Day 102 - Wednesday 22nd September: Easy 40

Run: 4.43 miles
Time: 39 minutes 45 seconds



Today called for an "easy" run, but given the huge mileage I've racked up over the previous weeks, anything under a couple of hours will feel pretty easy. I choose to run outer laps of the village, which are about 1.7 miles, so I can fit in 2 and as much of the 3rd as I can squeeze in in 40 minutes, heading back home at the appropriate point. I set off at a comfortable 9-minute-mile pace, and slow down a little as I remind myself this is supposed to be "easy". Soon I'm not concentrating and my legs have speeded up again. I clock up mile 1 in 9 minutes.

Mile 2 and I'm a bit quicker again, so I do ease off this time on Mile 3, and then on the third lap of the village approaching the roundabout to the new estate, I cut back in towards home, and reach my starting point with 15 seconds to spare. Ok, so I ran a bit faster than planned, and covered a bit more distance. It's odd, I don't remember the taper weeks being such hard work when training for London. And by hard work I mean I'm finding it hard to not run as hard or as fast or as long as I want to! Edinburgh was different as I had a minor injury and then a horrible throat infection towards the end of my training, so cutting back, albeit frustrating, was quite easy.

Maybe one day I'll get the hang of this marathon training lark, and it'll all just fit into place easily?