AAA 10000m

winning time will be between 28:50 and 29:10.

another darkhorse will be Ian Hudspith

dont count ward out, think he will do well. he seems to be going well except for the blip in boulder. personally i dont think he should have done it, to many races.

December week 4 and January weeks 1, 2 & 3

Sun am: 12miles steady

Sun pm: 4miles easy

Mon am: 4miles easy

Mon pm: 8miles steady

Tue: am 5miles easy

Tue: pm 2 x 2miles reps around a flat road circuit; 3min jog recovery. 4 x 1mile reps around a flat road circuit; 1min recovery

Wed: 10miles steady

Thu: 5miles easy

Thu: pm 6miles fastish run. On altnerate weeks make this a 5mile easy run

Fri: rest

Sat: am 4miles easy

Sat: pm 8 reps round a fairly hilly x/c or parkland circuit about 1000/1200m long. These reps should be fairly relaxed as the recovery time should be kept down to 30 secs

Note; on alternate weeks substitute a good quality x/c race for this session

approx 80mpw

what has happened to Mellor of late? 2 below par races? Did he race too much during March/April/May?

Almost certainly raced to much and peaked earlier in the year. How can you go from running 23:45 for 5 miles in Feb, 29:48 for 10km in March to 14:43 5km in June finishing 15th in a BMC high quality 5km it just doesnt make sense! The lad has bags of talent and can almost certainly go sub 14 min for 5km when in peak form. Maybe he has had injurys.

that manx easter festival was the icing on the cake IMO- all those races on one weekend, preceeded by races on the previous and following weekends is a schedule that even the strongest seniors would struggle with

i agree with you, the iom festival is only a few loacl races really, why bother doing that much in such a short amount of time and risk ruining the track season? a runner such as mellor or walsh for that matter because i think he was below par in the manc 10k shouldnt bother doing it!

I still think Mellor can pull himself together if he has a few weeks without racing and can recover a little. I still wouldn't be surprised to see him come out and run 29:30 at Watford if he runs.

Incidently, are the fields for the 10k looking a little deeper now? What are Rileys plans this year, how did he look pacing on Saturday?

shhhh wrote:

Geele shudnt run the AAA champs as it is the UK championships and he is a 30 odd year old african- so i dont understand why he is getting "bigged" up? He's running well but as a full time- funded african athlete is that a real suprise?

who is Geele funded by? cant see how he can get funding of uka as hes not elligable to run for GB?

bmc manchester wrote:

I still think Mellor can pull himself together if he has a few weeks without racing and can recover a little. I still wouldn't be surprised to see him come out and run 29:30 at Watford if he runs.

Incidently, are the fields for the 10k looking a little deeper now? What are Rileys plans this year, how did he look pacing on Saturday?

not saying its impossible but is certainly a tough ask for him to follow what he did saturday to and pull out a 29.30 in a couple of weeks time if he does decide to run.

Mellor is very talented and was flying from Jan to Apr. I dont want to repeat the bmc manchester 5k thread but running under 14 minutes is not that easy. He wouldnt be the first person to struggle to transfer road running to the track. Personally I think he was too ambitious and raced too agressively too early and suffered for it. He certainly wasnt the only one! I dont think there is any any problem and I think if he raced well could go under 30 min at Watford.

think Mellor, Beattie, Vernon and Thewlis will break 30 at Watford. Vernon about 29:20 if he runs. The others in the 29:30-29:59 area.

why are so many giving Watford a miss this year?

see no reason for either thewlis or vernon to run it if they are selected for the 5000 at under 23s!

Given that there are currently 4 qualifiers (Vernon, Thewlis, Watts & Lancashire) and 3 spaces then it might be in their interests to run it.

vernon will win the AAAu23s no doubt therefore will not need to run the 10,000 2 weeks beofre the europeans

Watts went off the boil late in the US season. It might be tough for him to run with the likes of Vernon at the trials. Lancashire will probably go for the 1500 or even the 800. Probably a bit late in the year for him to run another 5k realistically- he ran that 13:56 in late March

Just to let everyone know as there seems an interest Jon Mellor will not be running any 10k on the track this year. The aim was to have a go at a 5k with the hope of making the European u23's. That might seem ambitious after what happened last Saturday and given how well the likes of Vernon and Thewlis ran.However, Jon was ill at the time of the Manchester 10k and before that had a slight knee injury. It could be that he still wasn't 100%. Certainly Jon and myself were hoping for a time in the 14:20's. That would be a 30second improvement on his track p.b. 14 minutes might have to wait until next year.

He will be running the AAA u23's 5k at Bedford and we wait to see if there is improvement on his BMC run.After that he will be reverting back to running 1,500s for the rset of the track season.

i think ward and skinner have a chance, but i would go with Ford to win given his pedigree over 10km at track, he has been are best u23 at the event for a while and hopefully he can fufill his potential and get a senior title. Wasnt he top 5 in the european u23 a few yrs ago?