March 2009

So March was a step up from where I'd been, which isn't saying a great deal given where I'd been. Four runs, 33.4 kilometres, and just over three and a half hours on my feet — the kind of numbers that look respectable enough on paper if you squint at them. The highlight, if you can call it that, was actually getting out at lunchtime as well as the mornings, which suggests either genuine motivation or a particularly grim set of office meetings driving me outside. Nine personal records across the month, which sounds impressive until you remember that setting PRs is considerably easier when your baseline is sufficiently low.

February had been a fairly thin affair — three runs, 18.6 kilometres, and done — so the jump to 33 kilometres in March is at least the right direction of travel, even if the pace slipped slightly from 5:52 to 6:08 per kilometre (more kilometres, slower legs, the usual story). The lighter mornings probably helped; there's something about March in England that makes dragging yourself out of bed marginally less miserable, which is faint praise but I'll take it. So the question now is whether April builds on this sensibly or whether something — work, weather, a suspicious twinge — conspires to knock it sideways. History suggests I should not get too comfortable.

Summary generated by Claude