Thursday, 18th March – 38 days to go

Marathon Talk is spot on again with a particularly fine Tony’s Trials. The time seems to be flying past and pretty soon the Paris runners will be tapering. Don’t know anyone doing Brighton but Mick is doing Lochaber

Distance Training tonight with Mick’s group. We head for a football field at Apperley Bridge – much easier for us to get to than the other Bradford locations. Not untypically we’ve had rain on Thursday afternoon again, but it’s reasonable by the time the session starts. We aim to do 300m intervals round a couple of pitches.

I’m a little sluggish at the start but am back on it by the time we do the third run. We finish off with some relays which are very tiring. I felt a twinge with the hamstring on my right leg towards the end of the session so have to back off for the last couple of runs. By the end of the session it’s raining hard and we rather rush through the cool down to head for home.

I’ve got to say everyone seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds and there’s a very positive vibe among the group. The course has certainly been both worthwhile and enjoyable. Back to the track next week, so I’m not planning anything too strenuous in the interim.