I am pleased to finally say (without wishing to tempt fate in the least) that the shin splints I have been suffering for near-on two months are finally beginning to ease.

Much to my annoyance, I found the only way to solve the problem was to step back from training. This is right at the point I wanted to step up my training, so I'm sure you can appreciate how infuriating it was for me.

For a couple of weeks it felt like my legs took pleasure in tormenting me. Just when I thought my shins were coping with running, I'd run for a second consecutive day and have to stop after 15 minutes due to the agony. So, slowly but surely, I mastered it. I made sure I didn't run two days in a row, which for two weeks meant I could only run twice a week due to other commitments and races etc. Now I have started swimming to up the ante a bit and I'm actually feeling ok, so hopefully there will be less of me whinging on here about injuries than last year.

The Milton Keynes half marathon is approaching, albeit 10 weeks away now, and I really need to get myself into gear if I'm going to make it all the way round without collapsing (or hurling - see previous posts). Fingers crossed.

Now I'm no expert but I thought buying a running watch would be pretty easy.
It's only a watch that tells you speed, distance and time after all.

WRONG!

Buying a good reliable running watch is a nightmare... but you can learn from some of my mistakes...

A big well done to everyone who took part in today's fun run in Perry Barr.

It was a great turn out, fantastic atmosphere and I know a lot of cash has been raised for both the Macmillan nurses and the Birmingham Mail Charity Trust.

The winning time was an incredible 17 minutes 10 seconds. So a special well done who ever you were!

Hannah and I both did pleasing times. I finished in 22.45 and Hannah did 28.50.

Look out for your names in Monday's Birmingham Mail... and look out for pix and a video on this website very soon.

Well done again to everybody who took part and helped organise the event.

I am back! But not quite.

I started training for the Milton Keynes Half Marathon on July 26 a week ago. And have learnt - for the second time - how important decent trainers are.

My current pair have been through four months of training, several races and a half-marathon, so I don't know why I expected them to continue serving me well. The cushioning in them has completely gone and now I am suffering pretty severe shin splints and need to rest up for a week or two. In the meantime I have ordered an identical pair of new trainers from Ebay.

It's not a big deal because I have a lot of time, but still frustrating that I can't just get on with it. I need to look back and previous blog posts and try to avoid some of the injury issues I had from the last training session, especially if I'm going to cope with the Birmingham half marathon in October!

Since returning from Iraq I have stepped up the aim of building up my speed and have decided not to focus on my long distance endurance.

I ran a PB at the very flat Fradley 10k two weeks ago, in a time of 49.34, but now I'm hungry to get below the 45 minute mark.

I think I'm going to try some fast 5km runs and build in some fartlek training.

Hannah and I are planning to do the Milton Keynes Half Marathon in July and the Birmingham Mail Half Marathon in October.
Both should be a lot of fun but I'm certainly not looking forward to making the transition to the longer distance later in the season.

My next race is the Birmingham Mail 5km Fun Run on May 3. You can find out more info here.
It was a lot of fun last year and I'd recommend it to anybody, no matter what running level.

In the meantime, can anybody recommend a 10km race to keep me going?

After a six month break from training I've entered myself for a 10k race.

And to help me stay motivated four of my colleagues are also going to run it too.
The event of choice is the Fradley 10k which promises to be perfect for running a PB.

It's a flat two-lap course - perfect for the first race of the season.

The only thing that could scupper this gentle opener is the weather, and with the recent cold blast I'm discounting nothing.

Even now the footpaths and parks are caked in ice making training treacherous. I did a 40 minute jog today at Cannon Hill Park and needed to walk every 100 metres or so to ensure I didn't slip on the inch-thick ice.

I'll be looking to do a time of about 55 minutes for Fradley. Although with some of my colleagues who thrashed me in the Brum half marathon last year also taking aprt there will be plenty of motivation to run quickly (and hopefully get my revenge).

My PB is 51.07 but with only minimal t raining leading up to this race I think it will be well out of my reach.

After doing a days training with the army (which you can see pix of and watch on this website) I've fallen back into the trap of eating like Pavorotti and drinking like George Best.

A five day holiday in New York didn't help. My average diet consisted of burgers, fry ups, coffee and beer.

It's time to get back into the fitness thing again. Cue leaf turning.

I must be one of the least disciplined detoxers around.

