General day to day ramblings
It’s ironic that my post labelled Stamina is closely followed by posts relating to fatigue. How do you increase your stamina without increasing your fatigue levels? I feel the 10k race last weekend was probably a ‘race too far’ and has tipped me over the edge. Although I’m still enjoying getting out there my legs today were heavy to say the least and I can feel a tight groin that has the potential to become a real problem as I sit here typing this post. There has been niggles over the last 2-3 weeks and you’d expect that as you step up from a 100k-130k average week to 160k-190k. Ignoring the 10% rule for increasing distance but that rule I feel is aimed more at the beginner runner not the experienced version. The real problem is like a gambler on a lucky streak when a runner hits a bit of form the last thing they want to do is stop or rest. The old saying ‘is it better to burn out than fade away’. Fading away may be the right thing to do because it does mean you can return quicker, a ‘burn out’ in running terms is normally a long stint on the sidelines.
Fremantle half is so close that I feel the best course of action is 48 hours complete rest. Easy to type but, with my track record over the last few weeks, harder to achieve. A half marathon, when raced, will bite you if you are fatigued and try to run at a non-fatigued pace. You can probably get to 16k but the last 5k will be a lesson in pain management and mental torture. The mind will be willing but the legs will not play game. I have had this pleasure the last two times I have ran the Fremantle half. Both times I was racing for a top 5 finish (and a medal) but both times I faded and finished 6th and 7th. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, remember I am nearly 50, I tend to repeat myself. I wonder if this has anything to do with my current fatigues state, old age ! I was hoping 50 was the new 20, but really I feel this is a myth put about by 50 year olds. I’ll tell you in February next year.
So can I take 48 hours off running? I am going to make a big effort as I know it’s the right thing to do. It’ll give me more time to write a few killer posts over the weekend and maybe look at improving my blog. There’ll be the ‘good luck’ run to Yelo on Saturday morning for the best coffee and muffin in Perth. Not sure how much good luck is actually involved with this exercise but it’s something I look forward to and as a runner, as I have mentioned many times, we give up so much. I don’t consider a Yelo Muffin too much of an indulgence.
Funnily enough I did sneak out for a 10k recovery run in the evening and felt a lot better. I wear my 6 year old skins tights for recovery runs and these bad boys do make a difference. They do give you the support you need and this can certainly help and stave off injury , I hope. We’ll see on the weekend when I race Fremantle half. On the evening run I was actually trying to work out that if I run tomorrow morning early could I get back in time to give me 48 hours before Sunday morning, give or take a few minutes… Have I mentioned I could be addicted….
This evening I’m going to discuss a topic dear to my heart right now, fatigue. After 5 weeks of running twice a day culminating in a 10k pb last weekend I am starting to feel the effects of fatigue. This week my runs have been laboured and I can feel niggles in my legs that would seem to indicate impending injury. I’m still loving the running but realise that I am entering a dangerous zone which will either ultimately increase my stamina and overall fitness or break me down with injury. A tight rope every runner has to negotiate. Reminds me of the old runners fable when given recovery time by any medical professional. They half it. e.g. your Doctor says take 6 weeks off running, us runners hear “what does he know, 3 weeks”. It gets better of course with the double bluff. A good runner takes into account the Doctor knows about the half rule and assumes the Doctor has already factored that in , so when the Doctor says 6 weeks the runner assumes he actually meant 3 weeks as he was doubling up assuming the runner would half the time. Thus the runner halves the Doctors time twice, once because he knows the Doctor doubled it and half again as we all know Doctors know nothing about running. Thus when the Doctor says 6 weeks, the runners hears 9-10 days. Complicated but ultimately you get to go running quicker…
The article below appeared in Sports Connect, very apt at the moment.
Training is like trying to walk a tight rope. You need to balance putting in grueling workouts and mileage with the ability to let your body recover. Favor one aspect too heavily and you’ll either have a poor performance from lack of training or get injured and overtrained from doing too much.
That’s why learning how to manage fatigue, and understanding the role it plays in endurance training, is critical to improving as a runner. In this article, we’re going to outline why a certain amount of fatigue is necessary to improve as a runner, how to strategically implement it, and how to find the right balance.
