As the great Western philosophers Europe once said, it’s the final countdown. Yes, the final countdown to me going to Europe. But going to the place, not the band. I throw my training plan out the window, and run around London instead, and organise my race on the plane over there.

A tale of (running in) two cities. Last week big of training, and what a great one it was.

My marriage has survived countless hours of me out of the house running, but can it survive the mullet of the hat world? And a special guest appearance this week from Frank.

This week I go running (again), hungover (again), and get scared (again). I also run up hills (again).

In this week’s adventure I go out for a run in the dark and get scared. And eat new food. And feel better (or less bad) about my progress so far).

I’m back baby. Making up for lost kms, I lose some blood and a plug for the Strava route maker.

I head to the snow for a week, only run once and feel guilty. Redeem myself by spending money on travel.

Still out sick. Worried. Instead of reading this, read my first article! Correcting the Top 5 Running Misconceptions.

Back at it again. Started the week with a rather rude (after a week off) Tempo Run - two 16 minute sets in Zone 3. Definitely good for blowing out the cobwebs though! Hit the Bay Run for this. My go to for anything requiring a bit of pace due to the reliable path, choice of elevation (you want a long slow climb or a steep short one?) and options for extending it out as required (one lap? Two laps? Head out along the green line for a few extra Kms).

Well the inevitable finally happened. A nasty little cold took me out of action this week. All started after last week’s Blue Mountains trip. Started feeling tired on the drive home, and then crashed and burned. I’m not sure if it works this way, but happy to have got it out of the way now rather than in the days before the race.

A little off the pulse this week. Missed two runs and only got in 46kms. A public holiday for the King’s Birthday on Monday should have provided a great window for a little trot, but instead turned out to be a window for a me-sized stack of pancakes, too much coffee and a small amount of remorse for not going running. Only got in the one 'hard' session and for this is was back to hill sprints. Woo hoo!

Spoke too soon. 52kms and down a couple of sessions this week on account of some solo parenting. Ah well! Only got in the one tough session, being a Variable Intensity Intervals Run, which is a saucy little run involving three sets of alternating between 30s sprints and 45s just-under-sprints five times (got all that?).

73.3 kilometres; all training sessions hit; feeling strong! Reckon I’m in the swing of things now. One progression run - cruising in zone 2 for 25-odd minutes, then getting ‘progressively’ (see what they did there) quicker till you’re finishing close to a sprint for the next 15. Feels great digging for that extra pace while your legs and lungs are burning.

62 clicks down and another week of hitting all my runs. Celebration emoji. The push sessions were an over / under intervals session, fluctuating around the lactate threshold (whatever that is), and a descending intervals run starting with 3 mins on and off at a pace not far off a sprint, then dropping down the time periods - 2 mins, 1.5 mins, etc down to 20 seconds - ouch (but so so so good)…

Dear listener,

I have some exciting news. I hit all my training sessions this week. Pop the champagne! 71 kilometres in the bank. Beyond the ‘80%’ sessions, a session with 4 sets of 4 mins in the lower zone 4 range (out along the Glebe foreshore for these - what a place) and then back to the hill repeats…