Trying to strike the right balance

On the back of a successful first race of the year at Trafford 10k, this week was a mixture of making sure I recovered sufficiently from the efforts of that race, whilst also making sure I got through enough work to make sure I am sharp ahead of another big race at Wilmslow Half Marathon next weekend.

My hamstrings were feeling a little tight during the days after the race, so I made sure not to do too much high end pace work in the first couple of days. That said, I did manage to some decent paced steady runs under my belt as I trained with my clubmates on Monday night which helped me get down to 6:13 pace for 8 miles. Then on Tuesday, I replaced my usual pace work with a bit of a tempo run instead, incorporating 5 miles at 5:40 pace into a total run of 9 miles.

On Wednesday I reigned things back again and had an easy 8 mile run at 6:40 pace.

Thursday's session with Affleck was our usual tempo, this time we reduced it back down to the 4 miles, and I managed to hold my pace steady at 5:08 pace, which was pleasing considering I'd had a hard race days previously.

Friday was a really easy paced 7.5 miles at 6:55 pace, as my legs were feeling a bit heavy from both the race and the previous day's speed work.

As I wasn't at the Intercounties this year, in its place I managed to do an extra hard training session with the ever improving Joe Monk. We did 7 miles around the docks and Joe looked strong and relaxed throughout. I held my pace at 5:40 throughout as I kept next weekend's race in mind, but Joe ran away from me in the final miles as he grew into the run really strongly.

I finished my week off with 13 miles on Sunday morning with Luke Minns and an easy 3 mile recovery run with my dad in the evening.

The next week now will be all about tapering correctly for Wimslow and trying to ensure I get to that start line in the best shape possible in order to give myself as much of a chance as I can of setting a new pb.

Total mileage for the week: 75.5

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:36

Total mileage so far this month (March): 126

Total mileage for 2017: 682

Average miles per day 2017: 9.61

Trafford 10k 2017

After months of waiting and weeks of frustration, lots of hard work and a few set backs, this weekend I finally got back to racing for the first time this year.

My last race prior to Trafford 10k was at Ribble Valley 10k back on the 27th December last year, the ten weeks in between have been testing and I've had to work hard to get back to this point, but I'm pleased to say today was well worth the wait.

I may not have been racing, but my main concern in the build up to the race was my lack of top level speed work. I haven't been near the track in months, my last visit being back at the end of October. I have been worried that this will affect my racing performance as I will find it harder to hit top gear and my fastest possible speed. Today's performance doesn't take away those concerns over the shorter distances, and I will definitely need to revisit the track before the summer 5k season.

However, I have maintained solid tempo sessions and have increasingly picked up the pace across my longer runs, meaning that I am confident that stamina and endurance wise I am at the best level I have ever been, and I feel I am more prepared and in better longer distance shape. It will be interesting to see how I get on at Wilmslow Half in two weeks time on the back of this performance.

Throughout the week I had been a bit unsure as to my approach to training ahead of the race, I knew that I needed to some sort of pace work in order to sharpen up, but having not visited the track all year I was wary of doing too much and expending energy. To complicate things a bit more, Rob Affleck has been struggling with a niggle and so we had to cancel our usual tempo run on Thursday. So I had some decisions to make and it seems I got away with it all a bit! 

On Monday I did a longer steady run, including 9 miles of work with Wesham at our club night - it has been a while since I had made it down to our regular club nights, and it was good to see familiar faces for the first time in a while. I topped my mileage up a bit more with a 4.5 mile jog beforehand to give me 13.5 miles in total for the day.

On Tuesday I decided to run easy rather than do any pace work - this was for no particular reason other than the fact I started playing mind games with myself about how tired I was, how much effort I should be putting in on race week and whether or not I needed a rest. In the end I did 8 miles at a steady 6:23 pace.

Wednesday was again interesting from a mental perspective, as this time I felt guilty for not doing enough the previous day. I made a decision to do 6 x 800 metre efforts on the road, but after just two and a half reps I pulled up and decided to just jog it in through the rest of the session. My legs felt heavy in the aftermath, but I cut the session short for no oh her reason than voices in my head telling me I was being silly and doing too much.

On Thursday I was due to do a 20 minute tempo at about 5:20 pace, but again I decided to reign this in to 15 minutes at 5:22s, with a 15 minute warm up and cool down either side.