Why fatigue is necessary
The basis for all training theory is the what we call the workout and recovery process. Running first breaks down your muscle fibers. The harder you run, the more muscle fibers you damage. Your body then works to rebuild these damaged muscle fibers and if the recovery process goes well, these muscle fibers are repaired stronger than before. That’s how you become faster and stronger through training.
But, as you may realize, it’s nearly impossible to fully recover from a workout in 24 hours. It might be possible following a very easy day of running, but any type of speed, tempo or long run is going to require anywhere from 2 to 14 days to fully absorb and recover (here’s a breakdown of what research says about how long it takes to recover from different workout types).
That means, unless you want to only run two or three times per week, training while fatigued is a necessary part of training; especially since we know slow, easy mileage is the best way to build aerobic endurance and is the foundation for running performance. The trick is finding that balance between running enough miles to build you aerobic capacity without overdoing the fatigue.
Herein lies the “art” of training.
However, there is also a way that we can utilize this fatigue to make your training more effective.
How to utilize fatigue to run faster
In training vernacular, coaches use a term called “accumulated fatigue”. Basically, this theory posits that fatigue from one workout accumulates and transfers to the next run so that you’re always starting a workout or a long run a little tired from your previous training.
This is important for longer distance races like the marathon because it’s nearly impossible to run the full distance of the race in daily training. Furthermore, if you were to start every workout fully recovered and fresh, it would be difficult to simulate how your body feels late into a race.
As such, we can strategically implement the theory of accumulated fatigue to better target the specific demands of your race.
For example, during marathon training, one of my favorite methods for introducing accumulated fatigue is to buttress the long run against a shorter, but steady paced run the day before. As an illustration, you would run six miles at marathon pace on the Saturday before your Sunday long run. Because of the harder running on Saturday, you start Sunday’s long run not at zero miles, but rather at six or eight miles, since that is the level of fatigue and glycogen depletion your body is carrying over from the previous run.
You can even apply this theory to 5k training. Using what we know about muscle fibers and the recruitment and fatigue ladder, I often have athletes run a short, explosive hill workout (something like 9 x 60 second hills at 5k pace) two days before a 5k specific workout (12 x 400 at 5k pace with 60 second quick jog rest). The hill session fatigues and depletes the fast twitch muscle fibers so that during the 5k specific work, your intermediary Type IIa muscle fibers (the ones primarily responsible for running at 5k pace) have to handle more work and thus are more specifically targeted.
How to find the right balance
Training would be much easier – and runners much happier – if you could just train hard and fatigued all the time. But, you can’t simply continue to accumulate fatigue and run these types of workouts all the time (although some runners certainly do try). There needs to be a balance.
First, try to keep the specific accumulated fatigue workouts to once every two weeks and only schedule them during the race-specific portion of your training schedule. This ensures that you don’t overdo it and that you don’t get burnt out long-term.
Be sure to keep your easy runs slow. One of the most common mistakes runners make is running their easy day mileage too fast. This hinders your ability to recover and doesn’t provide any additional aerobic benefit. Research has shown that the most optimal aerobic pace for an easy run is about 65 percent of 5k pace. For a 20-minute 5k runner (6:25 pace for 5k – 7:20 pace marathoner), this would mean about 8:40 per mile on easy days.
Finally, don’t be afraid to take a down or rest week every five to six weeks where you reduce mileage by 65 to 75 percent and reduce the intensity of your workouts. These down weeks help you fully recover from and absorb previous weeks and months of training so that fatigue doesn’t build-up too much.
Stamina is so important in running and to improve it there are several elements that need to be combined. First is consistency, basically run and keep running on a regular basis. Next is distance. You all know my opinions on this, go further and you will go faster eventually. The Long run is the next piece of the jigsaw. This needs to be as long as possible and if you can add a bit of tempo all good, most important though is time on feet. Next some gym work on conditioning wouldn’t go a miss. I’m not talking about big weights here but cardio workouts, light weights , high repetition. Concentrate on the core muscles and we’re not into weight gain so lots of sit ups, planks, burpees, press ups, medicine ball work and leg strengthening . Now sprinkle in some off road work. This is better than your normal straight line concrete run as it improves the aerobic endurance as well as ankle strength and stability. On a good trail you have to watch ever step and this makes the whole running process so much more testing. Don’t worry about pace too much as you’ll end up on your backside; more important to feel the benefit of the constant ‘stepping’ from foot to foot as you navigate the trail obstacles. (see image below with right knee bearing the brunt of not concentrating!)
