Day 203 Saturday 21st July 19.7 miles : miles to date 1337.2 I have well and truly learnt my lesson about fuelling in preparation for a decent run after the discomfort of Thursdays run. I shovelled the food in yesterday and it paid off this morning. The schedule had me down for 16 miles in two hours, which was 7.30 pace and a little over 3.15 marathon pace. Having sent out my normal Thursday e-mail to the long distance boys and girls to organise today's run, there was a distinct lack of take up to join me, albeit the crew were still going to meet for the normal x-c run. To keep that steady pace, I decided to steer clear of the trails and stick to the road which is not my favourite surface. I decided against a total billy no mates run and met up with the crew for a few warm up cross country miles, before peeling off and doing my own thing. The slight hiccup was that we covered nearly three miles and my original sixteen at the right pace, didn't start until I peeled. When I did, I found myself running on totally new streets and routes. I know a huge number of trails in the county but because we don't use roads, I had no real idea which one to take in places, as I was in a new area. I eventually came close to the A1, which was the point to turn and head back. Fortunately after a few miles, I found a turn to take me back to somewhere I knew. I totally missed one village and the water tap I was heading for which meant I was a tad thirsty when I got back. I covered the main 16 miles in somewhere just over 01:58 albeit I slowed in the last two miles as I had to go cross country to find my way back to the car, with a bit of an ease down for the last section. Good run, but it was great to finish with a wolfed down bottle of milkshake and bbq salami. Told you I learnt my lesson.

Day 202 Friday 20th July 3.1 miles : miles to date 1317.5

Boy am I glad its a Friday. I decided to just have a simple and slow run around Maulden woods, taking with my a new prezzie given to me by the ladies at work. A camoflaged hands free head umbrella that fits nicely on top of my dome. Now I suspect the item was purchased as a joke, but out it came with me as I ran around the woods in the rain. I cant quite testify to the new head gear being the most streamlined running accessory but it kept my head dry, until I realised I looked like a right plonker. Now that's not a new experience, so I quickly let it pass. As much as I like my new head gear, I suspect that its going to get relegated to BBQ cooking in the rain. Given the summer we are having in the UK, I expect to use it frequently in the months to come.
A second days tiredness on the trot meant it was back to a gentle jog around the woods without any reference to pace and time. The schedule has me down for a rest day anyway on a Friday, which clearly cant happen, so a slow three miler is the next best thing. An early night should hopefully recharge the old bones for Saturdays solitary longer run, as no one from the Saturday morning crew wants to join me. Sniff.

Day 201 Thursday 19th July 3.3 miles : miles to date 1314.4 Timing as they say is everything. After a rain free albeit not sunny day, I decided to go out for tonight's run at 8 pm, having missed the club due to lack of shorts. At exactly the half way point in the middle of a field with thigh high grass, the rain poured and within seconds I was soaked. At almost the exact point I returned to my mates place in my sopping wet clothes, it stopped. Fortunately Mrs.Mate was on hand with a towel, as I stripped off in their porch, flashing at the passing cars. The schedule was a gonna tonight. I was tired, lethargic and my legs felt like stone. Whilst I have had a few faster runs, I don't think that was the problem. After yesterdays eleven odd miler, I was so long getting changed and dry, I didn't eat a thing. I had gone out on an empty tank which was fine, as that's a good way to force your body to use fat stores for energy. You don't want that to happen in a race, but inevitably it does as the body cant take on and store enough carbohydrates in a long race such as a marathon to stop the body using fat. The body produces lactic acid whenever it breaks down carbohydrates for energy. The faster you break down glucose and glycogen the greater the formation of lactic acid. At rest and submaximal exercise, the body relies mainly on fats for fuel. However, when you reach 50% of maximum capacity, the threshold intensity for most recreational exercise programs, the body "crosses over" and use's increasingly more carbohydrates to fuel exercise. The more you use carbohydrates as fuel, the more lactic acid you produce and eventually when that runs out, you use fat which is far less efficient at converting into energy. The problem was that after the run, I had to eat and I didn't for another five hours and that really hit home on tonight's run where I crawled around not enjoying myself. Lesson well and truly learnt.