For as the new year started I decided to get back into the fitness malarky and get into shape.

But after just two days of exercise I fell off the wagon and ate a load of sweet and sour chinese pork balls with chips. It wouldn't have been so bad but my breakfast was a fried egg sandwich and lunch was a bacon butty. So about one billion calories there then.

My starting Body Mass Index number is 24.75. If that means nothing to you, you're not alone.
Here's a short explanation which I ripped off the BBC website:
If you'd like to calculate your BMI yourself, follow these three steps.

1. Work out your height in metres and multiply the figure by itself
2. Measure your weight in kilograms
3. Divide the weight by the height squared (the answer to Q1)

For example, you might be 1.6m (5ft 3in) tall and weigh 65kg (10st 3lb). The calculation would then be:
1.6 x 1.6 = 2.56. BMI would be 65 divided by 2.56 = 25.39.

18-25 is ideal. Anything bigger and you're fat and anything smaller and you're diet is turning into anorexia.

So my 24.75 is dangerously close to overweight - I'm just glad I'm nearly two metres tall so I can get away with eating a fair bit.

So, as I weigh in at 14 stone 8 pounds I've decided I now want to get my weight down 14 stone as soon as possible.

But as I have no discipline when it comes to cutting down on take aways and beer, I'm going to rely heavily on exercise.

This weekend I did the following:
20 minute run (3.5km) = 300 calories burned
10 minute cycle = 100 calories
40 minute swim (one mile front crawl) = 600 calories.
Total = 1000 calories

This should just about balance out the Chinese take away I've just had. I'm going to aim for three gym sessions/swims a week and increase my workout as I go. Watch this space to see how I get on. And if your going on a detox/diet/fitness regime, let me know how it goes.

Nearly every calorific foodstuff under the sun has found its way into my stomach this Christmas so it's time to start afresh and get on with the detox.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to the Birmingham university gym with a million other fatties who have had too much to eat in three days over Christmas and will now lose approximately one tenth of what they put on by exercising for all of January.

I can't wait to sit on the sweaty stinking bikes after some lardy person has perspired half their body weight on to it.

I can't wait to queue for the running machines while a load of detox newbies walk at a snails pace thinking they're doing a stirling workout that will see them ship shape in no time (I've never understood why people join a gym just so they can walk on the treadmill).

And I certainly can't wait to plonk my behind down on the sit-up mats where the bum print of the last person will remain for all eternity because they ate one or two (dozen) mince pies too many.

But I must stop myself there. Despite my grumpiness, I always, always look at these people and think - fair play to them.

Going to the gym, which is normally full of fitness freaks showing off their six packs and tight muscly bits, is pretty damn intimidating at the best of times. So if you can make it there when you are at your most plump, and at least have a go at losing a few pounds, then you have my respect.

It also means, when I come to taking a Spring holiday, that there should be enough room in the Easyjet economy seats for those New-Year weight watchers to fit their ample behinds without encroaching into my space.

After an embarassing fall during a paintball game last year I wasn't sure what the future would hold for me in terms of sport.

After I was taken to hospital via ambulance doctors told me I had practically no cartilage left in my left knee and unless I had an operation I would have to quit sport all together.

So in June last year I took the only option available. The results weren't good. Doctors drilled around a dozen tiny holes in the remaining cartilage in my knee in hope it would encourage it to grow back.

To make matters worse they told me the lump of cartilage that had come lose in the fall, that was around the size of a penny, was trapped outside the knee joint making it almost impossible to remove.

It was then that I decided to try and complete the Birmingham half marathon. Thankfully I did it without any major injuries.

But now, two weeks after the race, I'm not sure if my knees have it in them for me to continue running as a long term hobby.

My left one hurts after about 20 minutes of jogging and my right one is now giving me a lot of acute pain too. I was hoping it would go away but it hasn't.

So now I'm not sure what to do. I should probably see a sports physio or knee specialist but I don't like the idea of what they could tell me.

At just 26 I don't want to be told I should give up running. Maybe it's my own fault. Over the years I have played a lot of school football and rugby and then compounded this by four years of rowing for the University of East Anglia. Have my knees finally had enough?

I had to give up my normal five-mile run today because the pain was so bad. But I'm hoping that this is just a blip in my recovery/training from a year ago and things will get back on track soon.

We'll see. Watch this space.