Much as I love my Saturday morning club track sessions, it is rather nice to have finished your long run by lunchtime on the first day of the weekend, leaving the rest of it free for .. err ... eating everything in sight and playing with Lego. Productivity is overrated anyway, right?

Having done a fair few marathons - and therefore marathon training blocks - I’m starting to get very bored with my usual run routes. It’s not that running along the river isn’t lovely, on a sunny day when the distance and pace does’t matter, but it can get very monotonous after the 3,507th time you’ve gone past Barnes Bridge. So, naturally, seeking less monotony, I ended up at the running track. Running in 400m circles. A lot of circles. Yes, I know. Still, at least that long run also bought up the total of 2,000 miles for me so far this year. Only another 1,000 to go before New Year’s Eve ...

Do you have any tricks or tips for making a much-travelled route interesting again? I’ve tried reversing it, running it in km rather than miles (desperate, I know) and downloading some new podcasts to listen to. Ideally I’d obviously explore new routes, or travel to a point the right number of miles away and run home - but usually time pressure makes that impossible.

As always, share those tips, hints, weekend highlights (anyone have a British athlete at their local parkrun?) and gradual but positive returns from the injury wastelands (hello Tara!) below the line ...