Monday

Am - Session in John Leigh Park. Traditionally, Altrincham do this session between Christmas and New Year, but with the way the holidays fell this year, it was done on the bank holiday after New Year instead. John Leigh Park is a small park on a slope and we did 4 sets of 30 seconds, 90 seconds, 30 seconds, and 3min30 seconds efforts, taking in the incline on most efforts and jogging back to our start position after each rep. I was training with (well just behind) a rejeuvenated Andy Norman and Nick Leigh. Andy is always good for a bit of drama, arriving with what he claimed was a deep wound on his leg from a fall but which, upon closer inspection, looked like he'd been stung by a nettle. Great to see Andy running well though. 10miles total.  

Pm - 35minute steady run in Stockton Heath. 5 miles. Strides and drills

Tuesday

Am - Steady run in Worsley. I have a regular physio appointment with Duncan Mason at www.athletematters.com on Tuesday mornings, so do my morning run on the local roads before the appointment. Not my favourite run of the week, but needs must. 4 miles.

Wednesday

Am - Steady run in Manchester, just south of the city. I had to take my car into Manchester as I needed to take some files home for work, so I drove in, parked up and just did a loop from my car. 5 miles.

Pm - During the day at work, my throat started to feel incredibly sore, so I decided that I would be best missing the planned evening track session. This was pretty frustrating as I'd been ill twice just before Christmas. I think that with the recent house move and slightly longer commute, I've probably not been getting as much sleep as I should, so my belated New Year's resolution has to be to get more sleep. The other bonus was the weather tonight was absolutely horrific, so I had a lucky escape there.

Thursday

I had a work meeting in Liverpool and with my throat no better, I decided that the best thing was to rest and make sure I shook off any illness as soon as possible. In the past, I probably would have trained through things like this, but after years of making that mistake, I've learnt that it pays to be sensible. As it happened, in the evening I started to feel better, which was a relief.

Friday

Am - Woke up in the morning feeling almost completely better, so decided to do a run and see how I felt. I parked up at a gym in Brooklands and ran down the towpath into Manchester. Felt pretty good. 7 miles.

Pm - Ran the reverse to my morning's run, with no bad reaction to the morning run. Strides and drills on the grass. 7 miles.

Saturday

Cheshire Cross Country Championships in Winsford. The race was run on one of those innocuous looking courses that looks straightforward enough, but was very heavy underfoot and with a gusting wind, proved pretty challenging. With the illness during the week, I wasn't sure how I would fare, so was delighted when Danny Cliffe took it out in a sensible pace and seemed happy to do all the work for the first couple of laps. I was in a nice rhythm by then and felt able to push on in the second half to win by about 45 seconds in the end. I enjoy the Cheshire Championships and in particular am grateful to Adrian Thiemicke, who has always been an excellent team manager and was the person who recommended that I should join Altrincham in 2002. 11 miles.

Sunday

Am - Did my long run in Bolton with Nick Leigh, Dave Norman and James Bailey from Nick's new super pad. It was reasonably mild and not as windy as it had been. Nick is prolific on the fells but was kind enough to make the run "gently undulating" as opposed to "super steep". I thoroughly enjoyed the run and caught up on all the latest news from Dave, being the mine of information that he is. 15 miles.

Pm - Went to the gym, as my wife had a free trial, so I popped along too. I did 35 minutes on the cross trainer watching Peterborough v Sunderland on the telly and ended the week in super mood as Chris O Grady thumped in a late winner for the Super Owls against West Ham. A few weights to finish as a minor celebration.

Mileage 64 miles.

Not a great week for mileage, but I was hampered by the cold and would only have run about 80 miles anyway, given that I was racing. Still, it was nice to win the County Champs and shake off the cold in double quick time, so hopefully I can get a couple of good weeks in now.