I managed two things this week that I definitely didn’t expect. After a very steady 7.5 miles on Tuesday, I tried running slightly faster for parts of the same route on Wednesday and got round in just under 1:04. This was good preparation for trying to get this route under an hour the next night. I’m surprised how far under the hour I got and considering I’ve lived in the area for 5 years now as well as the fact I’ve had so many efforts where I was 1-2 minutes off, it was great to finally get under it. There isn’t a massive amount of climb in this route (500ft) but it is in long enough stretches that you can’t just power up them. I think the only difference between this time and previous attempts was that my weekly base mileage is higher so I could recover quicker after the 2 climbs.

I ran a race yesterday called the Cakeathon with my brother Ben and our friends Malcolm and Andy. This...

For people who have read my blogs for other races previously, my fondness for Captain Marvel and other comic books should be well known. I started my week with watching the movie adaptation on Tuesday which I thought was incredible. The 3rd act I thought was up there with the best Marvel films I’ve ever seen!

I then did the 5.4 mile loop first thing on Wednesday morning before watching Free Solo that evening. This is a documentary about Alex Honnold, the only person to have climbed the El Capitan vertical rock formation without ropes. To say this is 3000ft high at its summit feels like an understatement based on how it looks in the film.

I did the same loop twice on Thursday then once more on Friday evening. This was followed by two more on Saturday morning. I had aimed to do a minimum of 50 miles this week but didn’t want to push too much to maintain 70 considering I have races on...

I had planned to push myself a bit more this week and then have a lighter week next week because of two races I have in the fortnight after that. After today’s efforts I feel I’ve achieved that!

My week started with 5.4 miles on Monday and 5 more laps of this loop during the week. My legs felt heavy on the 2nd lap on Wednesday evening but I kept pushing ahead with my weekly goal regardless. The weather for my 2 laps on Friday was quite tempestuous and I should have taken this as an omen for the weekend!

I had particularly enjoyed a Pardon The Interruption podcast this week called ‘Meaningless points in a meaningless game’. I knew before it started that this reference was about LeBron James overtaking Michael Jordan in an NBA basketball match on the all time points scoring list. This match was allegedly meaningless because LA Lakers were mathematically unable to make the playoffs...

I had a physically more challenging week this week, than the last few weeks have been. This was completely self inflicted and stemmed from a fall I had on my 7.5 mile run on Wednesday evening. I had ran 7.5 on Tuesday which was fine but didn’t see a tree log on the pavement and face-planted, injuring both palms of my hands and my right knee. I quite enjoyed being annoyed at myself and used the extra energy I had from my hands stinging from the grazes so I managed the remaining 7.2 miles at a slightly faster pace than usual.

Unfortunately this extra effort meant my Thursday 7.5 was quite sluggish and my first few laps on Friday generally felt the same. I managed 3 more laps of the 7.5 mile loop and was pleased to get through the first 2 relatively comfortably. I found my legs chafed quite badly on the last lap and I had to cancel my run with Ben for Saturday as I could barely walk!

...

I took Monday and Tuesday off this week then ran twice a day on Wednesday and Thursday, doing a 7.5 mile lap each time. These were all quite steady and the weather was noticeably warmer than last week. I continued with 2 more 7.5 mile laps on Friday and a 10.5 mile run with my brother Ben on Saturday morning.

I watched England lose to Wales yesterday evening in the 6 Nations Rugby which was definitely the ‘highlight’ of my week. This was a really attritional battle. As good as England had looked in their first 2 games of the tournament, they were largely nullified in the second half and couldn’t counter Wales’ tactics for controlling possession and territory.

There is a school of thought that most people use their social media accounts to create ‘echo chambers’ where they can only read and listen to things from people who think like them and have similar opinions. Usually I’d agree...

One of my first memories of running as a child is being happy after going 4 miles or so, then immediately pissed off when my Dad used to drop me back at our house and then head out for the same route again without me. There was no chance of me doing another 4 at that stage, just as there was absolutely none that my Dad would settle for finishing his running for the day with my stop, start, walk effort!

I need to learn if I offer to do parts of my run with other people and then tell them that what is a big effort for them only equates to half or less of my training for that day, this will either piss them off too or spark something in them.

I had planned a few weeks ago to try fit in a 35-40 mile run either this week or next week and offered my brother Ben he could join me for 5 laps of 5.4 miles of my 7 lap effort when it occurs and this could be his longest training run before the 6hr...

This was another good week of progress towards the Autumn 100. After taking Monday off, I managed one lap of 5.4 miles on Tuesday evening before 2 more laps on Wednesday morning. I had arranged to take part in the King of the Hill 10k in Huddersfield and nostalgically underestimated the main last bit of the climb. It is a 5k up and 5k down format and the toughest section is definitely the last 2-300 metres before you turn back. Having listened to a podcast called Running Your Stories recently, I enjoyed the conversational style of it and how it focuses on a wide range of runners with different abilities, I had contacted the host Kevin Robinson about going on after Paris By Night, we had arranged this for after the 10k. He had initially said he was able to run the distance but couldn’t race it as he was still partly recovering from an injury. I had assumed (naively) that this would mean a...

I found this week morbidly enjoyable because of the extra challenge that running in freezing temperatures presents. I had decided to try for 2 sessions a day for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. These were all runs apart from the evening Pilates class on Wednesday. I found Thursday morning felt the coldest but my evening running was sufficiently hard to keep warm with extra layers on.

The week continued with 2 laps of the 5.4 mile route on Friday evening that was tough but I was able to switch off for large parts of this by listening to podcasts. I then followed this up with 3 laps of 7.5 miles on Saturday and my brother Ben joined me for the last 2 of these. He forced the pace more than I’d have liked on the middle lap and I had to really drag myself up Churwell Hill to not get dropped. From looking at his Strava after the run he had set a new PB for that segment. I was able to settle...

I really enjoyed my running this week. I intentionally did less midweek running and was certain in my plans to finish with a minimum of 20 miles today. I did 3 laps of 5.4 miles on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday then an further 7 mile run with my brother Ben on Thursday evening. This was quite a bit faster than my usual running and we were able to hold a conversation at about 8:30 mile pace which I was happy with.

I then did 2 laps of 7.5 miles on Friday which were relatively comfortable. I enjoyed listening to podcasts and could settle into my usual pace quite easily.

I finished the week with 4 laps of the 5.4 mile route today, I had a bit of difficulty with my hands going numb from the cold on lap 1 but this disappeared by half way through the 2nd lap. My friend Tom joined me for my last 2 laps which was a great boost for me. I’ve known him since we were both 10 years old but...

I quite enjoyed my running this week. From doing 5.4 miles on Tuesday and being relatively comfortable throughout, I decided to aim for 50 miles as a total for the week. This was all going to plan with further solitary laps of 5.4 miles on Wednesday and Thursday, I figured I could do 4 laps on Saturday and finish the week with 13 miles today with my brother Ben.

I had been drawn in this week by a volunteering opportunity for a multi day race in May, this was something that I felt probably 3 years away from being able to build up to, but the scope that giving 5 days of my time could end up possibly saving me £900 in entry fees quickly reevaluated my optimism!

Unfortunately this didn’t translate to my feeble attempt at running yesterday, I’ve come to terms with the fact that running 4+ laps can sometimes be really hard but I think a combination of factors such as the cold and windchill...