All this talk of off road trail running has me excited. Me think Kings Park for some trails lunchtime. Living the dream guys, living the dream…
…and there’s more… while enjoying my lunch time trail run through Kings Park I thought I need to add hill work to my stamina improving workouts. The benefit of hill runs is as well as being bloody hard work, which is always a good sign, they tend to be a bit more forgiving than say a temp or threshold run. If you’re on tired legs and add speed you’re dancing with the devil. A good hill workout, even on tired legs, will give you the benefit of a time spent in the higher heart zones (between Threshold and VO2 max!) without the risk of injury. It’s not to say a good tempo and/or threshold is also good for building stamina but you do run the risk and these should be set aside for when you are fresh.
This evenings run was one where I had a lot on my mind and thus before I knew it I had ran 15k and was back home after racing the sunset and generally just enjoying running. I am not one for headphones or any exterior form of entertainment when I run. For me when I run, assuming it’s not pace dictated when the Garmin calls the shots, I drift away with my thoughts and have solved many a work related problems on my lunch time run. If you need to ‘unclutter’ just go for a run and you’ll normally figure things out.
This evening was one of those runs. I’d planned for 10k but just kept on running with the sunset on my shoulder and the glorious coast below me it seemed a shame to stop and turn around. Knowing I was meant to be tapering, of sorts , I had to make a big effort to stop and turn around when the time came. Truth be told I think it was probably hunger driving me home, two runs a day with no real additional calorie intake has made hunger a constant partner in my life but the end justifies the means I suppose.
The evening runs in Perth for me are always racing a sunset and because we don’t have daylight saving the length of the day is pretty constant, give or take a few hours. This has the added benefit of early mornings in summer when you have to run early as forty degree days are unforgiving. Overall Perth has a great running climate. Winter is certainly not what I would call winter, from where I come from in England a Perth Winter we would call a ‘heat wave’ ! Spring and Autumn are perfect and Summer is glorious in the early morning and you just need to get up early, really early ! It’s a win win running in Perth. I often wonder what would happen if I ever went back to Europe. I’d miss the endless bike paths, Kings Park, the 10k bridges, running around South Perth and the wonderful beaches and the Swan River runs. All things we take for granted but certainly not the norm. On the plus side there are some seriously beautiful places to run, proper mountains, lakes, coast and beautiful cities full of history. I can always buy a new running wardrobe if needs be, always keen to spend money on running equipment. That’s for my retirement, for the moment Perth is the place to be and I’m loving it.
Right back to the next race on the BK PB train, Fremantle half. Last year I ran the Peninsula 10k pre-Fremantle and must admit it affected my performance. I was running 5th at the halfway mark which was good for a medal (medals to 5th at Fremantle) but couldn’t hold on and finished 7th, 30-40seconds from the medal. I wonder if this year I’ll be able to hang onto a podium finish. Hope so, if not, no worries, it’s not a ‘goal race’ so to speak, but when the racing bib is on there’s no holding back. Racing is life, the rest is details…..
I found this article by Jason Fitzgerald, head coach of strength training. Compliments my thinking on distance being the key to unlock pace. That quote is mine. I think I proved over the last month or so that high mileage is the key to increased performance. I’m certainly convinced.
For a half marathoner or marathoner, the “base phase” of training (also called the introductory or foundational training period) is the first phase of a training cycle. It’s what prepares runners for the more challenging, race-specific workouts that come later.
And the top goal of base training is to increase endurance—or a runner’s aerobic capacity.
So, how do top coaches and athletes define the base phase of training?
Brad Hudson, coach to many elites and author of Run Faster, explains the base phase as:
“Priority number one is to gradually but steadily increase your running mileage…
Other priorities of the introductory period include establishing a foundation of neuromuscular fitness with very small doses of maximal-intensity running and beginning the long process of developing efficiency and fatigue-resistance at race pace with small doses of running in the race-pace range.”
And Bob Kennedy, the former American record holder in the 5,000m, explains, “There are three basic phases to a training cycle: base, strength and speed. The problem that most athletes have is that they think [the phases] are mutually exclusive. I think that the phase of training is defined by what you are focusing on during that phase.
But you always do a little of all of those things. There’s never a time of year when you’re just running mileage or you’re just doing speed. You’re always doing all of it, it’s just a matter of to what degree.”
