A lot of runners worry about losing their running fitness if they have to take time out from training for a long period because of injury or circumstances – some even worry that their three-week taper period before a marathon will leave them less fit come race day. It’s understandable that you want to protect something you’ve worked hard for rather than have it disappear.

I took four months out from proper training while I went travelling. Six weeks before I left I ran a 4:17 marathon that should really have been a 4:09 marathon, then a half-marathon and two weeks before I left. It’s fair to say I was fit before I left. While I took my trainers with me and ran most weeks it was very much an easy run once a week and nowhere near the amount of training volume that I was used to

On returning to the UK I had two marathons to do, the first just six weeks after touching down in Blighty which would act as a training run for the second six weeks later. I was nervous about how the marathon would go. I’d managed to get up to an 18-mile training run two weeks before it, but worries about the four-month break from training were heavy on my mind.

I ran Brighton Marathon in 4:29, and was relaxed and comfortable the whole way round and even had fun. And so, my point is, if you need to take a break from your training it will mean taking a bit of a step back but your body remembers how to do these things. It’s easier to get fit a second time than it was the first time and you’ll probably find you haven’t lost as much fitness as you’d feared. So if you’ve been told to take a break because of an injury – do that. It’s much harder to a marathon injured.