Relations within the Team were at breaking point last Friday morning, with a bitter internal dispute putting the whole future of the Challenge into question.

The precise details are unclear, but it is understood that what started as a minor disagreement over artistic control of the Challenge's marketing output descended into fierce accusations of disloyalty and breach of confidence in a ferocious dispute which some are calling Monkeygate.

Not for the first time, Sarah Coleman's Craghopper relaxation trousers were the diplomatic balm that soothed the Team's emotional irritation.

The smiles started to come back at that afternoon's fitting session as we savoured the trousers' wealth of advanced technical features and time honoured fit. When we discovered that they had more pockets than we had first thought, including some with zips to guarantee the security of our blackberries, it just didn't seem worth fighting any more. 

You can win a bottle of champagne by correctly guessing the Craghopper waist measurement specified by each of the 13 remaining members of the Team. Please send your answers to Sarah at scoleman@jonesday.com by 5pm on Thursday, 21 February 2008. Whoever gets the most right wins the bottle. There is an extra point for getting Seb's right.

Giles is away at a warm weather training camp. The performance statistics that he has uploaded into his training database are rumoured to be startling.

The rest of the Team is physically and mentally exhausted. Conrad is feeling alienated, Seb is feeling psychologically unhinged and John D is feeling ready to start running again by the middle of March.

Will is feeling fragile one day and invincible the next. Pat is feeling the afterglow of his beloved Manchester City winning at Manchester United for the first time since 1974 and John P is feeling his age as he is the only one who can remember 1974.

Leon is feeling part of the 21st century after finally getting his computer to speak to his iPod. Angus is feeling that it's not about the bike, Rhys is feeling nauseous, Neil is feeling taken for granted, Roberto is feeling the burn and Rob is feeling the love.

With the Team dazed and confused after Friday's communication breakdown, the Elite Squad's pathetically transparent claims that they have their own problems have gone down like a led zeppelin.

We don't believe that Claire found 15 miles on Saturday hard, that Alex has done hardly any training or that Nicole's legs are sore (and why wouldn't they be when she is on a 5 day a week Ultra Marathon training schedule). We also don't believe President Wesley's claims to be the oldest member of the group as he looks at least ten years younger than John P, has more hair, less wrinkles and no middle aged spread.

Ailsa's "cold" seems like small beer compared to Will's stress fracture of the foot and it is worth noting that not one of the Elite Squad has yet paid a visit to a podiatrist or a physiotherapist. Chris at least has the decency to say nothing as he flashes that slightly eery "I know and you know that I've been sub 3.30" smile.

Most laughable is Dave's claim that his training is being interrupted by following Wales in the Six Nations rugby. Dave would have us believe that he has had one beer too many on each of the last two weekends and that this will continue until the middle of March - "I'll be alright if I've detoxed by the Wednesday after each game". Anyone who has been to a game with Dave knows that this is all nonsense and that he never takes a drink before blasting out Mae hen wlad fy nhadau, as his bio photo clearly demonstrates.

Plans to stay somewhere together the night before London have been dropped as it is now very clear that we will all be sick of the sight of each other by then and no-one could be bothered to book a hotel. We may go out for a few pints instead.

In a new regular Diary feature, Will has still not done the cycling routes. Talking of cycling, Leon and John P ventured out into Central London at lunch time yesterday for a hardcore bike work out. The trip was a great success with the boys covering a magnificent 21 miles in under two hours. If they can carry this pace into the cycling leg of the Challenge they should get away with less than ten hours cycling each day and only a minor improvement will be needed to match Paula Radcliffe's marathon pace. It was an eventful trip with highlights including Leon's cycling shorts, which left him with absolutely no dignity, John falling off in the underground car park at Jones Day, their being overtaken on the Embankment by an abusive tattooed jogger and on the Mall by a drug crazed cycle courier with what appeared to be garden furniture on his back. The low point was Leon's insane decision to come back on the Strand as "it will be safer". It wasn't.

Finally, there is a water bottle thief in our midst and the words for the week are "dissembling", "tapering" and "The Core Stabilisation Myth".