That was better

I set out for a 10-miler today, which I managed in 74:11 - 37:55 for the first half and 36:16 for the second. On reflection now I think my mistake in my aborted 20-miler on Wednesday was to not allow for the humidity by running a bit slower. It's just common sense; when it's hotter outside, your heart has to work harder to go the same speed. Trying to reproduce the speed I would have tried in cool weather wasn't very clever.

I felt pretty good all the way round. Not so good that I could have maintained that pace for more than another couple of miles mind you, but good enough to enjoy most of it. I ran in the new running shoes; they still make my left foot feel squeezed, but a bit less than the old pair. They're a whole size bigger than my everyday shoes, so I still don't really understand why my foot feels like that.

I now understand why the websites I've seen advise that you train for a year before a marathon - I'm still getting fitter each week. Because I was a desk potato until April, I'll just have to be left wondering how much fitter I could have been if I'd taken that advice!

Here's the evolution of my 10-mile time since the first time I ran it:

22nd May: 94 minutes 44
29th May: 84 minutes 29
14th July: 83 minutes 03 (start of a 12.1 mile run)
23rd July: 79 minutes 38
18th August: 75 minutes 50
8th September: 74 minutes 11

The gap from May to July is when I had a very heavy cold followed by gastroenteritis.

I was really pleased when I knocked 10 minutes off my first time (a minute per mile)... it's taken three and a half months to do it again! Just 7 weeks training to go. Next week I have a very busy schedule, so I'll just aim to get a couple of jogs in before trying the 20 miles on Friday, all being well.

David
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