Day 107 Monday 16th April 3.5 miles : miles to date 720.1 If you are not running every day, the chances are you will just not get to see the things that I see as you go whizzing past in your vehicles of mass consumption. Within half a mile of starting, I was in the woods with the traffic noise fading. I rounded a trail corner and there in front of me was a rather large muntjac deer. Now I know these are not an uncommon sight to most cross country trail runners in my neck of good old blighty, but it was still a great moment. We both paused in a Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood spaghetti western type of way, waiting for the other to move. I moved forward slightly and the beast turned and bounded off at a pace Mo Farah wold have been proud of. I continued and around another bend I began hearing what sounded like thundering footsteps. I looked around, wondering if I was about to be trampled to death by Munky and his mates, but there was nothing there. Had I heard the sound of a ghost herd? The thumping got louder and louder, until eventually I looked up into the trees on the hill, to see a boxer beating the living daylights out of a punch bag hanging from a tree. How or why he was there didn't cross my mind until later. Now, I just cant work it out. Another trail saw a smaller muntjac within spitting distance, though this one didnt fancy a show down and sped off before I could eyeball him. This was the same point on the trail where I have twice seen probably the same fox, although Basil didn't show up tonight. Just a gentle recovery run for me through the woods at an easy pace. In truth I was a little sore from yesterdays glycogen depleting and lactic acid inducing effort. I have read quite a lot about training on empty and deliberately forcing the body to use fat stores to generate energy which is far less an effective way to run, than the body using it's glycogen stores to do the same job. My running mate Martin Beare is a big fan of this way to train, often going out for big runs with no supplements at all and not having had any breakfast. I can't do that and need my mars bar or snickers. I didn't eat anything on the run yesterday and wonder if I'm still sore due to that, as I didn't feel this way after a 29 mile run the previous weekend and 18 miles isn't that far really. Mind you, Martin must be on to something with the PB's he is banging in all over the place? On that note, I'm off for a bit of toast.