And I was only supposed to do 3!!! Shins started playing up after 5 minutes, and escalated until around 15 minutes (when it became intermittent).

Reached 30 mins, then kept attempting an extra minute, then another, and so on till I was at 5 miles.

Now I'm too tired to even type this (my lovely wife is playing secretary, hence all the exclamation marks!!!)

Will try 3 miles tomorrow, then attempt 5.5 on Sunday - another personal best (distance-wise) if I can achieve it.

My shins started playing up today after only 5 minutes of running. It's a long time since I had any problems with them. The gym was still unbearably hot and the huge fan did little to reduce my dehydration. I'm supposed to run 3 miles tomorrow and then 6 on Saturday. I think I'll attempt a few more than 3 miles tomorrow to make up for the poor runs I've had recently. Maybe if I get plenty of rest beforehand and stretch out my legs a bit more I'll be able to have a fairly uneventful run for once.

Today the Wandsworth gym was as hot as hell again but they'd managed to put a rather large fan behind one of the rows of treadmills. I dived on the treadmill just in front of the fan and hoped it would be enough to keep my temperature down. It seemed to have done the trick as I managed the 4 miles I was supposed to do today and felt like I could have managed more. Almost looking forward to attempting 6 miles now! Yeah right. I still hate running.

Walked into Esporta in Wandsworth tonight and thought: "ooh its cool for a change". No such look. There's notices now that the air conditioning isn't working at full strength, or something like that. When I got upstairs the wall of heat hit me and I knew today wasn't going to be a good day after all. I struggled to make even 3 miles then had to reduce to a fast walk for 5 minutes. When I tried to start running again I only made 2 minutes before I had to reduce to a walk. I then managed to run for another 5 minutes and had to walk the remainder of the 5 miles I was supposed to run today.

The 4 mile run didn't cause too many problems today. No aches or pains and seemed to have plenty of energy when I got to the 4 mile mark. Perhaps the lucozade is helping out there. It probably makes a difference that it is nowhere near as hot today as it has been in recently. Almost looking forward to mondays 5 mile run now - yeah right!

3 miles is pretty easy now. It helps that its nice and cool in Bridgend. Tried some Lucozade Hydro active today - not sure it made much difference. I'll be able to tell better tomorrow on the 4 mile run.

I got up nice and early this morning (06:30 to be precise) to try and beat the heat in the gym. I was running well with no niggling aches and feeling good but the heat still caught up with me. I only managed to make just over 4 miles before I had to reduce the pace to walking, fearing that I would end up being ill from overheating. This is ridiculous. I even wore shorts today! I don't think I'll be able to up the mileage in London until the weather changes. May have to reschedule all long runs so that I can attempt them in Cardiff. Or perhaps running outdoors would be better...

The heat in Wandsworth Esporta is getting unbearable now. I completed the scheduled 3 miles in there last night but it was a struggle against the heart. I think I'm going to have to switch to training in the mornings to try and avoid the heat. They obviously don't have any kind of air conditioning as all the doors were open yesterday. Wednesday will be my first attempt at 5 miles. It's only a half mile further than I've run in the past but if the heat stays at recent levels I'm not sure I'll make it.

Had a day off on Friday then ran 4.5 miles on Saturday morning and 3.5 miles on Sunday. Both times running a half mile further than on schedule. The gym in Bridgend seems to be slightly cooler than Wandsworth making it that little bit easier to run the distance. I'm going to have to start running some serious inclines if I'm going to be prepared for Newcastle though.

Why don't they have decent air con in the gym? The heat really got to me today and I struggled to make the 4 miles I needed to do. I did get there after 40 minutes but I was very dizzy afterwards. Reckon overheating isn't a good idea!