Monday am - Drove in to Sport City, did 2 miles out and back on the tow path to Ashton and then picked up my bag and ran in to work. 6 miles.

Monday pm - Trained with Norman's group at Sport City. Ran from work back to Sport City and did the warm up loop with the group, so got a decent warm up in. I felt almost a stranger in the group tonight as I hadn't been down for some time, through illness and work commitments. The session was 3 x 1200m and 1 x800m around the car park at Sport City, on a decent off road loop. I slightly jumped the start on the first rep, but expected the others to come charging past me. As it was, they didn't and I led for much of the rep, finishing in 3.49. I think Norman must have had a word with the others about an old man being in front, so the second one was much quicker. I think Simon Horsfield did a 3.37 and I came home in about 5th in 3.41. Again, Norman must have had another word and told the others to cool it and I spent much of the last rep at the front, coming home in what seemed a far easier 3.41. I know from doing this session that 3.40 is a very good time for that loop, so to do 2 in 3.41 wasn't bad at all. For good measure, James Bailey and I stuck in an extra 800m on the end. I was heavy at the start on this one, but got going by the end. Couple of miles warm down with James to finish. 9 miles.  

Tuesday am - Steady run before seeing Duncan for physio. Felt remarkably spritely on my least favourite run of the week, maybe the lay off has done me good. Duncan worked primarily on my right glute - it seemed there was a bit of a knot in there, which had been slightly stiff over the weekend, so I was glad to get it ironed out before it became a problem. 4 miles.

Tuesday pm - Ran back to my car, which was parked a mile outside of Manchester and then did a loop of Salford Quays and past both Old Trafford stadiums before looping back to the car. Strides and drills, including high knees, heel flicks and a couple of other drills before driving home. 8 miles.

Wednesday am - Parked up at Wythenshawe and ran in from there. A very pleasant run as I was able to listen to commentary on the Test Match cricket from Abu Dhabi as I ran in. There was something slightly surreal about listening to the voice of Christopher Martin-Jenkins as I ran in through the streets of Moss Side. 6 miles

Wednesday pm - Ran back to Wythenshawe to get in some extra mileage and did the session with Norman's group. Most people were racing and so the session was 7-8 x 300 off 100m jog recovery. This is no exaggeration, but although I was giving it plenty, I was coming in about 10th on each rep behind the likes of Lancashire, Brooks, Horsfield, Bailey, Scarlett and some of Paul Roden's training group (some good talents in there). Not many groups where you would get that sort of quality - I was doing each rep in about 46 on a fairly windy night. Warm down with the group - 9 miles.

Thursday pm - Ran into work after parking my car near Southern Cemetry. Legs a little sluggish. 4.5 miles

Thursday pm - Back to Chorlton again via the same route as the morning. Strides and drills. 4.5 miles. After the run, I drove to Duncan's and had a pre race massage with Sue. She ironed out my knotty glute again.

Friday - rest day

Saturday - Northern Cross Country Championships. 12 miles including warm up and warm down. See race report. Rather than park in the main car park which was some distance away, we parked in the closer retail park as Anna had signed up for a free trial at the gym. Once the race had finished, she went across there to do her session and I joined her after the presentation. As Anna still wanted to do 20 minutes more when I got there I did a further 3 miles warm down, had a good stretch and a nice warm shower. It was good to get clean before driving home. 3miles

Sunday am - Ran with Gavin Thompson - its amazing to think that Gavin once came 3rd in the NCAA Cross Country behind Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenheim - what a result that looks like 10 years on! Gavin is just trying to get fitter and wanted to do 12, I was thinking about doing 16, so we settled for a very pleasant 14miles as a compromise. Gavin is a really good bloke and the 1 hour 30 odd passed very quickly. 14 miles.

Result wise, a very pleasing week and I now have a gold medal sat on the mantelpiece, so you won't hear me moaning at all. 81 miles total actually was pretty hefty in race week and I can probably ease down a little more in the week preceding the National. The plan is now to have another light-ish week, run Alsager on Sunday, then bag 2 big weeks and ease down for the National.