On Friday and Saturday my legs felt terrible and I was running very leggy. I did 6 miles on each day at around 6:55 pace. With hindsight, as weird as it may sound I think my body had tightened up in order to protect me ahead of race day, sensing that we were about to be exerting ourself much more than what I have done in a while.

Sunday. Finally we had got here, I was back on the start line of a road race. On the back of my recent tempo runs and my park run performance a few weeks ago, I was fairly confident that if I ran well I was capable of a sub 31:30 run and was hopeful of hitting around about the 31:20 mark. I knew that I would have a lot of people around me and that this could have the potential to drag extra out of me and help me hit my best form.

I had a race plan and I stuck to it. Knowing that I had confidence in my speed endurance, and that I have been running negative splits in all of my main sessions in recent weeks, I decided to start more conservatively than usual and try to grow into the race. That way, I could pick up the pace as I hit a nice rhythm and gain confidence and momentum by passing runners in the second half of the race.

I ran a steady first two kilometres and then started to slowly increase the pace, mile 3 was into a headwind and slightly up hill, which slowed me again somewhat, but I went through half way in 15:42, meaning that I was in the range for a 31:20-31:30 run. I got into a few really good battles through the second half of the race and did indeed manage to gain a few positions and some momentum on my way to the finish. I did manage to negative split, just as I did at Cheshire 10k in November. I went through the second 5k in 15:28 in order to cross the line in 31:10 for a new 10k personal best and 56th place in a ridiculously stacked field!

(Thanks to Mick Hall photography for the photo, you can find more images from the race on his Facebook page and online)

It has been a long time coming, but the comeback was well worth the wait.

Total mileage for the week: 64

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:37

Total mileage for February: 281.5

Total mileage so far this month (March): 50.5

Total mileage for 2017: 606.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.33

Catching up

The theme to this week's blog is playing catch up, both in terms of with training after the slow start to 2017, and also with you lot having missed blogging last week as I was away!

So we have two weeks training to catch up with and look back on. The first week to review was February 13-19th. I started the week concerned that I would once again be missing vital days of training and mileage, as I had a weekend away in Edinburgh booked as part of Molly's birthday present. However, with a bit of tweaking and adjustment to my usual routine, I actually managed a very good weeks work and the break barely impacted on my training at all in the end.

We were away from Friday morning to Sunday evening, and as such I began the week imagining having to take a couple of days off, but by getting up at the crack of dawn on Friday to squeeze in some miles before our train, and by doing my late run late on Sunday evening when we got back, I only had to take the single day off in the end, and it was a day that I was ready for no running on anyway, so it all worked in very well. It was fantastic to get away and spend some quality time with Moll, and Edinburgh is one of our favourite places in the world, and next time I go I will have to pack my trainers as the parks are amazing and would provide some great routes.

On Tuesday the 14th, I got possibly my best speed session of the year so far in. I did relatively long reps, as I did 3 x 1.5 miles around the docks, off a 3 minute jog recovery. My reps were both consistent and also done at a fairly good pace, as I recorded times of 7:33, 7:33 and 7:38 for the three laps, providing me with 4.5 miles of pace work at an average of 5:02 per mile, which is approximately my 10k pace now so I was really pleased with that. It was good to be down below 5 minutes for the first mile of each rep too for the first time in a while.

On the Thursday (16th) I followed that speed session on with a solid tempo run, again around the docks. I did 5 miles again, as I had for the few weeks previous, and similar to the week prior, I managed to start relatively conservatively and crank up the pace a bit as we went through our final miles. I found myself ticking over at a nice and consistent rhythm and was feeling relaxed and comfortable all the way around as I ended up with 25:58 for the 5 miles (5:11 average pace). The pace that I was running at equates to roughly a 32 minute 10k, so along with how comfortable a rhythm I was going along at, the signs are starting to look a lot more positive for a run of form ahead of me.

On the Sunday, upon our return from Edinburgh, I managed to maintain my current momentum with a good 16 mile long run, as I went through the first 14 at 6:08 pace before reigning it in for the final couple of miles to make sure I wasn't too tired for my run the next day, as I had gone out for this one at 6pm and was wary of wanting to do another 10 or so the following evening.

Anyway, here is a brief summary of that week in numbers...

