Tuesday, 16th February – 68 days to go

Still drizzling. Mooch about in High Bentham for a while then head off towards home. We’ve decided we’ll get out for a walk in Settle if it’s fine or Skipton if it isn’t. Drizzle turns to steady rain. No walk.

Have iced ankle regularly and applied Voltarol. Can still feel it, but not too bad. No other niggles. Decide I’m fit enough to do the VARR training session. Liz has quick peek at results for Liversedge Half and Adrian’s done 1:29. Get to Kirkstall and it’s cold. People are waiting inside. Brace myself and enter gym. Hate gyms. Don’t have time to go into full gym entry depression mode as Sophie is first person I see. Ask her about Liversedge. She looks aghast – 2:16. Hilly. I hate hills so I’m glad I was too late to enter. She sees it as a good, challenging training run and is happy with time. We all move outside.

Tom explains about different groups. I try and persuade Liz to go with group 2 but she’s adamant she’s going with group 1. Kay hands over VARR running vests. Excellent, I can run in club colours for last PECO even though I’m a 2nd claimer. Move into group 4 led by Rick. There’s five of us and I know everyone to some extent. Group 5 boys wander over. They’re all feeling knackered or ill and have decided to come with us. Have momentary panic. They’re all scarily fast and this might result in me having to go faster than I want to. Calm myself with thought that the other group 4ers are in the same boat and if we all stick together we can get through it.

Set off. Paul S waits for me as I stow vests in car. Pick his brain on marathons on warm-up run up Kirkstall Road. He’s done thirteen marathons but none for 10 years. Recovery messes with his other runs so he’s given them up. Paul and Liz seem to race every weekend throughout summer all over north of England so can see his point on avoiding marathon recoveries. When he did run them his approach was similar to the one I’m taking. He advises not too many long runs, so I’m happy with that. We pick up the pace as we head towards Armley and then it’s a succession of fast pace with long strides interspersed with slow periods where we’re almost walking. Decide this is interval training but don’t know whether it’s short intervals or long intervals. Chat with Sam. He’s on a long build up to a half marathon. We chat about training, Ellie’s progress, Joe’s comeback and then off into another fast bit. Rick does a great job reining in the fast guys and he heads for home as we storm back to base.

Back outside the gym we do recovery stretches. Chat with Michael. He tells me we’ve done just short of six miles in 48 minutes. This is normal for this particular session. Ask him about his 18 miler last weekend. Relieved to hear he was doing it real slow as well. 2 hours 50 minutes at 9:30 pace. Maybe everyone else is not so far ahead of me as I’d thought. Shoot the breeze with the rest of the group while waiting for Liz.

Liz returns with group 2, red faced and gasping for breath. She’s had her arm twisted to go with what is clearly the “proper” group for her. We both agree it’s been a good session. I’ve managed to think about running all the way round with mind not wandering off at a tangent. Need to keep this focus. Ankle is ok, no other niggles.