January '10

[marathondan]

Rounded off the month with a nice 12 miles last night. Sunday nights are shaping up to be the regular long run slot for this campaign. Not the ideal preparation for Monday morning - getting to bed just short of midnight, then trying to get to sleep with several grams of endorphins charging round my body like microscopic white-water rafters. But needs must.

This was the first week that the long run increased from my default 10 miles, my first week over 20 miles in total. Still quite a modest level, but a slow, steady build is clearly the way to go. But remarkably, there are only 5 more ground-breaking long runs left on the plan. Last night was a frosty, moonlit affair, lycra gloves not quite up to the job. Frostbite aside, it was fairly comfortable, and with a couple of miles to go I was able to break into something approaching tempo pace, fuelled by Half Man Half Biscuit's jaunty CSI: Ambleside. There was a little lower back pain around the 7-8 mile mark, which may be poor posture, may be shoes wearing out, or may just be lack of conditioning. Might be time to break out a new pair of Asics soon.

I checked my logs, and I ran the same route one week later last year – which stands to reason, as Brighton is a week earlier than London. The time difference? 1 second faster this year.

73 miles banked for the month, modest by some standards around here but a solid start. Things will step up a gear in February, and again in March.