This week has taken ages to finally finish. I don’t tend to like taper weeks as I have to trust in the training I have done and come to terms with the fact that what mileage I cover over the 2-3 weeks won’t add anything to the endurance I’ve tried to build up over the preceding 5 months. There is a positive and a negative side to this, while it can take some pressure off knowing that pace won’t really matter and you only need to cover around half the miles of other weeks, the feeling of doing something constructive towards your ability to finish isn’t quite the same from resting and slowing the pace than you get from big training runs or high mileage weeks.

I stuck very rigidly to the training plan and only covered the advised distance in each of the 4 sessions. This was difficult as I wanted to run on each of the 3 rest days but managed to avoid doing so. My midweek runs of 5.4 and...

I had a largely positive outlook at the start of this week, my training plan only called for a total of 35 miles throughout the week with a long run of 18 miles. My first two training runs on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings should have been 5 and 7, but ended up only being 5.4 and 4 miles. My legs felt like they were stuck in cement for both of these. This should have been a sign of things to come!

I managed to do another of the 5.4 mile loops on Friday evening which was slightly more tolerable. I had an unorthodox way to overtake someone a few weeks back at the bottom of a hill, to avoid running onto the road and towards traffic, I had ran onto a slant where a grass verge led up to a car park which was above the pavement to the left and had ran along a brick wall for about 30 metres that was about 5 foot high.

Being a bit of a man-child, I used this as something to look forward to...

This week was a pleasant change from the previous few in terms of feeling less pressure than those with long training runs at the end and also being able to switch off for larger parts of these than I usually can.

I started the week with a 7.5 mile run on Monday and managed to repeat this for the next 2 days. I was able to settle into the run for the majority of each of these outings.

Thursday morning was an aberration and I couldn’t get anywhere near comfortable for any part of the same 7.5 mile run. I had ran slightly faster than usual on Wednesday and my legs were heavy as well as my calves locking out with cramp.

I managed to do the 7.5 mile route twice on Friday. The first of these in the morning was the best I have found in ages. I had read some quotes about escapism on Thursday evening and came across one that seemed to have the desired effect.

I managed the evening...

This was a nice gentle recovery week once I’d got Tuesday’s effort out of the way. I was staying near the Berwyn mountains on a family holiday and had avoided going up any of it for the past 4 days! Starting the week with a 6 mile trail run including a mountain summit of 827m was never going to be easy but the route I found was comically steep at the start. I took my GPS watch out with me but it was reduced to just being a heart rate monitor due to lack of signal. This was useful as I noticed my HR was up above 190 bpm very early into this run so held off a bit. I had a good idea of the route and managed to persevere through about 3 false summits to finally reach the top of Moul Sych.

I was very cautious on my descent and managed to follow the trail back to where I had parked. Luckily the goats were keen to move out of my way as I managed to pick up something resembling speed near...

I picked the Relentless Forward Progress 100km plan for 2 reasons, the first was that it was 24 weeks long so I wouldn’t have to extend a shorter plan, the other was that the longest training run was “only” 31 miles.

Knowing I had done training runs of 34 miles twice in preparation for the Grand Tour of Skiddaw was a big confidence boost before starting this but it was still in the back of my mind that I had the finished the last few miles of both of those on the treadmill rather than in the woods. This may seem trivial but there’s a big difference between keeping moving on a machine that propels forward and forcing your legs to keep going when remaining where you are is infinitely more appealing!

I started this week with 2 laps of the 5.4 mile route on Tuesday and Wednesday, . These served no other purpose than bulking out the weekly mileage around my big run on Thursday.

The goal...

This week only consisted of 4 training days, but they all were productive and aimed towards covering distance at different times of day.

I did 2 laps of the 5.4 mile route on Tuesday at 7am and 8pm. I then repeated this on Thursday. On Friday morning I did another 2 laps at 7am . These were all routine and I didn’t feel out of my comfort zone for any parts of them. I wanted to make sure I had something that got me out of this today, although I have a very long run planned for next week so didn’t want it to take away from my training then. After my alarm went off at 5:30am, I was able to have plenty of time for my run.

I have a small disillusion about running in Manchester due to the flat nature of most of the routes I seem to do. To combat this, I decided to go to Hollingworth Lake in Rochdale and run from there up to Blackstone Edge then back round. According to my research this...

I started this week with a lap of the 7.5 mile route on Wednesday evening, This was then followed up with the same route on Thursday and Friday. I had a bit of a time constraint on Friday which meant I ran slightly faster than usual. Considering most of my running recently has been at a consistent pace, it was nice to be able to speed up and have my heart work a bit faster for a change!

My weekend running was difficult but I managed to reach the weekly total suggested on the Relentless Forward Progress plan I’m trying to follow.

On Saturday morning I had disregarded a hole in my right sock which would have covered my little toe, this then rubbed against the inside of my newish trail shoes and I realised I had a small cut after my first lap of 7.5 miles. This was quite frustrating because it had started to bother me only about 3 miles into the route. I covered the cut with vaseline...

I planned to start this week with a 7.5 mile run on Tuesday morning and was peacefully meandering along just after 5am and didn’t notice a branch/log that was on the pavement which I then tripped over. Falling in woods is one thing, soft ground and branches don’t tend to hurt, this was something else entirely. My hand was bruised and bleeding as well as my right leg stinging and refusing to bend the way I needed it to! I was about 2 miles away from my flat when this happened and instead of turning round with my tail between my legs and hobbling home, I ground my teeth and gingerly finished the other 5.5 miles.

I didn’t feel remotely like running again until Friday lunchtime. I decided to try a steady lap of the 5.4 mile route. There was a pleasant element to this in that while my fall had damaged my knee and palm, it had also killed off my running shoes so my new ones had arrived. My...

I was pleased to manage a steady 5.4 mile run on Monday night. I try to not go more than 48 hours without running and this kept that up following on from the 50k Beer Ultra last Saturday. On Tuesday morning I maintained a slightly faster pace over 4 miles on the treadmill.

My aim had been to cover a minimum of 40 miles this week. I forced myself out the door on Thursday for another 5.4 miles that was very sluggish.

It was in the back of my mind for both runs over the weekend that my effort last week to cover half the distance of London to Brighton race took 6 and a half hours, this could mean some night running in darkness despite the 6:30am start time. These included 2 loops of the 5.4 mile route on Saturday then 2 loops of the 7.5 mile route this morning. Despite my legs being quite fatigued from last week, I was able to persevere through both efforts and maintain an acceptable...

I only went running 4 times this week. This was due to wanting to ensure I finished the 50k Beer Ultra yesterday. I did my usual 5.4 mile loop on Wednesday morning and then a 5 mile run on the treadmill later that day. These were both tolerable and although I wasn’t able to get into any sort of rhythm for either, I managed comfortably enough.

The slightly better weather at the start of the week had lulled me into a false sense of security and I had a real struggle during my 5.4 mile loop on Thursday when it was driving rain early evening. It’s the first time in ages I remember having to grind my teeth to get through a run!

The Beer Ultra consisted of a beer at the start and then one at the end of each 5km lap. They also had a rather minimalist approach to a kit list. Essentially if you had a bottle opener to use at the end of each lap, anything else was optional! Because I remembered...