Total mileage for the week: 66

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:40

Total mileage so far this month (February): 193

Total mileage for 2017: 467.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.35

Now, this week has been again pretty consistent and pleasing, although the weather and hurricane Doris in particular, meant that I once again did some juggling around with my routine and switched around sessions and days, etc in order to make sure I got enough quality in without expending too much energy on days when I would be fighting a losing battle against the elements.

On Monday I got a nice round 10 miler in, in time to make it home to watch the Newcastle match on the tele! 

Tuesday's session was 4 x 1 miles around the Wesham handicap loop off a 90 second jog recovery. The wind was pretty shocking and the route is fairly hilly on stretches too so I knew that it would be difficult to record particularly fast times. Therefore I wasn't too disheartened when some of my reps fell below the pace I would normally strive for. My 4 miles were: 5:11, 4:57, 5:15, 5:10. This equates to an average pace of 5:08, so considering the conditions, I will take having got a half decent session in and clocking at least the one sub 5 minute mile.

I did an easy 9 miles on Wednesday at 6:35 pace as a recovery run after putting quite a lot into the last few days of training and having slightly heavier legs than I would want.

On Thursday, I had a late change of plan and swapped my normal 5 mile tempo run, in favour of a longer progression run instead. This decision was made due to the high winds caused by hurricane Doris, and I felt that I wouldn't be able to get down to the pace I would usually target without putting in unnecessary levels of energy for a training exercise. Instead, I chose that I would do the Park Run at that tempo pace instead if I could, and if conditions allowed. So Thursday's run turned out to be two loops of a local 5 mile route that I have. I set myself a target of running a negative split, and to increase the pace through each one of the last 5 miles, to ensure that my last mile was my strongest. I was well happy with how the run progressed and having gone through halfway in 31:17, for an average of about 6:14s through those 5 miles, I clocked 5:50, 5:55, 5:45, 5:32 and 5:31 for the final miles, to come out with 59:48 for the 10 miles, meaning that I both executed my target and also managed to dip under 6 minute mileing for my pace throughout the run.

Friday was an easy run to save energy ahead of the park run, and it was good to get some solid hills in too, as I ran around the Hoghton and Brindle area straight after work. I did 7.5 miles and thoroughly enjoyed running around some lanes and rural routes that I've never had chance to see before. It's somewhere that I would definitely go back to and do sessions in future runs.

On Saturday at Preston Park Run, I was pleased to run solid and consistent 5:10 pace throughout the run - particularly so considering the fact that I had been out until the early hours after being invited to a Sportman's Dinner on Friday night, the beer was all free too, so really I did well just to make it to the run at all! Friday was a brilliant night as the Blues Brother's set about putting the band back together 😂

I was satisfied with my run at the Park Run, it wasn't as quick as my runout there at the start of the month, but it served its purpose and I got a great workout done, finishing the 5k in 15:57. 

I had decided a while ago that I would forgo the National Crosscountry championships after a disastrous season, and instead prioritise the road races that are coming up, beginning with Trafford 10k next Sunday, which promises to be a fantastic event and has a frightening amount of depth signed up to take part, with some 200 sub 32 minute standard runners going to be battling it out at the front end!

I am lacking in a bit of really top end speed work still, but my endurance work has been ratcheted up a couple of notches in recent weeks, and so I am hopeful of being able to still put in a good shift next weekend and am hoping to come away with a good performance.

This weeks long run was my best in months and months, as I did 16.5 miles at an average of 6:07 pace, feeling comfortable and with a consistent rhythm throughout. Once again I managed to negative split and crank it up as the run went on, and my final miles were my strongest, which is a great sign looking forwards to Wilmslow Half in three weeks time. I topped up the run to a total of 18.5 miles by doing a twenty minute cool down jog as I ran with Moll to get her homework done. She has joined Wesham's latest beginners group and has been doing really well and enjoying her running once more, and I am really proud of all her efforts. I can't wait to see her and the other beginners do their park run at the end of the course, and hopefully they all stick at it with the club beyond that too and get the bug! 

Total mileage for the week: 75

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:25

Total mileage so far this month (February): 268

Total mileage for 2017: 542.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.52

Patience

After a jerky January, I am attempting to jump start my new year this month and using the coming weeks to build momentum ahead of a big month of races in March.

I feel that I am beginning to come through the other side of the rough patch and on my last few runs and sessions have gradually began to feel some of the old rhythm starting to creep back in to my running at last.

