Forget your bleep tests, VO2 max tests and the like, the biggest indicator of your current fitness has to be the 60m sprint for the bus. You might think that you’d recovered well from last night’s hill session or your last long run – that is until you go flat out to make it to the bus stop in time. It’s the ‘peel to reveal’ of aching muscles.

This morning, feeling slightly better than I had for the past couple of mornings, I was considering whether to do my training session tonight or not. As I walked out of my drive and to the end of the road the bus was coming. It’s about 60m to the bus stop from here and it was too wet and windy to think about walking – there was no way I was missing that bus.

Going from a walk to a sprint in the space of two steps with cold muscles is probably in every book about what not to do while out running – but we do it every time we run for the bus, the train, or to avoid being run over by a loonatic on a Boris Bike.

I made it to the bus stop in time but was left with aching legs and burning lungs – enough information to tell me to stay on the sofa tonight and maybe think about putting my trainers on at the weekend. It also made me consider the pace I run at in speed sessions – never once have I reached the dizzy heights that I do in the bus stop dash.