The last couple of weeks have been the toughest 2 weeks I've ever done in terms of training volume and i'm still not finished. After Mansfield I wanted to get some good miles in which then allows me to back off slightly for Liverpool. I'm not sure how my body is going to react/recover from all the work on the easier week so we'll see!

Last weekend after Mansfield Relays I was up with the lads in Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest. That was a great laugh, there was myself, Lisgo, Cragg, Barkes, Boardman, Tommy D, Joe Mac & Stu King all in a apartment . Lisgo used to work there so we got it ridiculously cheap and into everything for free. We just messed around in the pools, the driving range and on the bowling alley. The weekend wouldn't have been complete without a long run in Sherwood Forest early Sunday morning! That place is amazing for running providing you don't get lost.

I did have a little mishap though where I managed, sorry, Barkesy managed to break my toe. I guess I came off lightly as Lisgo 'lost' his shorts soon after than they went down the river rapids before him leaving him indecently stranded. You can imagine it was pretty amusing for us but not others! Thankfully we didn't get kicked out the place.

After Centre Parcs the real hard work began for me, well that's what I thought until I woke up Monday feeling pretty bad so it started with a rest morning. As the day went on I improved so just did 1hour 35 on the evening feeling good. Tuesdays session was a key one for me, 6x5mins off 1min. I love running with the uni group as there's just so many people and it's a great vibe for training. The session was actually filmed by Tom & James who I work alongside at Athleticos- http://www.athleticos.org/video/517396-Loughborough-Endurance-Squad

Cragg came down for it this week as he was in town sorting his new house out. I can't wait for him to get here and train with him more, he will improve out group so much with his hard work attitude. For me personally I had a great session I started out at 4:44's then got quicker and averaged 4:39. I can only compare it to when I did it in Kenya last year off 2mins and averaged 4:52. I'd like to think it was slightly better so all the signs are positive at the moment and the strength work is paying off.

I continued on with my big week with plenty of running. I linked up with Will Clarke on the Thursday for a 10 miler, that was good. Only thing is, I head off home to put my feet up and he continues training for the next 6 hours or something like that. Triathletes = mental.

The weekend I had hills, 5x4mins on Deans Lane. For those who don't know it, it's a road hill in the countryside which has a gradual incline, slight downhill and then final incline. It's a good hill to get the legs spinning whilst also working the on hill running technique. I rounded off my week with a long run with Andy Vernon who was in town for the Olympic brief. We had to run at 6:30 which was a pain but sometimes it has to be done! I then headed off to Bristol to film the UK Cross Challenge event. Watch out for the highlights video i've produced, that will appear on the UKA website in the next day or so.

The week was the biggest i've ever done, tipping over the 100 mile marker for the first time. Not really a big thing but people always seen to go on about real training being 100+, so does that make me a real athlete for all of 7 days? This week is going to be very similar, I don't really count my miles too much, I just crack on as to how I feel then total them up at the end. So this week will be 90+ again with some quality work.

Last night I was on the track doing 200 on 200 off... aka the stupid but effective way to run a 31:40 10k. I felt terrible warming up as I was just so tired so Nuttall got his wish of me turning up to sessions feeling like I was just finishing however once I got into it I felt good and enjoyed it. Moses and Mark Buckingham were in there too going strong. Huge, huge, huge well done to Lewis on his 5 mile PB during a fartlek I training!  He needs to get out racing more and set some proper PB's now.

I'll finish this week off with some strong steady running and another hill session on Saturday before heading up home to catch up with the family. At the moment i'm really enjoying this hard work and I know in the long run it'll pay off, especially when I pull on the racing flats in the new year.