After a solid showing at Preston Park Run last weekend, I attempted to follow up that performance with a turn out at the Blackpool Park Run this time out. This was because I knew there was going to be a big Wesham turnout in order to look after and help out one of our own that are going through difficult times. It also meant there would be an opportunity to see some friendly faces for the first time in a while, whilst also having a crack at a new course, as this was only the second outing of the Blackpool version of the Park Run.

Unfortunately, having a head like a sieve, I forgot to take my barcode and so my performance was null and voided. Nethertheless it was still a useful runout and provided me with some more much needed shorter distance speed work. I didn't produce a particularly fast time, but I couldn't have been much more consistent with my pacing, and as I say I am striving for that consistent rhythm more than anything right now. I paced myself around the miles in 5:18, 5:17, 5:17 for a finishing time of 16:08 on what was a comfortable solo run.

My week started with another mini wobble, as I had a recurrence of a recent niggle which I haven't mentioned on here previously, as I was aware I was beginning to sound like a stuck record and a sick note on the injury front! I have had a slight problem with my Achilles on and off for about 2-3 weeks, and it flared up again on Monday and Tuesday which affected my training plans somewhat. I still managed to get 8 miles in the bank on Monday and attempted a speed session of sorts on Tuesday - although I decided it best to keep away from the track once again. 

Tuesday's session was something of a disaster to be honest, but at least I managed to get some sort of session done. I did 4 x 1 mile, but they were all over the show pace wise, ranging from 5:24 to 5:00. 

Wednesday was a short and easy recovery run, mostly because I knew I had to be home early for Molly's birthday meal, but also so as to rest up the Achilles as much as possible ahead of Thursday's run.

On Thurday with Rob Affleck, we again did the 5 mile tempo, and having clocked 5:23 average last week, this time our target was to beat that and try to get down to 5:20s. Early on in the run we kept it fairly chilled and relaxed, with the intention to crank it up as the run progressed. We did just that, starting off with a 5:18, before a slightly slower than anticipated second mile of 5:27. Feeling strong I decided to push the pace on a little bit, whilst still striving for that consistent rhythm and action, and I was delighted with how strongly I grew into the second half of the run clocking 5:11, 5:07 and 5:07 to finish the 5 miles in 26:24.

Friday saw me do 10 miles running home from work in Penwortham at 6:26 pace in my new replacement trainers. I have attributed the recent Achilles problem to switching to a different brand of trainers at around the same time as the flare up occurred. I have had physio and kept a close eye on it and there is nothing untoward so far as we can tell, which suggests that this may be the case.

On Sunday I did my long run early morning with the company of Rob Affleck, and it was my strongest one in quite some time, as we went through 8 miles at 6:31 pace, before I got down to an average pace of 5:49 for the second half of the run to end up with 6:09 pace average for the full 16, we topped it up with a cool down jog to fetch a total return of 17.5 miles at 6:18s.

Total mileage for the week: 71

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:25

Total mileage so far this month (February): 127

Total mileage for 2017: 401.5

Average miles per day 2017: 9.34

Fresh start

The start of a new month, and putting a frustrating January behind me, I have begun this new one in a more positive frame of mind and hopefully I have got over the recent stop-start difficulties with my training and will be able to get back up to speed and kick start my year.

Thankfully I haven't had too much after effect from the spiking at last week's cross country and I have had my best training week in quite some time. I even topped it off nicely with a solid runout at the Preston Park run this weekend.

Having got my week underway with a fairly easy start, settling for an eight mile run, as opposed to my usual 10-12 on a Monday, as I tried to rest my foot up a little bit and allow the wound to heal as much as possible to see if I could get away with some speed work the following day.

Indeed I did manage to, and it was actually my best speed session in a while. I still didn't make it to the track, as I had to be back for a massage and was squeezing the session in a bit after work. So instead, I did a makeshift mile repeat workout around the Wesham handicap route. For those that this route is unfamiliar to, it is a two mile loop that takes in a flat section down Blackpool Road (kirkham bypass), one tight bend at the bottom of dowbridge and a few steep hill climbs and generous down hill sections on the second mile. I did a 15 minute warm up loop, followed by 5 x 1 miles off a 90 second jog recovery. Bearing in mind my lack of recent speed work, I was quite chuffed with my return of 5:14, 5:01, 5:01, 5:06 and a final mile of 5:30 as I decided to tempo my final repeat as I was happy with the amount I had got out of the first 4 repeats.

