Useful training tip: I use Ben Kenobi’s Jedi-mind-trick to make myself believe I’m not knackered; this only has an influence on the weak-minded, so it might not work for everyone.

Analysis of last weeks runs shows that for the third week I’ve run more than 40 miles. So I’m very happy with the way the training is going. Additionally, we’re now only £378 away from the £2000 marker, so the sponsorship is also going well. So thank you again sponsors!

Lisa the physio is around later too – so I have to do lots of stretching today to help keep the pain down tonight!

Extra! A big thanks to everyone who’s sponsored us so far – we’ve just broken the £1000 barrier! If we weren’t in training for a marathon this would be worth cracking open a bottle of fizz… we’ll have a drink to your health in late April.

Circuits was taken by Eddie today (Rob’s on Holiday) so we had some interesting new stations including Asymmetric Inclined Pressups. They hurt at the time, and needed stretching a lot afterwards – so they must be good.

I was there, I did it, but I don’t remember it at all!

I suppose when you have to do the same training every day you can go into autopilot – this is what it must be like for real athletes.

After the physio and the runs, and last week’s super long one, I took a few days to let myself fully recover – lots of stretching, but no running or circuits.

Today however, back to circuits, with no injuries and fully rested.

Circuits first, then the run immediately after. Most enjoyable. This evening we have Lisa the physio popping around too, so it’s a full day.

Lisa the Fizz has now been and as a result I’m considering inverting the colour scheme for this page so that normal training days show up in green and physio days show up in red – red for warning, red for danger.

Sports therapy hurts! Some say it’s good pain; I say it’s [a] just pain. In this case the justification is a long forecast bet that I can avoid more pain in future by having it in little bits now. It seems I’ve not fully imparted the “little bits” part of that message to Lisa yet.

The main outcome, apart from the pain & resulting benefits, is a few extra stretches that we should be doing post exercise in order to keep the muscles supple. What surprised me most was the back stretches which involve what I’d have thought would be a back compression, but which apparently stretch it – I’ll give a more full report after the next circuit class when I’ve had a chance to try them out properly.

Also, I weighed myself today (it’s a rare occurrence), since I started training in January I’ve gone from 94Kg to 90.5Kg – that’s without changing my eating habits, and taking supplemental carbohydrate rich energy drinks so I seem to have tipped my energy in/out ratio a little far.

Memo to self: eat more lard.

My knee held up well, even during squat thrusts, shuttle runs and “burpee-press-up-star-jumps” (yes, it’s a combination of all three exercises which brings pain to just about every muscle in the body and makes your heart scream).

It’s now late in the day and I can further report that normality has been restored to all leg joints – it took 48 hours.

The extra rest day has meant that I now have full and proper feeling in my legs with no pain (unless I press my shins hard, which would be silly, so I don’t.)

It’s half term week, so the school-run-mums are all at home and their 4×4 off roaders are not jamming up the roads today – this gives Emma, and to some extent, me, an easier ride into work.

About 11:00 I started feeling a little poorly. I packed up and tottered home at about 13:30. The poorly-ness was most likely due to one of the seafood meals I had on saturday or sunday. I’ve had a fair bit of fluid loss in the intervening three hours which culminated in a toe-curling upchuck. I hope that’s the last of it anyway. 15 minutes later I’m starting to feel vaguely human again – though I now need to start on a mad rehydration plan if I’m to be allowed to run tomorrow.

Each exercise was completed for 30 seconds, then done a second time. This format is typically more effective than one where the whole class shifts around every two minutes because less time is lost between exercises – so heart rate stays high and muscle fatigue levels remain higher, meaning lots of assisting muscles have to help out the main ones more of the time, resulting in higher levels of fatigue.

This is the essence of a good class, one where, at the end of every 30 seconds you’d gladly give hard cash to be able to stop.

In other news I just heard that sports therapist (& inflictor of pain) Lisa has a little pneumonia, so she won’t be coming tonight. Hope you’re better PDQ Lisa.

This compares to 48 hours of immobility after doing the Great North Run the first time – it’s amazing what 18 months, and a lot of training, can do. With only the mildest ache in my calf muscles, tomorrow’s speed-work should be good.

We have Lisa (the physio) back on Wednesday, so the pain will return, but hopefully in smaller amounts this week to reflect the fact that we’ve had got the hard “first session” out of the way.

I found an official description of the circuits class too… “A group-led stations workout designed to increase muscular strength and endurance, aerobic fitness and co-ordination.” Enlightened? Me neither

An hour of circuits, which is now something really quite comfortable. A 5 min warmup, 50 mins of general aerobic/strength work, 5 mins warmdown/stretch.

An enjoyable session which really helped to loosen up my shins after last night.

Ouch. 2×1 hour back to back classes, with lots of pad work so my little ticker was pushed a lot.

Result: I’m knackered.

It’s possibly also due to a minor wrenching on the last day of boarding: when trying to lift the nose of the board from some deep snow I felt the hip-ball get slightly dislodged from it’s socket – a strange experience.

Circuit training tonight for an hour.