Day 200 Wednesday 18th July 11.1 miles : miles to date 1311.1 The Gospel according to St. Paul:- 1. Eleven miles on a very muddy and wet canal tow path at lunchtime, will get you very, very dirty, soaked and smelly 2. Wool, pinstripe solicitor suits will hide caked on mud 3. Wool pinstripe etc wont mask pong 4. Twenty seven baby wipes wont get all the mud off your legs 5. Sodden and muddy shorts will leave bum cheek imprints on plush blue office chairs 6. Trimming of chest hair, will mean that your nipples bleed badly in the rain 7. Foo Fighters rock: Leo Sayer doesn't 8. Canal barges aren't that fast, so overtaking one doesn't mean much 9. Putting feet in paper bins and scrapping mud off, stops some of it from hitting the floor 10. The bald, sodden, filthy and streaming nipple blood covered t-shirt look doesn't go down well in new offices with peeps that don't know you well 11. Food and water before and after shouldn't be an optional extra 12. Don't perspire on new work mates

Another nice round number on the board with 200 days in the bag. The schedule had me down for ten miles in 1 hour 15 minutes and as usual I set off to fast. Given I have had a few harder runs recently, I did slow down a tad albeit covered it in 01:13:40. My breathing was fine but my legs were heavy. The path was filthy and I was quite glad to reach the ten, before jogging in for the last mile as a warm down. The problem then being my legs in particular were as dirty as they have ever been after a run. Luckily, I only had to wait six hours for a shower...

Day 199 Tuesday 17th July 7 miles : miles to date 1300 Another hard track session tonight with an exact seven miler, brings me up to a nice round spot on 1300 miles for the year to date. I am in fact 59 miles off the year target, but I should pick that up as the marathon miles begin to increase. After Sundays race, my legs were still tired as I lined up with the club for twelve times two minute efforts, followed by four one minute efforts. I set off with the whippets and made three efforts before they got faster and I slowed down. Every time I looked at my watch, it said sub six minute mile pace save for the last effort when I slowed. Despite that, the whippets just eased away with little apparent effort and I wasn't even in their slip stream. They must have been moving along at sub 5.30 pace and it really hammered home to me how much work I still have to do, to get me where I want to be in terms of race speed. I am starting to question if I have enough time before my target marathon and guess will just have to review the training and the plans over the next eight to ten weeks. I drowned my woes after training in a nice big glass of squash with an athletic burger and banger at the club BBQ. You could tell it was an athletic club BBQ, as there was one bottle of win and umpteen bottles of soft drinks. I did make up for it, with one glass of G&T when I got home. It was actually a triple in a pint glass, but it was still only one glass. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Day 198 Monday 16th July 5 miles : miles to date 1293 The day after the night before. I've had a few of them in my time and they normally involve lots of headache tablets. For once, the lethargy came from running and a complete abstinence of the amber nectar even after yesterdays race. The tiredness of the body was off set by my mind rambling ten to the dozen about how to get faster. I've got the bug bad. I thought I was potty about running before, but I have slipped over the line into serious obsession. It has become so bad, I even purchased a shiny new pair of ultra lightweight racing trainers today which feel like slippers and which will take some getting used to. As for today's run, in the quest to constantly find new routes I decided to try out Willen Park in Milton Keynes for what was meant to be an easy five miles in forty minutes, although I forgot and did them in 7.30's by mistake. As I am running quite a lot of my faster runs on my own, its important to me to try to find new routes and the flat paths of MK suited my plans tonight. Or at least, it would have done had Willen not been like the M25 of exercising bodes tonight. As soon as I got there, there was a big group of boot camp peeps and within a short time I was catching various runners around the lake. Now if you are going to go past someone, you have to keep the pace going and I went past a few. I then ran head first into a group of David Lloyd Redway runners and then a few others at various points. Its not the place to take it easy if you have a developing competitive streak like I seem to have acquired recently. I suspect even if I had known it was eight minute mile pace, I wouldn't have run it at that come what may. And then to home. The in laws arrived unexpectedly on their way back up't norff after a wee break down souff. Needless to say the abstinence went out the window, but mmm, the vino tasted good.

