The higher quality training of late is starting to kick in, with a 3:48 km last week as evidence. In fact, that was my fastest kilometre in 18 months, although it was 30 seconds slower than the time I ran back in September 2021. And, I can honestly say it was more comfortable than any of the other 1 km time trials I’ve run in recent months, all of which have been slower. So I must be doing something right.

Regarding where I was nine and ten years ago – ten years ago today I was in the Arizona desert between Aguila and Wickenburg, not far from Phoenix, having covered a total of 3,416 km of my run around the world to that point. Nine years ago I was just to the north-east of the French city of Lyon in a little town called Villar les Dombes, having covered 17,875 km in total.