January 2011

So January, then. Four runs, 26 kilometres, and 176 minutes of what I'll generously call training — most of it conducted in the kind of cold and dark that makes you seriously question your life choices at 7am. The pace crept down to around 6:46 per kilometre on average, which is hardly setting the world alight, but it's moving in the right direction. The morning runs remain the staple, which is either a sign of admirable discipline or the fact that I haven't yet found a convincing enough excuse not to go.

Compared to December, though, it's actually not a bad picture. Two runs and 14 kilometres was about all I managed in December (which, to be fair, is December — the month practically demands inactivity), so doubling the distance and adding two more sessions is a reasonable step forward. The average pace has come down by nearly 40 seconds per kilometre, which suggests something resembling fitness is slowly reassembling itself. So if I can keep building on this through February — a month that is, if anything, even more miserable to run in — there might be something worth writing about by spring.

Summary generated by Claude