General Update

A good long run yesterday. Weather was fantastic ... sunny, dry, hardly any wind and a sensible temperature (14 degrees C/57 degrees F).

Began with a couple of miles at about 8 mins per mile then slowly increased the pace until the last couple of miles were about 7:20 each. This isn't easy to achieve, in fact it's hard work and takes a lot of concentration - very rewarding though.

On Tuesday morning I ran north from home to Timble and then around the reservoirs and countryside in the wonderful Washburn Valley - ran home again to make it a good 24 miles in total. Later found out during an e-conversation with Sharon Gayter that she was running in area at exactly the same time. We didn't see each other but it's an amazing coincidence as I live only about 7 miles away but Sharon must live 77 miles away.

Feel extremely fit at the moment and at first glance the statistics seem to back up this assumption. Hopefully I'll be able to post some on this site next week.

Training gets a bit scary from next week. There is only four training weeks to go now, followed by three weeks tapering. Included in that training is a 39 mile run next week, two 29 milers the week after and two 32 milers the week after that. Not sure if that training will work for a 200+ mile run but I remember reading that Ann Trason often did back to back 40 milers when training for a 48 hr race. I feel OK about the training and I'm confident about it which is a good thing.

Hopefully I'll get a few races in too, in fact the club (Otley AC) have put me in the relay team for the North of England 12 stage relay on Sunday in Stockport. Apparently I'm on the final stage racing aver the magnificent distance of 2.36 miles.

From the sublime to the ridiculous then. Not done one of these relays for a few years and I'm really looking forward to it ... we've got a strong team out this year.