2016 - January

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

As Dan will no doubt observe, this is yet more hard-top pounding. In fact, pretty much every running step since the end of November has been on man-made surfaces. So long as the Downs remain a treacherous sludgefest, that will continue.

I observe everything...

So long as you increase your cadence and land mid- or front-foot rather than heel-strike, I don't think the hard top surface should worry you too much.

The real killer is when us older blokes try to run too fast without turning our feet over quicker to compensate - then our stride increases, we heavily heel strike and the knees and ligaments suffer massively. That is what a small army of physiotherapists and podiatrists have told me over the years, usually in the same breath as and following the words "You're not 21 any more..."