St Andrews Day, 3.2 miles

St Andrew's Day was a great excuse to shake up the mundane and have a laugh round the streets. I got the kilt on and decided to head out in kilt and vest. Bad news, it was freezing and windy, so back inside for a sporran and a top. OK, I should've spent some time thinking colour.

A few photos and abuse from Susan and I was off. Decided to run one of my regular routes round Long Buftlers and Medway rather than head for the hills.

The people of Harpenden are a strange bunch. Not one beep of a horn, not one shout of abuse and the one lady who did eye contact looked away immediately! It was very funny, maybe I was gonna shout "Freee-dom!"

Oh well. 3.2 miles added and definetely the best so far. Can't wait till the 500 mile mark, they'll be shocked when one of The Proclaimers hits the streets.

Mud, Ponds and Rain, 15.1 miles

Sunday's long run was set at 12 miles and in the direction of Redbourn. The weather was the pits. Heavy rain overnight had stopped when I set off at 0645 but within minutes it was back.

My Garmin gave up the ghost on the way to the meeting point, I'd forgotten to charge it. Doh. So, I was going to have to run at the lads pace, too fast, for the run. Oh well.

We were joined by a new runner today, Anthony from Liverpool. We met Niall & Dave and headed up towards the Nicky Line but as it was so dark we couldn't take the path. So we headed down Cooters End Lane and then over to Kinsbourne Green, down passed Redbourn Golf Course and onto the lower end of the Nicky Line. The weather was trash and I could already tell this was going to be a longer run than planned. Nice baptism for Anthony.

We ran through Redbourn and out under the M1. we then crossed a muddy field or 2 and made our way back to Redbourn. We had now clocked 9 miles and were a long way from home.

The plan was to take a direct-ish route to Beeson End Lane but it turned out to be a trek across the boglands of Hertfordshire. As the lads floated along I felt like a heffalump, sinking and slipping my way. That was energy sapping. We could see roughly where we should've been going but seemed to be going round in circles. Eventually we made our way down towards a house and rejoiced as we found a recognisable path. We knew it was 3 uphill miles to home, which to be honest at the time was a relief.

We made our way up the hills with Dave and Niall bolting it while Anthony and I ceased any form of communication and just plodded on. Dave left us all for dead while Niall came back to offer moral support. We made it to Crabtree Lane as a 3, high fived and then Iwas off home.

Toughest run in ages. Mentally distressing, especially at mile 9 knowing we're miles from home and then again when we were lost in the bogs!

Its taken a good while to recover. I was absolutely freezing. Did I mention the weather? Oh and my new trainers, hard to believe they are only 3 runs old.

Anthony passed the initiation.

10 miles and then breakfast, 10.2 miles

Took off early this morning to get a recovery run in. The rain had gone and it was looking like a nice bright morning. I decided to head for Childwickbury, passed Stanley Kubrik's old place and back via Beeson End Lane.

As the weather was so good I decided to go that way via Medway and the Pipers Lane / Ayres End Lane which would add a bit of variety to the usual 8 mile loop.

The focus was on staying close to 9min/mile pace, keeping the heart rate down and running with good form.

The roads were quiet except for the odd jogger and dog walker. The route up to round the lanes was longer than I anticipated and I realised it was going to be a 10 mile run. A bit longer than required and not smart given tomorrow's long run.

I ploughed on and avoided the puddles and mud as much as possible. With the sun out and a bit of blue sky it was a really pleasant run. In the end I covered 10.2 miles, average pace 8.53, average HR 146 and 1425 calories burned.

Solo Tempo, 7.2miles

Today's a tempo run, which means a sustained effort above race pace. This was to be a 15 min warm-up, 4 miles at sub 6.50 pace and then a 15 minute warm down.


We've had so much rain that anything off road was gonna wreck my new go-flash Asics, so I decided to use the Lower Lea Valley walk for the bulk of the 4 miles. I made my way to the bottom of Cooters End Lane and from there decided the 4miles would be a loop over to Cherry Tree Lane and then back along the Wheathampstead Road. The advantage in my head was that it would be flat and not too muddy. Well it turned out to be dry but much tougher than I envisaged.


