A post in which music is not mentioned, but food is

Day:        27
Distance: 7.95km
Time:       43:28 secs
Calories:  616

I'm in Essex because my wife, Varoo, came back to have her wisdom tooth removed yesterday. I'd asked her if she wanted to join me for this run, but she cried off citing the wisdom tooth. I believe that I may have snorted in derision and asked what that could possibly have to do with running. It turns out, according to a printout from the dentist, that after having a wisdom tooth removed you really should "avoid alcohol and strenuous activity". Who knew?

I also asked my brother-in-law Rohan if he wanted to join me. When he stumbled in late last night pissed as a fart, mumbled incoherently about feeling sick and then promptly fell asleep during 'Kick Ass' (a fantastic film, by the way) I knew there was no chance. At the end of the film we had to wake him up, but merely telling him to get up and shaking him wasn't enough. I suggested we pour some water over his head. Of course, this being the 21st Century we couldn't just watch, we had to film it. I daren't post the video up here, but suffice to say it's a work of modern cinematic genius. Highlights include Rohan's stoic refusal to wake up after the first soaking, my shaky camerawork and the soundtrack (which consists mainly of my girly giggling).

In the end I went out for this run on my own. It was supposed to be 35 minutes at an 'easy' tempo, but as the stats at the top of this post will show I underestimated the length of the route that I took and ran for 43 minutes. Surely, it can't be a bad thing to do more than I was supposed to do ... unless it affects the longer run that I have scheduled for tomorrow I suppose.

To change the subject almost completely, I'm pretty much halfway through January and my self-imposed 'Lent'. Because I'm not at all religious this fasting is all new to me, so I set about it with all the zeal of a recent convert and have cut out alcohol, takeaways, chocolate, crisps etc. You know, the good stuff.

I've already said in another post that I'm not drinking this month and that this has helped free up some time to go running. I'm pleased to report that I'm still not drinking. It's not much of an achievement though as the first month of the year is generally lacking in social engagements and, thus, I haven't exactly had to try.

Foregoing takeaways is proving more difficult than I'd anticipated. I generally view a takeaway as a treat and not something that I would indulge in every day, but the cold, dark nights that are a feature of January do lend themselves to the comforting embrace of a curry or fish and chips. The problem is exarcerbated because most of the runs I'm doing are in London and take me past a veritable cornucopia of Indian restaurants, Chinese takeaways, Fish and Chip shops and the finest Turkish restaurant in South London. The delicious smells emanating from these establishments are proving off-putting and making this part of Lent more difficult. It's like torture. Not actual torture, obviously. That would be ridiculously hyperbolic, a bit like when we say we're starving yet in actual fact we're merely a bit peckish or bored. Anyway, I digress

How does this relate to running? Good question, I'm glad you asked. I guess that it doesn't really, but I suppose I wanted to document all the efforts I'm putting into training for the marathon and diet should be included in addition to the running and the music playlist. While I'm on the food theme, at some point I'm going to need to think about following some kind of carb-heavy running diet, but at the moment all I can think about is the promise that Varoo and I have made to visit the legendary Tayyabs in Whitechapel as soon as January's over.