I took Christmas Day off from running for the first time in about 8 years. My main reason for usually doing this is having the route to myself in broad daylight. With the majority of my training being at night or before sunrise, the solitude aspect didn’t appeal as much as previously. I did one lap of my 7.5 mile route on Boxing Day and then the 5.4 mile route on Wednesday. Apart from being very cold, both of these efforts were uneventful.

My 7.5 miles on Friday were at a faster pace than usual. I had a tight window to fit this into between finishing work and having to collect my wife from work, normally I enjoy being in my own little world but I was surprised by how many others were out in the snow with an atrocious lack of warm clothing. The running buffs/headscarves can serve a purpose when used with other items but at least 2 other runners seemed to be putting a disproportionate...

I hate running less than usual when I feel I can run more. The start of this week was really difficult to limit myself to one loop of 5.4 miles a day. I managed to stick to this every day for Tuesday to Friday. My plan was to do 6 days but only have a long training run of 15 miles this week. I found because the weather had warmed up slightly from the last few weeks I didn’t need the extra layers and could cope with one shirt and a jacket for my top half for the midweek running. I still took gloves but left the hats at home.

My long training run yesterday didn’t start until 5.15pm. I had eaten way too much earlier in the day and generally felt lethargic the whole 15 miles! Having downloaded a Bad Boy Running podcast with Robbie Britton to listen to for the first part of this was life saving! He is a professional ultra runner who specialises in 24 hour races. The podcast theme was...

This week was a big step towards building my mileage nearer to 70 per week for the Great Glen Ultra next year. I had envisioned managing 50-60 for most of the winter months and struggling to maintain that. Although I didn’t find any of this week’s sessions draining in terms of how I felt the next day, there was an element of difficulty and suffering during several of the outings.

I don’t want this to sound like complaining and certainly appreciate the usefulness of experiencing that in training so it doesn’t seem as bad in races.

I started the week on Wednesday with 2 laps of 7.5 miles, one before and one after work. The ice underfoot was quite challenging in the morning run and I chose to run on frozen grass to the side when I was unsure of the roads. My evening run was occupied listening to a Bad Boy Running Podcast with Sean Conway. This featured him describing swimming in...

This week was really difficult to stay motivated for. I had tweaked a muscle in my back last weekend and although it wasn’t anything serious, it was just niggling enough to make me want to stay in. The weather floating around 0 degrees C for most of the week didn’t improve matters either.

I took Monday and Tuesday off and had to really force myself out the door on Wednesday morning, I only did one loop of the 5.4 mile route and enjoyed listening to the PTI podcast from the night before for the first part of this. After work me and my Dad went to see a Buxton Adventure Festival talk by Nicky Spinks with a “warm up” talk by Aleks Kashefi. I had ran a couple of races with Aleks earlier this year and followed his blogs for the last 2 years or so. My Dad having ran several marathons in the past was never going to take much talking into accompanying me!

I was determined that between both...

This week’s running was very lopsided in terms of how positive minded I was during it. My 7.5 miles on Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning were both really strong. Unfortunately the sessions for the rest of the week were considerably more arduous.

I have previous around running with less than ideal layering and being caught in hail or bitterly cold gale force winds, I had taken running gloves but left my woolly hat, surprisingly I can’t remember anything as bad in recent memory to the 7.5 miles I ran on Thursday evening, about 3 miles in I rang my gloves over the top of my head and I’m pretty certain my hair had froze. My left shoulder and neck were very cold and I was grateful for a decent hill to drive my arms a bit more going up. I wasn’t surprised when arriving home that the temperature was around 0 degrees C again.

I did the same 7.5 mile route on Saturday morning which was a...

This week’s running has been one of the best weeks in recent memory. I covered a lap of 5.4 miles each on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I then did a morning and an evening lap of the same route on Thursday and finished the week with 32.4 miles (6 laps) on Saturday and 6.4 miles with my friend Paddy today.

I used the Pardon The Interruption podcast to occupy my mind for the midweek running and spent 2.5 hours of yesterday’s run listening to the last part of day 3 of the Ashes cricket between Australia and England.

There was a certain juxtaposition about being out at 5am skating around on icy footpaths where the temperature was around 0 degrees C listening to a cricket match in the middle of an Australian summer!

The radio commentary was very compelling and I was impressed with how much of cricket ‘vernacular’ I remembered. The match was very suspenseful and I was particularly...

This week has gone by very quickly. I think because I waited until Tuesday evening for my first training run, the other sessions have felt closer together. My running outings for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all for one solitary lap of 5.4 miles each day. I had chickened out of my 5am start twice by Friday and really had to force myself out the door on Friday morning.

I neglected to take my gloves and although it was only just under an hour I’d be outside for, in terms of areas where self neglect becomes abuse, this was definitely the worst I have done in 9 years of running!! My fingers were ridiculously cold and I had to keep clenching and unclenching a fist just to keep some feeling in them.

Friday evening’s run of 5.4 miles was a godsend in comparison, having 3 layers on as well as a hat and gloves was so much easier.

I had read at the start of the week about Camille...

I started this week with a 6.4 mile run on Tuesday morning with my friend Paddy. Normally my first outing of the week is a slow recovery run but I was able to maintain parts of this at a faster pace than if I was running alone.

The rest of the week was mostly loops of the 7.5 mile route near my house. I managed to do this on Thursday morning, a morning lap and then an evening lap on Friday and two laps starting at 4am today. I also added another 6.4 mile run with Paddy to this morning’s run to keep my long training run for each week above 20 miles. I am hopeful this can build up to 36-38 miles as a long training run before the Great Glen Ultra but will settle for this for the time being.

My new audio companion was a podcast that airs every weekday evening around American sport called PTI (Pardon The Interruption). This is hyperbolic panel discussion about NBA (Basketball), NFL...

I have enjoyed my time away from writing this blog, since completing the London to Brighton 100km race at the end of May, my running subsided for a few months then I foolhardishly signed up for the Grand Tour of Skiddaw again at 5 weeks notice for the start of September. I managed to get round the 44 miles largely on residual fitness from a few months back and knowing the course from 2 years ago!

I have set 3 running goals for 2018 that are scheduled so that I can peak for the last of them.

The first of these is a race in Paris called Paris by Night. This is at the start of January and is 85km overnight. Whilst the nocturnal element of this will be a challenge, there isn’t the gradient required of other races I’ve done in the past. It is organised by one of the 50km Beer Ultra founders and I feel an obligation to finish, partly on account of the hip issue that meant I had to withdraw...

My final training runs this week were 4 mile outings on Tuesday and Thursday. It was quite hot on both days but I wasn’t remotely tired after either of them due to the steady pace I was running at.

I arrived at registration about 8:05pm on Friday night. My train from Leeds to London Kings Cross had been delayed and despite my best efforts to run from the station with all my luggage, I was unable to get there for 8pm when it as meant to close. Luckily they weren’t bothered about this and gave me all the usual pre race kit.

I arrived about 45 minutes before the start yesterday morning and dropped off my luggage to be taken to the half way point and then the finish. Apparently even if I didn’t want anything out of this at half way, I still needed to check it and ask them to take it the rest of the way?!

I had found something called the 10 commandments of endurance a few weeks ago so...