I missed a couple of runs last week as Block 2 drew to a close and fell short of my overall planned mileage by 8% (achieving 279 of the 304 miles slated). I’m not desperately concerned about that. I feel like I have a solid base as I go into the next six weeks of higher impact training. This will be the first time I’ve done any interval sessions in quite a couple of years, so I’m sure those will hurt.

Yesterday’s fifteen miler was tough going for the last two or three as the temperature and humidity were both quite high. There were a couple of points when I thought that I might not complete, but I managed to get to the end – even if the pace did slow quite markedly!

Missed last week’s target by a mile (in this case, literally, so that’s no great shakes). I’m starting to get well and truly into the running during this training block, but I have to say I was surprised at how much I still weigh – even after around ten weeks of solid running. (Heaven knows how much weight I’d piled on since Christmas! Too much Cubase. Not enough Saucony.)

Making amends and I think with another 5-6 kilos shed, I should be at optimum weight for the distances I’m doing. I don’t want to tempt fate, but I seem to be running pretty injury-free right now (wishing I hadn’t typed that already) so I’ve added a field into my training spreadsheet to monitor the mileage for my trainers. They’re up to 80 miles already and still gleaming white, so at this rate running is going to get a little spendy again!

Step back week completed – back to the grind. First off this week is a fifteen mile run and since my watch is being replaced by Garmin, but hasn’t yet made it to Cheshire, I’m running “blind”. This may be no bad thing. I can listen to my heart and breathing, rather than scrutinising the 405 every mile or so.

All in all, the training’s going well so far. 350 of the 1,100 miles completed for the GNR 2010 schedule. I thought I might have shed a few more pounds than I have, but there’s plenty of time and I’m being pretty methodical, so it’ll definitely happen. What’s more important is that 10 weeks in, I’m really enjoying it and I’m definitely feeling the benefit. It’s a great time to be upping the miles. Summer’s here.

Missing the first run of the week last week played havoc with my schedule. I tried to juggle extra runs into the remaining days and probably bit off more than I could chew. By Thursday I was starting to feel a niggle in the knee, so I cut the week short with an easy four miler on Friday lunch time and rested up until Sunday – it gave me a good excuse to watch the snooker too

No such omissions this weekend, but I do have a surprise trip to London for a gig (I won tickets in a Future Music competition!) which will mean switching a couple of runs around.

Third week of my training schedule for September’s Great North Run and a weird start to the week. Felt completely and utterly exhausted yesterday – as if somebody had sprinkled sleeping dust into the air. Genuinely, I could barely keep my eyes open in the afternoon so decided to miss my first run of the week. Not a great start but I’m aiming to replace the eleven miles missed with four additional short runs (with Buffy in the park) of three / four miles each.

Here’s the slightly revised plan for the week:

Second week of my training schedule for September’s Great North Run got underway yesterday with a long run. I really enjoyed my first week and yesterday’s run was the first to feel vaguely “fluid”. The weather was perfect as I headed out of the door around 6pm.

Although this is the second “formal” week of training, I started to run regularly again towards the end of March. I can’t claim to be on top of the world, but a degree of fitness (however small) makes such a difference!

So, here goes. This is what’s in store for the next few days:

Saturday means Lyme Park – or at least that’s my plan now. I want to try to do this hilly run each Saturday before Sunday’s long run.

My newly clipped running partner clearly felt much better for shedding so much extra weight and left me standing at every turn, climb, descent – in fact just about everywhere. I’d calculate that she covers twice the distance that I do and every run’s a fartlek for her. Impressive.

Very exhilarating run today. I felt completely energised when we got back to the car. The weather was fantastic, the scenery as beautiful as ever and the pace, perfect.

6m | 1:00:47 | 10:19 | 165bpm | Hilly Run

Garmin Connect Log

On this particular hot and humid Saturday afternoon few sounds proved more appealing than a dog barking.

You may have seen references in my tweets and elsewhere on the blog to Peter’s Hill. This is the name given to a soul-destroying climb up to the isolated house which overlooks beautiful Lyme Park. It’s not really called Peter’s Hill, but we named it after the home of Buffy’s dog trainer which you can just make out – centre horizon – on the photo (left). The shot is taken about one mile into the run and the climb is much steeper than this photo would have you believe.

The increasing clarity of cheerful dog barking as I neared the summit today was such a welcome sound. If the excited shouts of “good boy!”, “well done!” and claps of appreciation weren’t intended for me, I didn’t care. I’d take the praise anyway.

I guess it was the heat and the fact that coat clipping is overdue, but even Buffy looked a little worse for wear as we approached the fifth mile and final ascent – yet another steep one. What was I saying about Cheshire being as flat as East Anglia?

I am not in the least bit concerned about the pace or heart rate on this run. It was warm, it was hilly, it was a challenge. It was great fun!

6m | 1:03:54 | 10:46 | 166bmp | Hills

MotionBased Log

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5.95m | 59:43 | 10:09 | 165bpm

Another lovely afternoon in Lyme Park – really enjoyable (but hard work!). That climb up to Peter’s just doesn’t get any easier. I never pay any attention to pace on this run. The hills are challenge enough, so I’m not concerned about how fast (or slow) I’m running.

I think Lyme Park is one of my favourite places. Get half a mile from the house and car park and it really is a place of tranquility and escapism (and so close to such a huge conurbation of South Manchester.

MotionBased – bad news is that Garmin hasn’t got any better since I last gave up on them. They should have launched Garmin Connect for Forerunner 305 (subscription paying) customers over a year ago and it’s still not live. Worse still, I’ve tried three times today to upload my data and the site keeps kicking me out. (Server overloaded.)