Week 37: 15 – 21 Sept

Run: 7hrs 38min (56.6mi) / Gym: 16mins / Crosstrain: 0mins

This week didn’t quite go to plan. The grand design was a couple of purposeful runs to start the week, followed by a flight to Majorca midweek to meet some mates for a few sun-soaked days of cycling and smug Strava uploads. But life, as it tends to, intervened. Domestic pressures put the brakes on that one, and I swapped Lycra in the Balearics for the less glamorous role of family logistics manager.

Monday never really got going — one of those days where the kit sits out, silently accusing you from the corner. Tuesday, though, brought redemption: the familiar morning loop, followed by the 10-miler that evening. Routine is its own reward sometimes.

The rest of the week was spent mostly at home, reconnecting and looking after each other — which, in its own way, was probably more restorative than any training camp. I did sneak out on Thursday, though, and finally logged an 18-miler — my first in about a year. It was one of those steady, quietly satisfying runs: sub-8-minute pace, lungs behaving, no drama. Friday started with a short turbo spin and some knee-strengthening work before the school run, then a long walk to clear the head. Come evening, I tested whether the “leg loosener” had done its job — it had — and got round the Friday 10K without complaint.