Any base period should include three components: gradually increasing mileage, the critical long run, and of course, at least one faster workout per week.
Higher Mileage is Key
Mileage, or the total volume of a runner’s workload, is one of the best metrics for success. Simply put, the more you’re able to run, the faster you’re likely to race.To build a strong aerobic engine, gradually increasing mileage during the base phase of training is necessary.
Focus on three metrics:
Increasing the long run by about a mile every 1-2 weeks
Adding 1-2 more runs per week
Adding 1-3 miles to weekday runs every 1-3 weeks
The end result should be a gradual, progressive increase in mileage that will help build endurance, injury resistance and economy.Run Long to Build Fitness
The almighty long run has become nearly synonymous with endurance. To increase stamina, increase the distance of the long run.
Why? Well, the benefits are clear:Denser mitochondria (the “energy factories” of your cells)
Denser capillary networks to deliver oxygenated blood
Mental toughness and resolve
Improved muscular strength
Enhanced running economy (efficiency)
More energy efficient
You’ll race faster!
No base phase is complete without long runs. No matter if you’re a miler or ultramarathoner, a veteran or a total beginner, the long run is an absolutely critical component to successful training.Keep the pace of long runs mostly easy and add about a mile every 1-2 weeks. But every 4-5 weeks, it’s wise to cut the distance back to ensure you’re recovering and not increasing your risk of running injuries.
Faster Workouts
It’s a common misconception that base training doesn’t include fast workouts. While they’re not the focus, they’re still included to maintain leg speed and neuromuscular fitness (the ability for your brain to communicate effectively with your muscles).While strides or hill sprints are valuable ingredients in the base phase (and any phase of training!), there are other workouts that will help increase your fitness and overall endurance.
Progression runs where you gradually speed up to about tempo pace at the end of the run is a valuable early-season workout.
Tempo sessions improve your body’s tolerance to and ability to buffer lactate (the byproduct of anaerobic cellular respiration). In other words, you can hold a faster pace for longer.
Fartlek workouts include pickups or surges of a few minutes with 1-3 minutes recovery. These are usually faster than the other two workouts mentioned, so use them only every 2-3 weeks during base training.
Without including faster sessions into base training, runners won’t develop nearly as much neuromuscular fitness, improvements to running economy, and preparedness for the harder and more race-specific workouts that are undoubtedly coming during the later stages of training.
When you combine higher mileage, increasing long runs, and smart workout progressions you’ll build a monster aerobic base that will propel you to new personal bests.
Week 2 in my 6 week ‘race window’. Started the week with a double recovery run. well you’d be mad not to really. Two nice and easy 10k’s, one by myself this morning while watching another sunrise and the second with Mike and Jon at lunch. As we had all ran the 10k yesterday there was much discussion on important things like heart rate, VO2 max (Mike’s favourite subject bar none!) , threshold and how long one should spend in the pain box. Actually in Mike’s case we were all wondering if he was anywhere near the pain box for the duration of the race as his heart rate suggested otherwise. This leads me on to this afternoons post. The good old fashioned David ‘Sugar’ Cane immortalised pain box.
This is somewhere you need to place yourself if you want to improve on your previous PB, reach a set goal or are in the heat of battle within a race. The more time you can survive in the pain box the better. To be your best this little box needs to be embraced and one needs to open the door, step inside , close the door behind you and curl up in the fetal position. The longer you endure the pain box the better the final outcome. Similar to paying the piper, eventually the piper needs to get paid and when that is can determine how your race is going to pan out. If all goes well you can survive the pain box and come out the other end stronger and with a faster PB and renewed confidence, if it goes wrong , well then it doesn’t end well. Confidence takes a beating and you reassess your whole running career. On the bright side the door to the pain box will always be open and there’s always next time, but to improve unfortunately you will need to spend some serious time in there.
It’s fun this racing lark isn’t it? Well actually it isn’t. If you’re having fun you ain’t anywhere near the pain box and you ain’t racing. It needs to be gut busting, leg smashing, heart beating pain but when it all comes together the rewards are well worth it, but it ain’t fun. On the flip side I’m a big believer in the more time you spend racing (in the pain box) the better runner you will eventually become. The ‘no pain, no gain’ adage describes racing to a tee.
