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After the last successful ‘private’ visit of our favourite form coach Shane Benzie to Gibraltar in January, we spoke of getting him back to do a bigger, group session. Having jumped through a few hoops locally, we secured a room at the Lathbury Sports Complex - with a big TV for analysis, and use of the track - for the weekend of 20 and 21 June. It was full-on summer, humid in the mornings and hot in the afternoons, and the session started at 10am on Saturday 20 June with no air con (broken) and no TV (no remote/couldn’t turn it on). Once we’d figured out where the hidden button to navigate the TV was, and nabbed a fan from centre manager’s office, we were ready to go. ...

The South Downs Way 100 was my fourth hundred mile race and my fourth Centurion event, after running the Autumn 100 twice and Chiltern Wonderland 50 miler previously. The race is part of the World Majors Series for trail running and on that basis, fiercely competitive. Yikes. From the Strava pictures I’d seen when uploading the gpx file to my watch in my usually futile attempt at not getting lost (one of my trademark moves) it promised to be a beautiful day out in the traditional English countryside. ...

Quick trip to the UK with Dylan to investigate narrowboats and help a running coach friend set up a ‘garden shed’ YouTube/remote coaching studio, also to do some running of course… on the hottest UK Bank Holiday weekend on record. Hire car from Heathrow to our first night’s stop at The Olde Coach House Inn in the picture-book village of Ashby St Ledgers, near Daventry - a nice country pub with decent food, and a wonderful summer beer garden. ...

This was my second time toeing the start line in Hopkinton and what a difference 11 years makes. In 2015 for me Boston was a sufferfest - cold, wet, a brutal headwind that never relented. The kind of race you finish on grit alone and then spend years wanting to do properly. It was so cold my main memory is crossing the line (in 3 hours 48 mins) making involuntary shivering noises and searching for an emergency blanket. On crossing the line my mum gave me a hot coffee and by the time I got my warm clothes on it was stone cold. Conditions were too appalling for Phil and the kids (then age 3 and 5) to be out in support. ...

Following the Málaga calamity in December ‘25, my year-long quest to smash sub-3 continued. Back then I had vowed to put it right - but in Málaga a year later, not here at the Boston Marathon with Faye and the crew. Just four months down the line, this always felt too hard a course, too short a gap, too much of an ask. More importantly, it was our first real time spent away together since we’ve had the kids, which was more important to me. On top of all of that, who knew what the weather would do? Boston is notoriously unreliable in that department. No surprise that friends who’d run it were saying ‘add at least five minutes to anything in your head’. My head was definitely saying ‘maybe not this time, Phil’, not least because my already truncated training block had been cut short by over three weeks thanks to norovirus and a stupidly incurred Achilles injury (moral: don’t train like you’re immortal). ...

Our joint end-of-April trip to Boston to run the marathon was our first real trip away together without the kids since we’ve had them, and our first joint race since Barcelona in 2010. And it’s fair to say we were excited. As we crossed the border and began our trip to Málaga airport, Faye phoned the local radio station to enter a competition to win some cupcakes from our favourite bakery, A Piece of Cake. We didn’t win the cakes - but we did get a decent shout out, which definitely added extra cheer to the morning. ...

This is a slightly sweet Anglo-Indian soup, and one that I always loved as a child. The nice thing for me is that although has very little beef in it, the little it has makes all the difference. The quick-cook rice is good because it softens nicely as the rest of the soup cooks. Ingredients: 120g minced beef, 1 eating apple, 2tsp mild curry powder, 1tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, pinch of black pepper, 1 beef stock cube, 500ml carton of tomato passata, 50g quick-cook white rice, 600ml water, 1 heaped tsp cornflour, 1 heaped tsp flour/GF flour, olive oil ...

This is a fast go-to when we want something tasty midweek, as it can be made largely with cupboard ingredients with whatever veg happen to be knocking around in the fridge on the side (we always keep a few blocks of extra firm tofu in the fridge). Ingredients: 1 tin coconut milk, 150ml water, 2 tbsp cashews, knob of ginger, 4 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tbsp curry powder, 2 tsp fenugreek leaves (optional), 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1 block extra-firm tofu, 1 tbsp olive oil ...

Ingredients: 1kg potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks, 25og nuts (pine nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts), 250g parmesan, 2 large bunches fresh basil leaves, 2 cloves garlic, 400ml extra virgin olive oil, juice of a lemon, salt & pepper Method: Toss potatoes in oil and salt and air fry for 35-40 minutes till crisp and tender, shaking every now and then. Meanwhile, put everything else in a blender and process until quite smooth. Check seasoning. Toss half the pesto through the cooked potatoes and serve (save the other half in an airtight container in the fridge for something else). ...

Ingredients: 1kg of potatoes, two red or yellow peppers, half a small jar of harissa, half a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in their oil (about 175g), 2 cloves of garlic, salt Method: Cut clean but unpeeled potatoes into bite-sized chunks, toss with olive oil and salt and air fry until cooked and crispy, 40-45 minutes. Meanwhile in a blender, blend all the other ingredients to a smooth sauce. Pour half over the potatoes, or toss them in it (save the other half for another day). Serve. ...