With all the races and parkruns taken on in recent weeks, I’d almost forgotten I was still ploughing my way through another 16 week marathon programme.

But a quick glance at my planner this morning confirmed it – eight weeks completed, rounded off with a solid 14 mile long run on Sunday. 

I heeded my own advice from my previous post and dialled the pace down a bit, although the weather was doing a pretty good job anyway as each run day proved hot and humid.  Hayfever too has been a right pain in the proverbial and punishes me whenever I venture off road and out to places a little more scenic.

My impromptu step streak is also continuing.  I blame Garmin Connect – it keeps throwing down these little challenges.  So now I’ve gone 24 days on the bounce without dipping under 10,000 steps.  Only once or twice have I been left walking in circles around the living room late at night in order to top up my daily total!  And the poor dog doesn’t know what’s hit him…

Not sure why I’m keeping it going as all the running I do puts my weekly and monthly averages way over the 10k guideline anyway.  Just a bit of fun, I guess.  I’ll knock it on the head once I get to a complete month.

One thing I haven’t quite got my head around yet is which marathon I’m actually training for.

The plan, you may recall, was to sneak a summer event in before training starts for Snowdonia.  My confidence is on the up after Manchester and a string a PBs over shorter distances, meaning I fancy another crack at a decent marathon time.

I was lined up for Gloucester on 5 August, but when I went to enter and pay my way, the event was no longer listed.  Turns out the organisers have been forced to cancel due to routing issues and no local authority support with the required road closures.

They are staging an alternative on the same date, but it’s on trail paths through the Forest of Dean and involves four laps of a 10k course.  I’m not sure my sanity can take four laps.  The most I’ve done is three on a 20-miler in Stafford that still stands out as my least favourite ever race (made even worse by torrential rain).

From what I can see, my only other option around that time is the Thames Meander the following Saturday, which is an out-and-back along the Thames Path.  I like the sound of it, but it will involve an overnight stop so makes things a little more complicated with regards to little one.

I’ll need to decide soon before they fill up as it would be a shame to let the last eight weeks of hard graft and improving form go to waste.

Oh, and the fact I didn’t even have to mention the ‘i’ word in this particular update tells you all you need to know about that.  Happy days!