With a confidence booster from that session, I took it easy with another 8 mile recovery run on Wednesday, ahead of my usual docks tempo run on Thursday. I was down to step up my tempo training from 4 to 5 miles this week, and despite missing a few of my recent times and having an up and down few weeks, we decided to stick to the plan. The run couldn't have been expected to go much better really, and I managed to clock 26:57 for an average pace of 5:23 into some stiff winds at some points.

Friday's run was a steady 10 miler at 6:30 pace, as I had it in my head that I wanted to have a go at the local park run on the Saturday in order to see what sort of shape I was in and to basically give myself a starting point to base my fitness from and to give myself something to work with in the coming weeks. I have managed to maintain a half decent mileage despite the recent problems, and I think I am more in need of doing some extra speed work, so making use of the free park runs is useful, as it enables you to get a decent early morning workout over the 5k distance. I turned up expecting to be running in the region of a low 16, which I would have taken, as my best time on the course was 16:02 and would indicate that I was still not far off from race fitness. 

The presence of Chris Durney of Preston Harriers helped me to get up to a strong start and the company at the front definitely helped us both to push a fairly quick pace throughout, and as I crossed the finish line I thought I might have actually managed to just dip below the 16 minute mark and set a new pb, when I was told that my time was actually 15:42 and not that far off the course record I was quite shocked though! Not a bad indicator of where I am at considering the start to the year I have had and the fact I haven't done any speed work on the track for around 12 weeks! I reckon that the hilly nature of the course and the volume of traffic you have to contend with as he laps tick over mean that the run would probably equate to around 15:15ish on a flatter course with more serious competition, so hopefully in the coming months I will be able to get down towards 15 minutes over the 5k distance.

On Sunday I finished off a solid week with a 17 mile long run through the lanes with Rob Affleck (and a flock of sheep) for company. It was my longest run of the year so far and I was happy with the pace as we recorded 6:13 on average and finished strongly too with the last mile down to 5:40 pace.

Looking back on my start to this year in comparison to January 2016, and I have managed to get 274.5 miles under my belt this January, whereas twelve months ago I managed to start off the first month strongly and recorded 315 miles in the first month - but seen as I was running twice a day at this time last year, I am actually not that far off with my current mileage if I manage to start doubling up again a couple of times a week in the coming few weeks.

Total mileage for the week: 74

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:29

Total mileage for January: 274.5

Total mileage so far this month (February): 56

Total mileage for 2017: 330.5

Average miles per day 2017: 8.84

Dry January

Sometimes you've just got to roll with the punches, and at the moment it has certainly felt as though that is what I have been having to do lately. Still, yesterday felt like a particularly low blow and took the wind out of me somewhat. 

I have had no real cross country season at all, despite it being one of my favourite (and arguably strongest) events. I had hoped to catch the back end of the season and use the Northern's as a bit of a platform to build some base fitness and run myself into a bit of form ahead of next months National Championships race and an outside shot of the Intercounties team if I could impress enough to earn a late call up.

Unfortunately, no sooner did my season belatedly get underway, than I was forced to pull out of the race and concede that it just wasn't meant to be after what has been well described by one of my Facebook friends as very much like an "incident at turn 1 in formula one". 

The Knowsley course was something of a bog and there was an unrelenting mud track - but that is just how I like my crosscountry usually, I am fairly comfortable churning it out in the thick stuff, but nevertheless if I am being honest I wasn't entirely confident of making it around the three laps with both shoes in tact, such was the cleggyness of the surface. I had tied them up as tight as possible and quadruple knotted them and basically hoped for the best that if I was careful I would get around in one piece.

I toed the line and in the early stages I did as much as I could to get settled in a decent position, and I felt that I had managed to do so, getting in and amongst the pack that I knew I wanted to be in. As we descended into the mud pit for the very first time just 0.45 miles in to the race however, disaster struck. Firstly I got spiked through the outside of my right foot by a member of the pack, these things happen and if that had been the only problem I could still undoubtably have continued. Unfortunately though, pretty much within the same stride, I felt my left heel clip and my shoe was gone. 