The run along from Cooters End Lane to Westfield Road is tarmac. It was flat until the end where there's an incline reminiscent of the locks on the GU canal. From there to Station Road is a slight uphill incline and with the added danger of pit bull terriers out for a walk with their hoody owners, that wasn't a pleasant part of the run.


From Station Road to Cherry Tree Lane is one of my regular sections but again has a good incline at both Crabtree and Cherry Tree Lane. The latter was 2.5 miles into the 4 and I was having to dig deep to maintain the pace.


From Cherry Tree Lane back to the main road was another tough incline, as was most of the section back towards Batford. Fortunately the last 800 yards included the downhill towards the mini roundabout and I let gravity do the work and increase my cadence. I was gasping by this point and glanced at the Garmin to see I had 400 yards to go. I put my head down and accelarated to end on the bridge over the River Lea.


I was pretty pleased with the effort averaging 6.47 min/mile over the 4 which is faster over a longer distance than normal. And my new trainers are still shiny.

Easy week, 7.5miles

My 24 week schedule is split into 4 week blocks, each involving 3 hard weeks and an easy week. Next week was due to be my easy one but circumstances have conspired to keep me off the roads this week. So this is now an easy one and I'll kick on again from Sunday.

With Susan back home I took off for an jog around Harpenden. I took the Southdown loop and added a circuit of the avenues to take the run to 7.5miles @ 9.03 min/miles.

Given the stress of the week I was glad to get out and try to ease the tension. I focused on keeping my arms low, cadence high and form good. That lot helped ease the tension in my back and neck, which I hadn't been aware of until I started running.

I was out in my new trainers tonight, Asics Gel-Stratus 3. My Nike Pegasus are the first casualties of the 1000 mile challenge. The last two sodden runs have made mincemeat of them and what was originally a small nick has turned into a major rip down the side. Susan doesn't believe me, she thinks I just wanted a brand new shiny pair. Me?

Ton Up, 15.4 miles

That's 100 miles covered towards my target of 1000. Today's long run was anticipated to be very wet as it seems to have been raining for a week and the forecast was for heavy showers.

Surprisingly it was dry at 0630 and after a slight delay to my departure I was off to Niall's for the 0650 meet. The call had been for a run to Sherards Wood and back, which is somewhere in the region of 13 miles.

We were 4, Simon was doing the Willows 10k and so it was Dave, Paul, Niall and myself. We set off with the rain looking likely but somehow it didn't happen and in fact it brightened up and was a lovely morning.

The roads were very wet, as were the trails, mudbath would be a good description. However, we pressed on at a kind of 8-8.30 pace. A bit faster than I'd have liked so I threw in the odd slow bit to try and get the lads to take it easy. It kind of worked but then the trails became so bad that it wasn't an issue and the pace slowed to nearer 9's.

We made it to Sherards Wood in one piece. It seemed very easy and fast. Then the fun began as Niall took us on a route through the woods. It involved a steep section which was desparately boggy. Niall skipped through it, I was torn to shreds by a thorn bush and nearly went head first into the mud, Dave and Paul had similar near misses but somehow we made it to the bottom. I was bleeding badly and my new compression socks were already trashed.

The route home had a Brocket Hall extension added by Niall. Very pleasant it was too as we made our way across the golf course.

From there it was known territory and we split at Crabtree Lane so that I could head home. By the time I got home I'd done 15.4 miles, I think that's my longest run ever. Oh and that makes 100.1miles completed. Nice one.

Tempo after dark, 5.7 miles

A busy day and a meeting in Stokenchurch meant no daytime run. So my tempo run had to happen during the evening.

The plan was a 15min warm up and then 3miles at 6.35 pace. The warm-up was fine and I'd decided to start the 3 miles at the end of Dalkeith Road and head over towards Long Buftlers and then back down Dalkieth. That turned out to be bang on 3 miles which was the only good bit.

Within minutes of starting the 3 miles I was feeling dizzy and very shakey. I pressed on but felt pretty bad most of the way. At the end the 3 miles were completed in 21 mins.

On reflection I hadn't eaten through the day so set off with nothing in the tank. I made up for it when I got home but will have to make sure I eat enough during the day.