting season to all.

Down to Earth & Google maps

So I now have been back 2 weeks exactly from my trip. It is 6 months to the day of my birthday (and is indeed my Grandfathers birthday today). And 4 months, 6 days from when I made the decision, whilst watching Radiohead on a sunny night in June, to go away for the summer.

Someone asked me the other day if I missed travelling since my return, but going back to University the week afterwards has taken away any opportunity to dwell. But I've made use of the time, seen my nearest and dearest, celebrated my Grandmas 90th birthday, and got stuck into the next thing I'm turning my hand to do and enjoying.

But I thought I'd take the time to tie off the last bits of whats been an amazing time by throwing a few stats to those interested and thanking one or two folk.

A few people have asked - where did you actually go? Well, click here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2314601
and you can see my route!

Using Googles Pedometer, it shows that I covered 3332.19 miles overland and sea (not including journeying to and from my start and end point). The equivalent flight between Palermo and Berlin would emit 0.228 tonnes of CO2. From what I can tell I probably have emitted more than that with the different journey route I took as I've gone so far out of the way than a plane would have. But one thing I have discovered is that there isn't a carbon footprint calculator readily available to track a journey on multiple modes of transport. If you know of one, I'd love to be able to try and see what I racked up in terms of footprint.

It is a bit galling to think I may well of caused more pollution, as that negates what I originally set out to do. But next year I'll travel to Spain on a more equivalent route by train and it'll be interesting to see what the difference is then.

The map and the distance covered doesn't tell the story though. One of the things I've taken from doing this is what the senses saw and the incremental differences along the way. The change in landscape, terrain, soil, people, language, currencies, history, crops growing, climate, architecture, among many things.

12 different countries were visited in 44 days. And in that time I slept in hotels, hostels, peoples couches, trains, boats, tents, and twice, on the ground, outside in a sleeping bag. Not bad going but never dull. I felt big highs, occasional lows and the odd upset stomach! A month by the sea, in the sunshine and away from a pretty awful British summer, I hope will get me through cold winter nights this winter.

Just to add that thanks to all who mailed, called, those that I met and stayed with en route. In particular Carlo in Palermo, Ben and Tamsin from Electric Elephant, Fi in Korcula, Kasia in Poland, Szylvia in Berlin, Mark in Belgrade, Raluca and John in Bucharest, Dirk in Tunisia, Simon and Matthieu in Krakow and most of all to Dan Radford and GG for geeing me up enough in the first place to get me to go. Right. Now to get that Masters!

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