Winter miles bring Summer smiles

I can't remember exactly where I saw the above quote recently but when I did it certainly resonated with me and stuck in my head. I'm hoping it will bear fruit for me and you over the coming months.

The festive season is now in full swing and this time next week it will all be over as our thoughts turn to the New Year and I'm sure for a lot of us it will be a time of resolutions to stop doing something, or to take up something new, a new challenge or a new goal for the year ahead.

It doesn't mean we should do nothing until then and for me training has been continuing pretty well for the last couple of weeks. Fitting in the key sessions, a couple of decent long runs with friends. Just trotting along worrying more about dogs than paces, embracing the hills and recovering on the downhills. Being lucky enough with the mild weather we have been having mostly, the rain only serving to dampen the brow and not the spirits.

December has brought about 19 days training out of 22 so far. 6 days a week has become a ritual at this stage, some days are easier than others. Planning around other things, moving days around but generally there is always room at least somewhere for a short run. It's all adding up to the point where I'm now at just over 40 miles a week. For me this is a good place to be as I look towards starting Marathon training in early January.

I have taken the time for the last 3 months to first getting back into running regularly, then slowly building the mileage and re-introducing some sessions to the point where the body and mind hopefully will be able to handle the further demands of marathon training. Marathon training through the winter at that. All of this is aimed to lining up at the start line in London on April 26th 2015. I won't win that race, the time I hopefully run won't be impressive to a lot of people. That doesn't matter to me, I'm not running to impress anyone else, just to do the best that I can on that day. If I do that I will be more than happy.

To everyone that reads my ramblings thank you very much. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and look forward to running with some of you during the holidays and a lot of you in 2015.