Day 197 Sunday 15th July 6.2 miles : miles to date 1288 The Voldemort plan continues to reap benefits, as I smashed my 10k PB with a 39.59 and 33rd place out of 588 entrants at today's St. Ives race. I just don't run 10k's, mainly due to the fact that they hurt I suspect. My previous best was 43:54 and with the rest varying between 44-52 minutes some years ago. Having never come close to 40 minutes before, I set the garmin for exactly that time hoping I might be able to just dip under. I had hoped to dip by more than a second, but what the heck I'm in the 30's and right now I don't mind admitting that I feel quite chuffed. I had looked at the last two years results, which had the just below forty peeps in 34th and 35th place, so I found myself in the rather unusual surroundings of being near the front at the start. Having never been that far up, I was caught in the flow as the gun went off running around a 6.10 pace, when target pace was 6.24. I finally got my head around my km running pace having only ever run a race in mile terms. This was quite easy to work out ie four minutes per km. I slowed intentionally to 6.25 pace and kept that steady for the first 3k and was around ten seconds up at the km marks due to the faster start. A problem flared between 3-5k as we ran straight into a strong headwind on a wide open airfield. I slowed and by the turn at the 5k mark, I had lost time and was now behind. The wind in our faces did not translate into any wind on our backs although I was able to pick it up slightly to regain the lost time, albeit it I still needed a lung buster in the final 800 metres covering the second half in a negative split which is another rare event. Even two months ago, I would have doubted being able to dip under forty or be close to nineteen for a 5k for that matter. It has to be down to the plan and I am so hungry for more. Bring on the pain. Another great run came from Julie Pritchett who also PB'd, which was even more impressive considering that yesterday she ran an unplanned fifteen mile cross country with the crew, followed by an open water swimming race a few hours later. An amazing achievement by any standard. We were also joined by Shaun Kirtley from the club, who also popped in a new record. Unfortunately it was a personal worst!

Parkrun 5k

Day 196 Saturday 14th July 3.9 miles : miles to date 1281.8 Its all about Fi today. Fi Fi Fi Fi Fi. I know its normally about me, but its about Fi today. Having been out for over five weeks, she edged back into the Parkrun 5k last weekend and repeated it this morning with a fine run and an improvement in her time. I paced her around and manfully ignored the feelings of anger that were being directed towards me as I tried to encourage her in the last 1/2k in particular. The reality is that no matter what time you run a 5k in, if you run it at the top end of your threshold it will hurt. Fi ran well today and whilst she is off her PB territory, to be able to push so well at the end of your second week back was impressive. But then I am biased I guess. She left her barcode at home and couldn't get an official time or have her number of races run in recorded. Having eyed a chap with a 50 Parkrun t-shirt on, she cant fancied one of those. It wont take long she said before realising he had run a race almost every week for an entire year. Thankfully, she was happy to re-aim for a 10 Parkrun t-shirt which will be a little easier to achieve me thinks?

Day 195 Friday 13th July 5 miles : miles to date 1277.9 This wonderful British summer continues to bucket it down like cats and dogs. I think we last saw the sunshine in 1893. Still at least I have saved a fortune on sun cream. That having been said, it was dry and quite warm all day. It didn't actually start to rain heavily until I started to run, or rather more accurately two minutes before I ran as I sat in the car wondering, why? The why was simple. My lad was running four laps or six miles around the lake for his Scout fitness challenge and Fi thought it was a good idea that we went up to help. It rained enough at the start to drench us, before getting cold and dark. Oh what fun we had as we waddled around the trail, dodging increasingly bigger puddles. I did manage to slip a quicker lap and a bit into the run, although to give full credit to Jimbo he covered the full six miles. I walked the last mile with Fi and Daisy the dog but will only claim five for the total.

