AIMING FOR AN INDIAN SUMMER
Quietly going about my running business this month, maintaining the mileage, stepping up a notch at track sessions and clipping another sixteen seconds off the four miler time trial from work - these are all micro-signs of improvement which collectively breed a quiet confidence going in to March with some races now firmly on the agenda. Just the basic liberty of going out running is something I am enjoying right now and savouring the moment rather than looking too far ahead and worrying about things like... the Three Peaks. I'm not sure if I'm doing enough long stuff to give myself a chance of running something near a decent Peaks time anyway, but these last couple of weeks I seem to have genuinely switched off about it and concentrated on the present. On recent form, I ought be in decent condition by the end of April anyway. Average weekly mileage this year has been just over forty so far which is quite high for me, but not really substantial enough for Peaks training. If I do force myself to look ahead to the rest of the year then this quadragenearian is aiming for an Indian Summer of racing. To turn back the clock and start achieving a satisfactory level of competition. The Three Peaks and it's unique profile of long distance and climbs is a one-off and actually not really what I am training for, even though I actually am! Possibly a flawed experiment, time will tell.
So to the races I have now committed myself to and officially penned in rather than just faintly pencilled; The Stan Bradshaw Round on Pendle, the Roddlesworth Roller and the Darwen Half Marathon. Fell, trail and tarmac in that order. I take a dim view of the well used expression 'using a race as a training run', nothing but poorly veiled camouflage to make an excuse for projected physical deficiencies in my opinion. But what I will say about the Stan Bradshaw race and my own albeit insignificant participation is that it will tell me where I am up to outside my own little training bubble. With little running on the actual fells in recent times and just one race under the belt this year, a number will nonetheless be pinned upon me and if I don't run well, then that's where I am and I will have to accept I've been immersed in my own misleading little mindset, patting myself on the back too much.
These races booked in will of course be hinged on the fortune of barring injury. Aches and pains have been managed quite well of late, but it's accidents which one needs to look out for sometimes, striking when you least expect them. I consider myself a very lucky boy not to be sidelined last week when visiting friends in West Wales. Stubbing my toes on the slight step up to their kitchen sink was excruciating! I feared the worst and like a life before me, I saw this year's miles and sessions flash by and the devastation of invested time and effort being shattered in that split second of clumsy misfortune. Luckily just a bit of blood and a black middle toenail to report, then fit enough to crack a seven mile beach to coastal path run from New Quay along the Ceredigion shores the following day. That really was one of those thankful runs when you are not only enjoying the bliss of beautiful country and unknown routes, but pondering that I might well have fractured a toe and not even been capable of joining the rest of the gang to walk the dogs on the beach.

JANUARY GRIND PUTS A SOLID BASE IN PLACE
That was a tough month of running on the quiet. So no record distances notched and only one race under the belt which didn't go too great, but certainly the art of running tired was tried and tested if nowt else. I've set my stall out for running a minimum forty mile week this year - at least until going in to the Three Peaks race at the end of April - it's not been pretty so far, but the month ended feeling more conditioned to the mileage stipulation and with a bit of poke back in the legs.
The roughly run routine in January has been a steady ten miler off road, sometimes with Connie the dog as pacer, a couple of eight milers on the road, track session Tuesday and some other bits around that. 180 miles in all and much of it has been a bloody grind to be quite honest. Hip to knee down my right hand side has started giving me bother, although some foam rolling has managed to suppress further infringement. Track sessions have been run on empty... in fact I barely recall a single day when I actually felt really up for a run! I perceive to myself and others that I do all this for pleasure, but the real reasons can only lie much deeper, requiring a separate and more soul searching thesis on the subject if I was to go in to more detail. Thankfully, I will refrain from that for now.
As I get older, more and more I find the effects of training a bit of a paradox. I'm having to work much harder to get where I want to be again (and I've definitely still not got there!) meanwhile recovery doesn't come around quick enough, if at all and it's difficult to balance everything when my mileage is uncontrollably preoccupied by hardening up for the Peaks race.
Some shorter distance effort runs on the hills seemed to push me through a barrier and back on song though. The last track session of the month on the last day of January also revealed cause for encouragement, running a tough pyramid session well within recent pace and finishing strong. It must be said that Blackburn Harriers have a really good group down at Witton Park track on Tuesday evenings, in fact two good groups. But the smaller endurance group which I run with is growing in quality and depth which is pushing every one of us on.