Some hard yards at Crystal Palace

First trip of the year to Crystal Palace today - lots of roads closed at Greenwich due to tomorrow's London Marathon. I'd forgotten about the hills at Crystal Palace and went out a bit fast - so ended up doing 3 laps rather than 4, for a total of 5.5 miles. An hour long swimming lesson before my run probably didn't help. But the good news is my ankle's now pain-free.

And I've had a good week - 5 runs since Monday for a total of 21.5 miles at 9min 16 pace. Total for April is nearly 63 miles and for the year 279 miles.

Tomorrow: a day off running to go and watch the London Marathon and support my sister-in-law who is running for World Emergency Relief.

Sore ankle

Apparently the UK is covered by a cloud of ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano. It's causing a lot of worry for airlines and their passengers...

Ash cloud or no, the weather these last few days has been fantastic - warm spring sunshine, very little wind, and very comfortable temperatures. Very nice conditions for running.

Unfortunately I seem to have picked up some kind of ankle injury. Don't think it was caused by running since it doesn't hurt when I'm running or walking - but it is sore when I stretch or turn the wrong way.

Maybe it's just old age.

Anyway, injuries and ash clouds aside, I've had a good week's running - nearly 18 miles this week, including some intervals (8x400metres) on Wednesday. Oh and a swimming lesson as well.

Total distance for April is 41 miles so far, and for 2010, 258 miles - so I've now completed 1/3 of the challenge, ahead of time.

Spring sunshine

After a very long cold, winter it looks like spring might really be here... three days of bright sunshine, warm enough for t-shirts and shorts, well for running anyway.

Had a great Easter in Edinburgh - very relaxing - and didn't do a lot of running for various reasons. But this week has been more productive and I've clocked up 19 miles this week - 8 in Hyde Park during the week, 7 and a bit at Greenwich yesterday, and 4 laps of Dulwich today.

And I'll be working from home for the next week or two so will hopefully be able to get out more regularly at lunchtimes.

240 miles completed in the year to date - 510 to go. So still nicely on schedule.

Looking forward to the BUPA 10000 next month - I've got a plan together and will be trying to do a bit of speedwork to make sure I beat my target of 55 minutes.