Day 194 Thursday 12th July 4.8 miles : miles to date 1272.9

I am a tad late with this post, due the fact that I finished yesterdays run at around 11.55pm, soaked to the skin, in need of a shower and under orders from Fi to go to bed. A very, very long day at work, including a partners meeting that lasted over six hours without more than a ten minute break, meant I couldn't get out in the day. I was then late for my normal Thursday night card game - if I sound like a high roller great, but its bridge - where I spent all night listening to the rain lashing down on the windows. A headache and lack of any food between and 7.30am and 8.25pm did not bode well. And I lost at cards.
Still, as I am on a schedule and this daily run thingy, there was no choice. I was down for 4 miles in 25 minutes which is 6.15 mile pace. I warmed up for half a mile and then thought sod it, lets go for the burn. I headed out of Marston Moertaine where I had stopped and straight up the pitch black A421, without a headtorch or reflective gear. Mad I know, but I could see a long way in the distance and could swap lanes which I did without a problem.
By now the rain was very heavy and a few cars did go past. They wouldnt have been able to see me until I was in their headlights as they whizzed past on the other side of the road. It didn't half make me chuckle to myself at the likely reaction of the occupants, chancing upon some odd random runner coming towards them in the downpour. It would have been even funnier if I was starkers, which did cross my mind, but things shrink in the rain and I thought better of it.
A combination of the above meant I was off pace, covering the four harder miles in about 25:48 or thereabouts, which is about 6.27 pace. Twelve seconds slow per mile may not seem much, but the truth is that I slowed quite a lot in the last mile and I am a wee bit anxious as a result. Fingers crossed its a blip.

Olympic torch chase

Day 193 Wednesday 11th July 14 miles : miles to date 1268.1

Today's little jaunt led to my Ernie Wise legs featuring on BBC news, along with the much nicer pins of my new found running chums Adrian Smith and Belinda Bradberry. The former had very kindly invited me to join them on part of the Edurancelife Real Relay, which is described on their website as;-

'' an exciting attempt to follow the entire route of the official Olympic Torch around the British Isles in one continuous non-stop journey, running every step of the way. Starting out from Land’s End at midnight on Monday 28 May, ten days behind the official Olympic Torch, the Real Relay will involve hundreds of runners from across the British Isles running through the day and night on an 8000 mile mission to reach London in time for the Olympic Games opening ceremony''

 Our leg started at just before 10am on the river in Bedford, where only days before the Olympic torch had been carried down the street which was packed with spectators. There were slightly fewer today ie none. On way to the start, I had walked passed one of the official torch runners who was still in his full white and gold torch running gear with his torch which they are allowed to keep. I decided not to ask him if he had been home in the last few days or had he missed the day and hadn't realised and was too late? A hidden photographer then gave a clue as to what he was doing. I was tempted to invite him down to our relay run but thought better of it.

  The lads on the earlier leg were ahead of schedule, which was no surprise as I know one of them is a sub three hour marathoner. I reassured Belinda and Adrian that I was very happy to make sure we took the full allotted time and wasn't looking to break any records. They ignored me and set off down the embankment like a couple of whippets. Within seconds we were in a torrential downpour and by the main bridge were totally sodden. Never the less, Belinda and I stoically kept our sunglasses on and tried to dodge the lamp posts as we couldn't see a thing. Yeah, but we looked cool. Or idiots in that downpour, not sure which?

 The route took us out of Bedford and eventually over to Henlow. Having gone through Cotton End we knew that the main road without any pavements was far to fast and dangerous, so we ever so slightly diverted and ran up my old mucker the John Bunyan trail, which runs parallel with the road and quite close to it without the traffic issues save the odd tractor. Having never met Belinda before, I took the opportunity to tell her about my blog and the preponderance of No.2 related stories, at which point an unexpected and unplanned little trump slipped out. It wasn't deliberate and I can but take it from the man upstairs that it was a sign that No.2 related stories must continue.

