We are serialising the running blog of David Sweeney, who is training for the London Marathon in April 2014 and raising money for charity along the way…

So not a bad week all in all, but it didnt start out too well. I picked up a mysterious foot injury last weekend. It was in the ball of my foot and was really sore, so I was unable to hardly walk, never mind run. I told my fitness instructor this and he advised that I probably wasn’t going to be able to train for this week. However, I didnt want to lose any momentum so I decided to hit the bike rather than run. I did 4 x 1 hour sessions in the week and then on Saturday morning I kitted myself out for a long ride. I live in Mannheim and planned the route from home, to Schriesheim in the Odenwald, on to Wilhelmsfeld, Heidelberg and then home again. It was a total of 82 KM and was about 3 hours 20 mins from door to door.

There is one brutal climb on the way to Wilhelmsfeld; its a 5KM pull all the way to the top without any flat areas to catch a breath. I had previously never done it without hopping off the bike, but this time I was committed to getting up there, and I did! I needed a break at the top though :).

On Sunday I took a great day skiing in Feldberg. One of the best things about living in Germany for me is that one can go skiing. There aren’t many places to go skiing in England or Ireland! But I am a keen skier and love the fact that you can be in Austria or France or Switzerland in just a few hours drive. Today though, I went to Feldberg in the Black Forest. Its only 2 hours 20 from Mannheim and is like another world. We havent seen any snow in Mannheim this year but Feldberg was covered. Its got enough slopes to keep you interested for a day, but is quite small compared to the Alpine resorts, but the ability to be able to go there and back in one day is great. You can check it out at www.feldberg.de

My foot is almost back to normal now, so back running this coming week. Only 9 weeks till marathon day! Best get cracking on booking a train ticket back to the UK….