So Fremantle half next weekend. One of my favourite half marathons and one where I will ask questions of myself and my ability. There will be some quality pain box time and I’m excited just thinking about but it will not, and never will, be fun. That bit is the recovery run afterwards recounting stories of the race and then blogging about it, that’s fun…
After this mornings race I couldn’t wait for my recovery 10k. As I mentioned in a post earlier in the week a recovery run is using muscles that are fatigued from a previous hard workout. This means the recovery allows you to ‘smell the roses’ so to speak and also is doing you some serious good. Too good to miss really.
At the race earlier in the day I was speaking to a running hero of mine Chris Maher. Chris has a marathon best of 2:34 at 38 and was still running sub 2:40 marathon times well into his forties. When I was first starting taking running seriously in 2008, pre my first Comrades campaign, Chris would regularly kick my butt on the shorter distances. He still loves his racing as much today as in his prime , just now his competition is women and younger kids, as well as runners of his vintage. (albeit a good standard as Chris still ran a 3:03 marathon recently in his sixties) He gets the same thrill of the chase as I or any runner does when they are tested by competition and their own goals.
In 2013 I thought I had peaked and after winning the Bunbury Marathon in that year (my one and only marathon victory) I was ready to step up for a sub 2:40 marathon assault. This ended in a couple of near misses, 2:41.58 and 2:41.14, but ultimately I lost my love of racing and running in general as I failed on 3 or 4 more occasions to go sub 2:40. I wrote of 2014 as a bad year after such a good previous year. In 2015 Raf from the Running Centre took me under his wing and although i never broke the 2:40 he steered me to a new way of training which I have continued to use and has started to reap rewards.
So 2016 has seen me break my 5k, 10k and half pub’s. All times I thought beyond me. How long can this continue ? Who knows but I’m enjoying the challenge and like Chris love the competition and if I can keep at the front of the pack for a year or two more so be it, but when I eventually return to the pack look out because I’ll be coming for you….
Having a blog can sometimes come home and bite you. My mate Mark had read my first post of the day and knew a text inviting me for a ‘relaxing’ 10k would be too much for me to resist. He was right. Not sure what happened with the ‘relaxing’ part either as we finished with a sub 4:30min/k average. No worries it was nice to run my ‘old faithful’ of a 10k for the 146th time and the first time with company. The 10k run soon disappeared as we chatted about everything to do with running as we’re both training for the World Masters in Perth in November ( http://www.perth2016.com ) Mark has been unlucky over the last few tears with injuries and this has been compounded by his Wife finding the addiction that is Triathlon’s. Add in 3 Daughters including a set of young twins and Mark and Emma have their hands full. The planning involved in both adults getting their exercise fix and also spending enough family time with the girls will always be a challenge and one so many runners face. The one benefit of maturing with age, and trust me there isn’t many, is the kids are growing up and my three daughters are now at an age where Mum and Dad aren’t as important as they once were. Friends have started to become more important in their life. In one respective this is sad but , always being the optimist, I get more ‘Kev’ time which means more running.
That being said there really was no excuse to run today with a 10k race tomorrow but as I have always maintained I love to run and I can justify that this is not a ‘goal’ race and as such no need to be totally rested, and it’s only 10k, what can go wrong? A 10k needs to be respected. You can fake a 5k, normally run a half marathon at a reasonable pace and always give the marathon the respect it deserves. A 10k can come back and bite you if you go out too fast, normally around the 7-8k mark. When you run out of fuel and the tank is empty the last 2k can be testing. as with all races it is better to start slow and build into it. This is something I can never do. When the pistol goes it’s on and I always charge straight into the threshold zone. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and wouldn’t really have it any other way….
As I’m racing tomorrow there was no early morning run this morning. I am now wondering around lost. I have persuaded my Wife to get up early so we can drive to Yelo for a coffee and muffin breakfast (carbo loading for a 10k?) and after that I will return to my ‘lost’ state.
I’m a runner who loves to run and hates not running. Even now i’m making excuses for reasons why running today would be a good idea, not twice as that would be silly wouldn’t it? So my reasoning behind a run would be to loosen the legs (they aren’t tight), it’s not really a target race tomorrow (that is actually true, tomorrow is really a good hit-out pre-half next weekend) or get rid of some pre-race nerves (I ain’t nervous) . No luck there, let’s face it the reason I want to run is I love running, plain and simple.