 We rejoined the road before Deadmans Cross and stayed on it, despite the safety of Rowney Warren woods to our right. Heck, is there any more fun to be had than running directly towards articulated lorries, on the side of a road with no pavement in the rain, carrying a relay torch and flag? No, I don't think so either but please don't try this at home folks, we are professionals.

 We entered Shefford, which I had last run through at 4.04am on Saturday the 26th May or thereabouts and then carried on to the handover in Henlow. The crowds still weren't out and we resigned ourselves to the lost fame and fortune, until Belinda mentioned we were going to be filmed by the BBC for the 6.30 London news. In truth, she had mentioned it at the start and I spent the entire run worrying about whether my hair was a mess. I needn't have bothered, as having watched the footage on the TV, I just look bald anyway. Belinda on the other hand, looked great with no Panda eyes (its a girl thing apparently connected to something called mascara or marscarponi or something) as did Adrian. The camera chap had us running up and down Henlow high street with the ''torch'' to get the right shoots. Given we had run fourteen miles and had been waiting for them to arrive for twenty minutes, the old bones didn't thank me for the extra effort. Infamy at last. Infamy, infamy, they've all got in for me. Frankie Howard circa 1974.

 Belinda gave a flawless interview at the end where Adrian and I weren't name checked and thanked for our support,sniff. The run wasn't of course about any of us as individuals and totally about be part of an amazing achievement that will end before the Olympic games start, despite setting off after the torch relay began. To be a small part of such a big endeavour was great, as were my great new running chums who simply melted away the miles. Tons of thanks to both for allowing me to come along and apologies again for waffling the entire way. As any reader of my blog can see, I'm very good at that...

 Right, I'm off to join Equity and go acting. Tarra loveies

Handing over the next chap

Day 192 Tuesday 10th July 3.7 miles : miles to date 1254.1

Mmm. The schedule had me down for another lung buster, but life got in the way. An unexpected emergency court case mid afternoon meant my planned solo track session before my club coaching duties, went out the window. As did my coaching duties as the case rumbled on.
A combination of constant work and not having eaten a thing for eleven hours, meant that when I eventually went out for a run on the way home, it was with lethargic legs. I tried to compensate with a run in a new area, realising that I have become an expert in completely stripping off in the front of a car, with lots of traffic zipping past. Shirt first, with shoes blocking the dashboard,t-shirt on and then trousers and Y fronts off, as I dangle born free and then shorts on. Keep the same M&S socks on. Job done.
But here's the rub. Within a quarter of a mile I knew I was done and even Leo Sayer with his Orchard Road song track - I don't apologise for my mid life song choices, cos I am mid life - couldn't hide the fact that I was out of fuel and no matter what the mind wanted to do, the body couldn't. And then something brilliant happened. I ran faster. I was just done, no energy, no food, no water and uncomfortable. So, I just ran faster to get it over and as I ran faster, I found more energy and I could have gone further. The only reason I stopped in the end was a mixture of the visiting in laws, very heavy rain at the end and the fact that I knew the family were waiting for me to actually eat dinner. And a few G&T's. Slimline tonic of course.

Day 191 Monday 9th July 5 miles : miles to date 1250.4 If you want my body and you think I'm sexy,Come on honey, tell me so If you really need me, just reach out and touch me,Come on sugar, let me know. Has there ever been a finer set of song lyrics penned ever? I mulled this over on today's gentle five miler up and down the Grand Union Canal which is very close to my new office. After two recent faster runs, I followed the schedule almost to the second today as I realise the benefit of recovery runs. I was down for five miles in forty minutes and covered the distance along the muddy towpath in 40.01, albeit I did dordle so much at the start singing along to Rod the Mod, I did pick it up for the last half mile. I just couldn't help it. The Modsters songs were just too infectious and when Sailing came on and I was running past the canal barges, I just had to chill out and sing along. Given I went out at lunchtime and my next run is not planned until 6.30pm on Tuesday, it almost feels like I have got a day off. Mmm, best not think like that or I'll end up running in the morning.

