Tubthumping Runner

This week has been a tough one in terms of motivation. The nights draw in, no sun during the daytime and it's damp and cold. Still the weekend came around and I was able to do a decent session and a good long run. I'm building up the volume slowly and still pain free so all good. My long run is now at 16 miles which I did today so pleased with that. I don't feel too tired. It would be great to have the odd day of sun but I don't think we'll see it again until March. Weekly miles: 96 (not checked my weekly miles in ages) with a day off. Negatives: Losing toenails (consequence of training).                   Short lining splitting during session (embarrassing). Positives: I've strung 3 weeks of solid training together.                 My championship entry for London has been accepted.                                  

After Tuesdays fartlek session the plan was to do my first session of speedwork on Friday. This was after a month of easy and steady running. I do my speedwork on Friday evenings which allows me to feel relatively fresh for Sundays longer run. After not doing any faster work for a while I was not looking forward to it as it was going to feel hard. Working at an intensity that hasn't been used for a while was going to be hard and I was realistic about the session and target times. A colleague asked me what my plans were for the weekend. He had a very exciting time planned involving supporting his pro-footballer mate and I thought 'Good lad! Enjoy it!' My Friday night was going to be spent doing 6 x 800m reps followed by 6 x 400m reps off short recoveries. Straight home from work I had a quick espresso threw my kit on and was in a race to beat the dark. Warm up, strides and off we go. My breathing was working and I was 'opening the pipes'. My splits surprised me and I

I've decided to join the blogging world, along with many runners who have blogs and share their training, ideas and opinions. I find these blogs entertaining as many runners share their own unique experiences of running with passion and enthusiasm for sporting purity. I was initially struggling to find a title for my blog and then decided that since it's about me, it may as well explain my running in very simple terms. In a literal sense, I'm a tubthumper. Tubthumping is defined as 'exhibiting extreme tenacity, beyond one's normal stamina' or to quote a line from Chumbawumba's classic hit 'I get knocked down, but I get up again and you're never gonna keep me down'. I've been extremely unfortunate to have suffered some awful injuries - ankle ligament rupture during a marathon (which I finished - I was making my England marathon debut), inguinal hernia, chronic hamstring tendononopathy and several sciatica flare ups which limit my stride and c