I decided to start running again on Friday and give my foot a few days rest before trying some heavier mileage across the weekend. I had planned to do 60 miles this week according to the Comrades schedule but didn’t want to rush back and not finish the miles near the end of the week. I did 5 miles on the treadmill at a pretty reasonable pace and didn’t feel any pain or notice my foot hurting throughout.

Yesterday I ran 20 miles out in the streets in abhorrent weather. If it rains properly I quite enjoy forcing my way through it and knowing once you’re soaked you’re not going to get any wetter. This was nothing like that and although it remained overcast throughout, the rain was intermittent and just fine enough to get on my nerves.

The first 2 laps of 7.5 miles went quite well and even though the pace was nothing special, I felt relatively comfortable. My final 5.4 mile loop was...

So I didn’t run 60 miles this week, I had every intention of starting the week with my usual 5.4 mile loop on Tuesday but my foot was causing me quite a lot of discomfort during work on Monday. I booked an appointment with my GP for that evening and found out I had sprained my foot. This was far from ideal and I have been advised to not run until the new year.

It is quite hard to articulate how it feels to find out you will have something you do so often and for long periods of time, taken away for the best part of a fortnight. There is a large amount of my self esteem and confidence that stems from the running. I have found myself spending more time indoors and really missing the 7-10hrs of solitude normally provided by being either in the gym or running out in the street.

I managed to do 12 miles midweek on the stationary bike at a good pace and enjoyed being out of breath and...

The plan for this week was to cover 40 miles between Tuesday and today, hopefully include a rest day in this time and not cover more than 10 miles on any day. Unfortunately this never came close to becoming a reality.

I started the week with 5.4 miles on Tuesday and caught my left foot awkwardly when running on uneven road near a tree stump as the road had raised from the tree’s roots growing. This was noticeable for the rest of the run but didn’t alter my gait so I didn’t think too much of it. I wasn’t in any sort of discomfort but was very aware I had turned it wrong. The good thing about that route is that I have done it so many times I don’t tend to think about any parts of it being hard and the 2 hills in it are manageable regardless of how far I have ran beforehand

I did the same route on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday without any real issues. I was conscious of the foot not...

Anyone who spends more than a few minutes in conversation with me probably picks up on that I’m an “all in” sort of character and don’t tend to do things half-heartedly. This weeks running has served as an allegory for that mindset.

The plan for this week was to reach 60 miles again and ensure I did 20 miles on back to back days. Since I had struggled to manage the back to back sessions last week, it was always going to be on my mind how I would fare repeating that effort this week.

Instead of doing the 7.5 mile route mid-week, I did the 5.4 mile loop on Tuesday-Thursday evenings with an extra lap of the 5.4 miler on Wednesday am. These were all quite settled and I didn’t feel like I was stretching myself even though Tuesday’s and Thursday’s were at a faster pace than usual.

I am quite certain if I didn’t have my next race in February, I would have stayed in the gym for all of my...

The part of this 24 week plan I thought I’d struggle with the most was the idea of back to back long training runs for 6 weeks in a 7 week spell. This was week 1 and I was meant to do 3hrs one day followed by 3-4hrs the next.

As much as I like to only concentrate on the next training run, this was always going to be the main focus of my week. I had planned out so I would be able to get the target of 60 miles over 5 days from Tuesday to this morning. I started with a 2-a-day on Tuesday with the 5.4 mile loop in the morning followed by the 7.5 after work. This was good as I knew it would afford me a shorter session at the end of the week.

On Wednesday I did a core workout in thr gym at 6am followed by 1.5 miles of sprints on the treadmill. This was the first time I’d ran at anything faster than my 5k pace in ages and I quite enjoyed the more elevated heart rate than it floats around at...

This was meant to be a reduced mileage week but still ended up with only 1 rest day instead of my preferred 2. I started the week with my usual Tuesday 5.4 mile loop. Perhaps due to my 32 miles over the previous weekend, this was not as pleasant as I have found my early week running recently. Nevertheless I persevered and finished the route with my legs finally loosening up over the last few miles.

I found my 5am start the next morning easier than usual and powered through 7.5 miles at a reasonable pace. The weather was nowhere near as bad as last week and I felt the gloves were a bit overkill so didn’t wear them the next few days.

I only did 3.75 miles on Thursday as I had an earlier start at work somewhere I hadn’t been before and didn’t want to be late. This seemed a lot like cheating myself and was realistically what cost me my 2nd rest day.

On Friday I was back on with the...

I really enjoyed my running for the most part this week. While I had shyed away from doing the longer midweek runs last week, this was not an option this week with having a marathon distance to cover over the weekend, I knew I would definitely need a rest day before.

I started the week with a 5.4 mile run on Tuesday then upped my daily mileage to 7.5 for Wednesday and Thursday. These were all quite comfortable and I didn’t feel the cold as much due to having at least 2 layers on throughout each run. I even stretched to 3 for my upper body for the one on Thursday evening!

There is a vegetarian ultra runner called Matt Frazier who’s blog I have followed for a good few years now, (one of his inspired me to start writing mine) he has gone from being a middle of the pack marathon runner to qualifying for the Boston Marathon with a sub 3:10 time. He then went on to do 50 and 100 mile...

This week was a lot better than the last few. Even though the weather was abhorrent for most of the week, I had a certainty about my training that isn’t always there which really helped on both the shorter sessions and the 25 miler that was the lynchpin of the week.

I managed to do the usual 5.4 mile loop every day from Tuesday to Friday and enjoyed the consistency of this. Whether it was the rain thundering against the window outside my flat at 5am or against the glass in the office, knowing I had to run in the dark at some point each day gave my week a sort of structure and I definitely felt the benefit of my rest day on Monday.

I had initially planned to have another rest day on Friday but I found I could plan the rest of my day better around the time it took to do the 5.4 mile loops than the 7.5 mile ones and the fact I didn’t double up on any day meant I lost my 2nd rest day.

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This week has been a great taster of what I have to come over the next few months. I am usually quite mindful of not looking too far ahead in my training program and focusing on the here and now, reducing my entire training development to the current week. On the other hand I’m not one to blindly follow a training plan without knowing the bulk of it will be sufficient for me to be able to finish what I set out to do.

The main appeal of this plan was the back to back long training runs on consecutive days in the middle and near the end of the plan. These are sometimes referred to as sandwich runs. I’ve never really wanted to do these but am aware that unless I am up to doing 8-9hrs of running in one day on my own, there isn’t really an alternative that will enable me to complete a 50 mile race.

I started the week with a 7.5 mile run on Monday and felt I had plenty of energy kept back...

Out of my 6 days this week, half of them involved early morning running. I have previously despised setting off first thing in the morning. I’ve normally found when I put it off till after work I can run faster and it helps me relieve the psychological stresses of the day. Conversely this week I have ran more in the mornings and felt more alert earlier in the day and enjoyed having the knowledge I wouldn’t need to head out to complete my run entirely in the dark later on.

With the clocks changing last weekend I know if I set off around 6am I can finish my training run as it is getting light. I’ve done some at 5am over the last few weeks but it is rather grim having to do the first part without the streetlights being on. Say what you want about Tory austerity, but I think plunging parts of the UK into darkness for 5.5 hours each night does little to boost our productivity!

I started the...