Tapering for my next marathon will be a challenge. The last one I ran 100k the week before and called that tapering as I was averaging 130k a week. I’m normally ok on marathon week as even I understand the need to rest. I normally only run twice in the week before a marathon and actually enjoy the calm before the storm, but for a 10k tomorrow, hell I should be running now not typing.
So will probably sneak out for a ‘relaxing’ 10k sometime today, c’mon you’d be mad not too wouldn’t you…..
A quick article on tapering below by Pete Pfitzinger, M.S. suggests a 7-10 day taper for a 10k, I’m thinking 7-10 hours.
Most performance oriented runners will do pretty much what they’re told in training. Run 8 x 800 meters at the track? Sure. Do a 40-minute tempo run? No problem. It’s when we’re instructed to scale back, run less and conserve our energies, that we balk.
Training provides long-term fitness improvements but produces short-term fatigue. Leading up to an important race, the challenge is to find the optimal balance between maintaining the best possible racing fitness and resting to reduce the fatigue of training. This is referred to as a well-planned taper.
To achieve your best when it counts, you can only afford to do a full taper before a few key races each year. If you race often and were to taper thoroughly for each race, you would have little time left for hard training. So you learn to “train through” some races. But for the big ones, you will want to go all out to achieve your best.
A recent paper published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed more than 50 scientific studies on tapering to find out whether tapering betters performance, and how to go about it. The review showed that there is no question tapering works. Most studies found an improvement of about 3% when athletes reduced their training before competition. This translates to more than five minutes for a three-hour marathoner or more than a minute for those racing 10K in 40 minutes.
How Long Should You Taper?
Several of the studies concluded that the optimal length of taper is from seven days to three weeks, depending on the distance of the race and how hard you’ve trained. Too short a taper will leave you tired on race day, while tapering for too long will lead to a loss of fitness. How do you find the right balance? Consider than any one workout can give you far less than a 1% improvement in fitness, but a well-designed taper can provide a much larger improvement in race performance. Therefore, it is probably wiser to err on the side of tapering too much than not enough. The optimal number of days to taper for the most popular race distances are as follows: marathon, 19 to 22 days; 15K to 30K, 11 to 14 days; 5K to 10K, 7 to 10 days.
Now I’m into my third week as a ‘blogger’ I’m starting to realise this is becoming as big a part of my life as running. This morning while running my go-to run for the 145th time (thanks again Strava! http://www.strava.com) I was struggling to think of new topics to discuss on my morning blog. Best thing to discuss was maybe the whole blog thing. The reason I started this was two fold. First I was interested in the whole process of starting a blog and in a few short weeks have found out so much about how websites are built and maintained. I am now a WordPress black-belt where-as a few weeks a go I had no idea what WordPress was. ! I now have three domains registered with 3 different companies which means a load of different login passwords and user ids. I have to store these in my phone as there is no way I can remember them all. I have lost count of the number of times I have had to apply for a password reset lately ! Maybe a sign of old age, probably. Second, I generally do enjoy discussing all things running and if I can help anybody with some of my ramblings then great.
Once you have a blog that is just then beginning. You then spend all your time worrying about how many views you receive each day, and the number of page visits per user or the number of people following you. It is exhausting. On the bright side WordPress has some great plug-ins (geek talk) and one of them shows where , globally, your views are coming from. This is addictive. I am apparently quite big in Australia, Britain and parts of Asia but yet to crack America and Canada. This is real time and of course all the historical data is captured. You could spend days analyzing all the information.
So the point of todays post is the world we live in is complicated. Even starting a blog can become all encompassing, we all need a release and running is that activity. This morning while running my ‘old faithful’ 10k for the 145th time I was able to drift away and think about ‘blogging’ , posts, how to crack Canada ! etc. etc. and before I knew it I had finished my run and it was time to get ready for work. The run itself was therapy and even though I may have had my mind on other things on a number of occasions I did look up and enjoy the sights and sounds the morning offered me. The run through Star Swamp gave me a sunrise and the run into Carine Open Space was just about perfect conditions with the sun just rising above the horizon and lighting up the path in front of me with a golden glow. I even finished with a burst of speed into my street aided by gravity and a hunger for my weetbix and honey. All in all another good run.
So that’s it this morning. I’m off to think about ways to break into the Canadian running market, maple syrup anybody.