Day 13 - 5.58 miles (48.38 mins) @ 8.43/mile

A little bit earlier than last night but not a lot, another busy day. A lot colder for some reason tonight - down to 5.5 C when I left and 3.5 C as I write this a few hours later. I initially planned to go out with the running club for efforts tonight, for the first time in longer than I can remember - thats for efforts and the running club! But then I sat and thought about it a little, and realised that I think I am putting myself under a little too much pressure for that at the moment. Work is busy - on-call the last 2 weekends and, although its not busy, it prevents relaxing. I think I have the 4.1 miles a day for that elusive 1500 miles in a year too close to the front of my mind as well. I go out not just for 3 miles but 4.1 mostly, and its a little too early to feel that pressure. That is also turning into the seemingly benign 'wouldn't it be nice to have another 30 miler week' which is an unfortunately small step away from 'and what would it feel like to go 35 or 40 in a week?'.

I have to recognise that my aim is to complete the 'January experiment', and to include too many goals too early might just jeopardise that. Maybe I could use this experience to build on for the next month and so on, and I am fully expecting the last week (or 22-29th) to be a fairly massive haul to bump up the overall mileage. But it felt much beter this evening to acknowledge that 'I don't have to push it just yet, there's always tomorrow'.

So my back-up plan was to do efforts myself, and I thought I had set my Garmin for an unlimited warm-up - planned for just over 1.5 miles - then 3 mins fast 2 mins slower recovery, x 5. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, my Garmin didn't quite get the message. Must play with it tonight to get it right - but it does show me how long its been since I did a technical workout. So I improvised to 'open my legs up' in more of a fartlek experience, with 2 fairly stiff hils included. The mile speeds don't reflect the effort I felt I'd put in, and I feel a little bit disappointed by the time, but I did feel like I enjoyed opening up, and will try it again soon. I also wanted to take the nileage up a little, mainly with the 30 for the week in mind, whether that is right or not, and its within reach.

Its funny, 3 miles now seems like a comfortable 'stretch' each day, but some days I don't want any more. There is this strange phenomonen that afflicts me each winter, making each mile, especially away from home, a more difficult trial than in the midst of a summers day, when I feel I could run forever. Its like there is an invisible pull towards home and a little bit of a panicky feeling involved in moving away, bizarre. And 3 miles now seems like a decent distance - whereas in the summer it might seem a little frivolous (not sure if that applies to 3 miles every day). Tonight seems like a positive 'distance run' and I suppose it was, relatively. A complete change in many things, this month is providing.

I did feel a bit flat starting today, but two disturbed nights sleep might explain that more than anything. They say you should try for an extra 10 mins sleep per night for each mile you run in the day, so I'm putting it down to that!

Must put in a little note about the 'brains' behind the operation, my brother, who is having a pile of interesting thoughts himself, due to recurrent leg pain invoked by repeated bashing away for at least 3 miles a day. Its a tough learning process that might go either way, but he always said he was doing it to change the way he thought about running and what would and wouldn't make you decide whether to go out or not. He's displaying real bravery as well as common sense, and I so hope he makes it all the way through. He's my invisible partner every time I go out, along with Paul, and it just wouldn't be the same without him. Slainte