I did try to get the shoe back, but by the time the herd of runners had subsided enough for me to make a grab for it, too much time had already passed for me to be able to get back into the race. It did cross my mind to just jump back in and continue to use it as a fitness exercise, but I had tied the boot that much and that tightly that I couldn't get the damn thing back on at all! Not only that, but having already felt the pain of having a spike through the foot, I wasn't about to try and run bare foot - not from that far out! 

The frustration that I have felt since has been unbelievable. The difficulties that I have encountered throughout January have really made me realise just how much I love my running and how much I miss it when it is taken away from me. Not only that, but having only raced once in the last two months now (discounting yesterday's farce!) I have definitely got my hunger for racing back again. After a busy November, I definitely needed a break from the exertions of race day, but I can't wait to get back on a race day start line on the roads again now as soon as possible.

I just hope that after my luck seems to have run dry through the month of January, that the changing of the months might bring with it an upturn in fitness and fortunes.

This month has been disastrous from a racing perspective, but if I can take anything from it, at least I have been able to keep ticking over with at least some mileage and a few sessions to maintain a certain level of fitness.

This week I managed to string together a fairly decent training week up until Saturday. I did a strong hill session on Tuesday, with 8 x 2 minute reps off a minute recovery, which was tough but enjoyable and I was pleased with my form.

On Thursday I did a 4 mile tempo at a fairly relaxed 5:27 pace into a strong headwind. In spite of the puncture wound I picked up at cross country, I did get out for a half decent run on Sunday, although a full long run proved too much for me as I had to give in to the pain in my foot after 13 miles. I was pleasantly surprised by the pace as I felt I had taken it easy and had just wanted to get some miles in the tank, and I averaged a healthy 6:15 pace throughout.

Total mileage for the week: 62

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:30

Total mileage so far this month (January): 256.5

Average miles per day 2017: 8.84

Learning from past mistakes

A difficult start to 2017 took another frustrating twist over the last week, as stomach and gut problems ruined my training plans and any intentions I had for racing over the weekend just gone.

It seems to have been a case of one step forward and two steps back so far, and this latest lurch back has been the toughest one to take yet. My illness was something of a mystery to me for much of the week, but by Friday it became clear that I had suffered from the Nora Virus. It is a particularly nasty virus that hits sufferers with sickness and diarrhoea and particularly bad stomach cramps in my case.

I had felt fine on Monday and enjoyed a comfortable 10.5 miles run home from work. I had already planned out my speed session for the Tuesday evening, as I wanted to do 4 x 1 mile reps off a two and a half minute recovery. I didn't feel particularly great by the time it came around, but being stubborn I still gave it a go. I felt terrible throughout, and by the end my pace was way off, as my splits of 4:58, 5:06, 5:12 and 5:33 show.

As soon as my session finished, my toilet problems started. They didn't pass until Saturday afternoon. Although I did manage to maintain some sort of running at least, it was little more than jogging pace as I couldn't muster much more than 7 minute miles, and had to dive into fields and public toilets on numerous occasions...

As the week went on I felt worse and worse, the constant stomach pains and visits to the toilet had left me with barely enough energy for work, never mind anything else. Despite this I didn't make my decision not to do Inskip Half until Friday evening. 

There simply was no point in doing the race, even as a tempo session or built in to a steady long run, even if I did recover from the illness in time. I have made the mistake of racing when I am not fit on a few previous occasions and it is never a good idea, but particularly over a distance like the half marathon where the energy exerted is so big. I made that error at Cardiff last year, racing just a week after a chest infection, it took ages for that particular scar to heal mentally and the lesson is one that has stayed with me. I am in no doubt that if I had done Inskip I would have set myself back a long way.

Looking at my training since Christmas, I am happy with 14 of my runs out of 28 days. That means that half of the past month has not been good enough. Running is all about peaks and troughs, and I have been fortunate to have hit a massive peak in October/November last year, the last few weeks have been a bit of a dip in form and fortunes, but I am hopeful that if I keep my head down I will be heading back in the right direction again soon enough. March and April are my next big target months, so I will use the time between now and hen to try and get myself back in the best shape possible.

My crosscountry season so far has been pretty much none existent, but if I manage to put a solid week in over the next few days I will hopefully manage to get my 2017 off to some sort of a start by taking part in the Northern Championships next Saturday.

Total mileage for the week: 51

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:36

Total mileage so far this month (January): 194.5

Average miles per day 2017: 8.84