Yesterday was our Christmas party at work and I booked today off. But I'm not suffering nearly as much as I thought (and, briefly and irresponsibly, hoped) I might be - in fact, I've not suffered at all.

Anyway, this is the last week of my 'optional' training - the actual programme, which I have to complete before the big day, starts next Monday. This means the long runs on a Sunday are actually going to be a lot shorter than those I've done in recent weeks, at least for a while.

And, as towards the end of the programme, which is where I am now, it's all about maintenance but not too much strain, this week's weekday runs are fairly light, too. I did a 30 minute easy run on Tuesday morning before work. I took it very, very easy and did just under 3 miles. And today was a twenty-minute interval run - 3 minutes jogging, 2 minutes running hard, repeated 4 times - which I drove to the seafront to do. As a result, the photos accompanying today's report are all my own work.

There's another easy session to do either tomorrow or Saturday and then I want to try to do 15 miles on Sunday. In one of those 'it's a small world' coincidences, one of my fellow bloggers here, Dan, has recently joined the company I work for - he's focussing on the gadgetry and technology that is out there to assist runners and I foresee perhaps a certain amount of competitiveness creeping in over the coming months. Who runs most often, who runs faster, that sort of thing. We'll have to wait and see.

I've just realised there's not a single laugh in this article, for which I apologise. It's just that today is my last day of holiday for the year and I'm in a bit of a rush to get all the things I want to do done. I'll try to be funnier next time.