Another PB! Happy days

Day 190 Sunday 8th July 13.1 miles : miles to date 1245.4 The targeted training plan appears to be continuing to reap dividends, as I ran a new half marathon PB this morning in 01:36:59 on what was a six am training run with the Flying Scotsman. My last half marathon was way back in 2005 when I ran 01:40:41 which hurt. We were meant to run 16 miles in two hours, but had to cut the run short due to the Olympic torch coming through Bedford. We kept the pace steady at around 7.30 per mile which is what the plan said, although once we knew we didn't have enough time to get the full sixteen in, we probably picked it up a little over the last mile. My garmin said 13.10 and George's 13.11, so I feel fairly confident about the distance. That probably translates to about 1.33 for a half, but in a race who knows? I really need to get closer to 1.30 but that's a little way off yet. Still, two PB's in a weekend means this little Welsh lad feels a little optimistic.

Day 189 Saturday 7th July 3.1 miles : miles to date 1232.3 It would appear on the basis of today's 5k race that the Voldemort training schedule might actually be paying some dividends. I ran a new PB by some 86 seconds, officially coming in at 19.10, albeit it my watch stopped at 18.58 finishing in 4th place out of 131 runners. To say I am happy would be an understatement. I simply have never in all my forty four years ever run so fast and this is new uncharted territory. I also think that for the first time ever I actually raced with some sense. At the start, I let the others shoot off and didn't try to match them, running at my pace. I stayed at that pace and slowly but surely, one by one I began to reel them in. As I passed each, I was hurting but told myself if I felt that way and I was going quicker, they must have been in a worse place than me. The acceptance of pain as part of the training kicked in and on the last lap, I was able to move up four places just overtaking the first lady with about twenty feet to go. Given I just wanted to go under twenty minutes for the first time ever, to have a watch time of under nineteen and an official time not much over, has had me on a high all day long.I have to thank the Flying Scotsman George Arbuckle for turning up to support which helped spur me on.

Day 188 Friday 6th July 3 miles : miles to date 1229.2 Now in the good ole days, I wouldn't have been sat here at 8 pm on a Friday trying to get motivated to go for a run and looking forward to a refreshing glass of water after. But then, I was over four stone heavier and heading for a premature bath at 53 like my dad and brother. I might of course still be heading that way, but if I am I wont be a happy bunny with all this abstinence malarkey. Guess I'd better not push this one too far given its only been five days since my last beer. And four hours, twelve minutes and twenty eight seconds, nine, thirty..... As for the run, it was a tired, lethargic affair which didn't do me any good what so ever. I am now extra tired, grumpy and a bit achy. If I follow the elders of the clan, I've only got nine years left so I'm having second thoughts about this running lark and think I 'd best hit the clubs to recapture my yuff. Or maybe not. Think I'll just have an early night instead with a nice cup of tea. OMG, I sound like Boy George, (the pop star not the Flying Scotsman) who famously said he preferred a cuppa to a bit of nocturnal meandering. I think I'll give the tea a miss.

Day 187 Thursday 5th July 7.4 miles : miles to date 1226.2 After the last two nights, there was no way I was going to be able to stick to the schedule for another quick run. The club were putting on the monthly hilly 5k time trail around the currently under construction Centre Parcs near Flitwick. I texted the silver surfer Phil Clarke and luckily for me he wanted to do a slower cross country so we meet at the club and the two of us set off. I just had no energy and Phil didn't seem to mind me chugging along slowly behind him a fair section of the way. The recent weather meant most of the trails we took were heavily over grown and the path coming down through Kings Wood was very muddy and slippy all the way down, to the extent that we crawled to avoid doing the splits. It seems that Phil didn't learn much from his recent fell race and was content to take it easy all the way, instead of head down and lean into the hill like the mad lot that run such races properly. It was also very humid and my three coffees today clearly dehydrated me. Still, a salty bag of chips and cartoon of curry sauce perked me up afterwards, although I did get a few strange looks in the chippy standing there as I was still dripping in my running gear.

