The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

I've got a few sessions to tell you about and not very much time to do it in. So, it's going to need to be a bit of a whistle-stop tour this time, just the details and very little waffle. I expect there may be some sighs of relief at this anyway!

On Monday morning I was out for my usual start the week shorter run, the three mile route, and boy, was it cold. It was about minus 7! That's the coldest it's been for a while, serious ice on any accumulated water. Still, it was beautiful and clear and I enjoyed the experience.

Distance: 342.7 miles

Time: 62:43:16

Calories: 32,647

This week has just felt like a whirlwind, I don't quite know how I've arrived at Friday already, but it has been a mad dash all the way. Some weeks just seem to have the brakes off and this was one of them. I'm very glad it's Friday, at least the weekend will be busy in a different way. I've felt a bit out of breath in some ways, just trying to keep up with everything that needed to be done - which, strangely, makes running the calm time and the time when I can actually breathe for a while! I'm not entirely sure that makes sense, but I know what I mean.

I had a bit of a panic before heading out for my run this morning, nothing major, but my watch appears to have grown some legs and wandered off somewhere. In some ways it probably doesn't matter, I knew which run I needed to do, but then again, you've probably noticed my mad desire to quantify things. I would be bereft without the means to see how long it took me to complete the route! I fished my old watch out of a drawer so that there would be something there to take stock of what I was doing, which still leaves the question of where the watch is.

I did ten and a half miles yesterday afternoon and felt good about it too. It amazes me that ten miles has become an amount to simply go out and do, I've never been above 6 miles for that sort of attitude before now. It's a good thing though as I was feeling really tired and was concerned that it would be a duff run, it turned out very differently. I did the first three miles quite hard, still about ten minute miling, but it was almost all uphill so I was really rather pleased with that - it was hard work, but I was determined to do it.

I bought 2 pairs of trainers when I started training for the marathon and decided to wear one for 300 miles, then alternate them and try and actually do things properly for once in my life. My usual trick is to lose track of how far I've gone in them and to end up slightly injured and wondering why when my shoes are worn out. Today I got a good lesson in how easy that is to do. My first pair of shoes still look barely worn, a bit dirtier than the unworn pair, but that's the only outward difference. What was very interesting was how different the unworn pair felt when I put them on.

For the first time in a very long time, I think it really was a mistake to be out there this morning. I'm still feeling very bunged up, and while I got up fine, as soon as I started running it didn't seem like such a good idea. I don't think it was the rain either, I'd put on a shower proof jacket and it wasn't too cold, so I didn't really care about that bit. In the end I cut it short and just did 3 miles instead of 4, it simply wasn't happening today, it just felt like a grind.

Bit of an odd run this morning, I didn't particularly want to get out of bed. I was having a very peculiar dream about teaching Ryan maths! Anyway, I got up and out there anyway. What with being bunged up (nice snotty nose), fogged up (a very foggy morning, and glasses that fogged up completely) and somewhat spaced out.

I had a 20 mile run to do yesterday and for the first time so far in my training, I was feeling really, really nervous about as the time drew nearer. I suspect there were a mixture of reasons for his, not least, simply that 20 miles is a very long way. Also, I've been feeling bunged up for the last few days, nothing seems to be coming of it, I'm certainly not ill, but it was playing on my mind a little too.

It snowed really rather a lot yesterday, about three inches in quite a short space of time. So, unsurprisingly it was still around this morning. I decided to go out in my trail shoes, not really due to the uneven surface, although it did help with that, more to ensure that my shoes weren't soaked the day before I'm supposed to be tackling 20 miles! As it was, nothing was wet, it had all frozen solid overnight and the trail shoes were pretty good in the grip department.

I went out this morning for the biggest run of the week, something that would have seemed quite long to me until quite recently, now it doesn't really. I did 10 miles. Imagine that! Ten miles isn't very far any more! How did that happen? Anyway, I wasn't at all sure that I wanted to get out there at all this morning. I wasn't feeling at my best, entirely self inflicted, sadly, but there you have it. And no, it didn't involve alcohol - I've given that up for Lent. It involved sugar overload instead.