As I explained in my last post, I've gone back to the training routine which worked for me in 2009. That means three runs a week; a short recovery run Tuesday, a tempo run Thursday, and an LSR Sunday.

Tuesday's 2 miler was straightforward enough, in fact I felt good and ran it a little quicker than planned. Thursday's 5-mile tempo run was the 3rd successive week I'd run this distance and route so a good test of how I'm progressing. I'm aiming at 9:30 pace for the middle 3 miles and was pretty much bang on the money with splits of 9:30, 9:28, and 9:29. I find the stronger you feel, the easier it is to run at a consistent pace. I've also completed each of these runs around 20 secs quicker than the previous effort, finishing this week in 49:20.

Today's LSR was my first 7 mile run since July last year. It was a fantastic morning for running, a bit cool but with strong sunshine filtering through the trees. The first 5 or so miles were fine but the next mile and a half were tough, my feet and ankles were sore, and it was a bit of a slog until I seemed to recover a bit of strength for the last half mile. I'd spent much of Friday and Saturday in the garden so that probably contributed to my tiredness. Still, it was a good mental challenge and I completed the run in 1:15:47 (10:49 /mile).

So 14 miles for the week for me. I'm not setting any records with my weekly mileage or pace but I'm delighted with how it's going. I'm struggling a bit on the longer runs but that should improve with time. Next week I'll be adding another mile to my tempo run taking that up to 6 miles.

So, just three and half weeks to go 'till the first Yateley race now - I'm getting quite excited!

Enjoy your running!