Day 186 Wednesday 4th July 9.3 miles : miles to date 1218.8 I had an odd run tonight. The schedule had me down for a recovery 8 miles in an hour, which is 7.30 mile pace. I set off to fast as I am having trouble finding a steady 7.30 pace and covered the first 4 miles in 7.10 pace, 10k in around 43:35 and the eight in 57:45, which averaged out at 7.13 per mile. The trouble is that it was not one thing or another. The extra 20 seconds per mile on top of last nights speed session, meant that it wasn't a recovery run and my legs were tired by the end, but neither was it a lung busting tempo run. I know what I am doing wrong, which is trying to run faster almost every time I go out. The trouble is that I am running faster than I have ever run before and being able to run at 7.10 odd pace without puffing and panting is just egging me on and making me want more. I have had such a change in mindset when it comes to faster, shorter and harder training runs. My ultra mind would tell me not to bother with anything under six miles, even as a slow recovery run. Now I am switched on totally to the benefits of three or four mile fast runs. The downside is that these posts are actually talking about running instead of having no 2's at the bottom of someone's garden my music of choice ( Def Leppard by the way as I am very middle aged, Welsh and proud of it! Not that DF were Welsh, but there you go).

Speed again! Huurraahhh

Day 185 Tuesday 3rd July 9 miles : miles to date 1209.5 The cautious optimism continued tonight, with the best run I have had in what seems like ages, albeit in reality it hasn't been that long. The schedule had me down for five mile repeats at six minute mile pace with around a three minute recovery run. Having had a week slow down and too much vino, I wasn't sure I could do that and indeed I was a bit off target. I ran the warm up first two miles at 7.25 pace and had a good stretch. I then covered the first mile in 6.05 and the second in 6.10. I had a slightly longer rest before the third mile whilst I ran with Fi, before covering the next three miles in 6.15, 6.20 and 6.19 with limited recovery time in-between. I felt my self slowing in the last two miles and was quite happy to be within touching distance of six minutes given my last weeks running. I will be sensible on Wednesday. Probably. Another bit of great news is that Fi managed to cover three miles without any foot pain, following her injury exactly five weeks ago today. It was great to be able to meet up on the way home for a run, even if we only covered part of it together. She is aiming to take part in the Great North Run in September and I will be there cheering her on all the way.

Day 184 Monday 2nd July 6 miles : miles to date 1200.5 At last a note of cautious optimism. I was able to run past 3 miles for the first time in a week without any groin pain and with a little bit of speed, although not too much. I parked up and trotted off into the woods, determined not to run quicker than around 8 minute mile pace. It was wet, but warm and within a quarter of a mile I found myself back in the joy zone, totally immersed in the quietness of the trail, rain, brief isolation and moving, pain free lower limbs. I pushed on a little and felt myself begin to puff just a tad. Boy that was such a good feeling. I might have run every day over the last seven days, but it was totally without effort and I feel as though I have even lost a bit of fitness. After the first mile, I stopped at the end of each remaining mile and stretched the groin a bit each time. At mile four, the rain became harder and I just stood for a few minutes and just enjoyed the moment. This might have been my 184th run in a row, but I am really enjoying this experience and I just cant wait to get out there again. I know I cant go straight back into out and out speed work and will build up and hopefully the injury wont come back. Fingers crossed.

Day 183 Sunday 1st July 3 miles : miles to date 1194.5

Gareth. Groin. Groan. Ya de ya de ya da. See last six posts for same ole same ole about my tedious running week. Another slow to almost stopping pace run. No squirrels, no 2's or earthquake's to report.
A major plus though is that today is the half year mark. I can't quite believe I have run every single day for 183 days in a row or exactly half a year. I have already thanked all my friends earlier this week for the huge amount of support I have had and I can only hope that peeps don't get too bored with my waffle and help me through the next half year. I know now that it wont be lack of motivation that stops me from getting out the door. If I don't finish, it will be through injury or worse. Mmmm. Injury.
I'm currently 56 miles off my year target of 2500, which in part is down to the lowest weeks mileage since the start of the year. I have had to forgo my 14 miler today to help this old mans body try to repair. The upside is that if I hit target, I'll do it with a negative split!