OK, so running has been going well in the grand scheme of things…the trend is on the up despite some occasional blips. The humidity has made it pretty tough to grind out anything above 5 miles, but my max distance is up to about 8 or 9 now, which is roughly where I’d want to be with 6 or so weeks to go.

The main thing I’ve realised it that to be an effective runner, you need to be lean and fairly wiry. This is not going to happen to me, I seem to put on muscle incredibly easily, and with it fat. Either way my weight can fluctuate wildly and always has. Nevertheless, between now and the day (19 Sept) I’m planning to hone my diet to fuel myself but at the same time try and shed any unwanted fat, ultimately to make the run a bit easier on the knees and less of a struggle to shift all 14-and-a-bit stone of me.

Having read various articles on wellbeing, everyone always underlines the fact that diet is 80% of the battle against fat loss, and that exercise acts as a catalyst. I’d have to agree from my experiences. I’ve actually put weight on whilst training, some of which will be muscle, but I don’t feel I’ve lost a tremendous amount of fat with it.

It unfortunately is the case that to a certain point you don’t have to be ‘thin’ to be ‘fit’, and what you put in your mouth doesn’t get burned off anywhere near as much as you’d think.

Anyway, as a result I’ll be concentrating on leafy greens, low fat protein and water intake to make myself a bit more spritely over the next weeks.