But what did Mr Ashcroft sing

Yes indeed, folloing the appalling weather, it was Tokyo STORM warning by the talented Elvis Costello.

This week I haven't trained very well at all. Easy jogging Monday and nowt at all on Tuesday - I was very cold and tired once I got home.

Wednesday I had to go back to work for a couple of hours in the evening so I ran 5 miles quite hard at about 4 oclock. (30:45)

Thursday I ran for 90 minutes but all very easy/slow jogging with Scamp, and tonight I was a bit late home and with a 10 miler planned for Saturday and the 21 mile race on Sunday I allowed myself a double day (off) week.

But it was Thursdays run that I want to drone about for a bit if you will indulge me.

After 25 minutes of running much too slowly I was sick of running and really wanted to stop. Not because I was tired or had sore legs but it just felt so slow that I seemed to have been out for ages and was getting nowhere. And with another 1hr 5 to go it really felt an arduous task.

But as I reached the hour I started to think some more positive thoughts -about how few other people might be doing what I was doing that night - running into the ever growing darkness through hideously muddy fields and ankle deep freezing water, blinded by occasional car headlights, and growing ever thirstier as the minutes ticked by.

Instead of thinking how foolish my actions were, I thought about all those other people who might laugh at my choice of ways to spend my leisure time, and I realised that in fact the majority of those people would in fact BE UNABLE to do what I was doing, even if they wanted to. I thought about some of the things I had done in the past that I was proud of.

When I crossed the line at the end of my first 100 mile bike time trial

The first time I sprinted for a race win - and finished in second place

How hard I ran to drop my one remaining opponent to record my first race win

My 40th birthday and the Ten hours I spent running through my own glorious backyard that is the Lake District with such great friends at my side

The hundreds of miles of magical memories running London, New York, Boston, Langdale, Windermere, Dublin, Edinburgh and Amsterdam marathons

Most people will never have the slightest desire to put themselves through such rigours as I choose to endure myself, most will instead choose a life of underwhelming normality. They will never strive to reveal what their bodies are capable of achieving, never push themselves to utter exhaustion for no reason other than to make doing exactly the same again marginally easier the next time, never choose a hard, cold van floor over a soft comfy bed just to help a total stranger run over some mountains they can't even see because its three AM and raining.

Its all about choices

Then there are the  people who would love to  do some of the things I take for granted but through no fault of their own can never do. Perhaps they were born with a disability, or in the 'wrong' country or in such poverty they are forced to spend their life working to feed themselves and their family.

And when I think about those people I find myself singing along with Mr Ashcroft.