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.

Greenwich weekend

Two morning runs at Greenwich this weekend - 4 laps yesterday for 8 miles, and 1.5 laps today for 3.25 miles, bringing my total for the week to just over 18 miles and for March to just over 53 miles.

March was always likely to be a lower mileage month due to tapering for the MK Half, and having a bit of a rest afterwards. But overall I'm still ahead of schedule to comfortably beat 750 miles by the end of the year.

200 miles...

Back on track with 18 miles over the last week - two lunchtime Hyde Park laps, and a couple of runs in Edinburgh over the weekend.

My total for the year has just passed 200 miles - 202.75 to be exact. So 27% of my target completed in only 22% of the time. If I keep up my current rate of progress I'll run more than 900 miles in the year...!

Bupa London 10000

Just back from a week off running after the Milton Keynes Half. Nice to have a break and especially nice to enjoy a bottle of wine or two and not worry about feeling crap for the next day's run.

But I've signed up for another race - the BUPA London 10000 on Monday May 31st.

The route starts in St James Park and follows the Thames for 3km, takes a loop around the City of London for the next 4km, and then returns along Embankment finishing with a run up The Mall. It covers some of the route which the Olympic Marathon will follow in 2012.

I'm hoping to complete the course in 55 minutes - a little faster than 9 minute miles.

I'm going to be raising money for the Cure Parkinson's Trust and I've set up a fundraising page.

Looking forward to a good run and raising a tidy sum for the charity (and clocking up some more miles towards my 750 target for the year).

Milton Keynes...

Just back from a very sunny but cold Milton Keynes half marathon.

I finished in 2:04:20. A little disappointed as I'd hoped to break the 2 hour barrier, but still very pleased with how I ran, especially since the course, and especially the last mile, wasn't quite as "fast and flat" as promised in the pre-race publicity !

The rather cruel last mile apart, the course was actually very nice - a small section of running along closed off main roads for the first couple of miles, but after that the rest of the route was on cycle / foot paths which snaked their way around surprisingly pictureseque countryside, including a section around a lake which was really lovely.

The start was downhill and I missed the first mile marker - I'd intended to start slowly at around 9:30 miles but did the first 2 in 18 minutes and in spite of trying to slow down ran the next 2 in 18:06. However it all felt quite comfortable at that point but I'd probably taken a little more out of myself than I'd planned.

The next couple of miles were a little slower but I still passed the halfway mark in good time in exactly 1 hour. I averaged 9:30 for miles 8 to 11 meaning with a sprint finish I could still have got close to the 2 hour mark - but then the hills began: mile 12 took me 9:54 and I crawled up the mile towards the short finishing straight in 10:46. What felt like a sprint finish but when viewed on my parents-in-law's video afterwards looked like a very painful jog brought me home in 2 hours 4 minutes 20 seconds. Still a very respectable time for a first half-marathon.

Sophie had a great run and finished in 2 hours 16:35 - a personal best for her.

One lunchtime run this week together with the half-marathon added up to 17.1 miles for the week, and my total for the year is now 180.7