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.

Friday night's alright for running

Day:        19
Distance: 7.51 km
Time:       40:13 secs
Calories:  590

It's January and I'm off the booze. There are numerous reasons for this, including the month long liver torture that is December and a post-Christmas lack of cash. Other incentives this year are that I want to continue building on the start that I've made to my marathon training and, I have to admit, lose a few pounds.

This means that a typical Friday night at the moment consists of running a few kilometres rather than downing a few pints. No doubt, normal service will resume in due course but for the time being I'm actually enjoying the change in 'health behaviour'.

At this stage of training a 40 minute run shouldn't pose too many difficulties, but this run was a little different in that it called for 10 mins x 'steady', 20 mins x 'tempo' and 10 mins x 'steady'. By the wonders of Run Keeper I can tell you that I was averaging around 5:30-6 mins per kilometre for the two 'steady' sections, while for the 'tempo' sections of the run I averaged around 4:30-5 mins per kilometre.

The difference between my 'steady' and 'tempo' paces might not seem like all that much but running in this fashion certainly meant that at the end of the run I was shattered as I had covered the majority of the 7.5 km at 'tempo'. Normally, I get to the end of a run and feel like I could carry one but on this one I was very glad to return home.

It strikes me at this point that it has been a little while since I posted one of my running songs, so I shall do so now. But first, some background.

I hadn't thought of Sixties fetishists Ocean Colour Scene in many a year, but in the week before Christmas I was driving along listening to the radio when all of a sudden the DJ transported me back to the mid-90s with "100 Mile High City" by OCS. Ten seconds of an absolute belter of a guitar riff and the introduction of the drums was all I needed to know that this would be a most worthy addition to my running playlist. The video below isn't the best (I can't find the official video), but with a song this good that shouldn't matter. Enjoy.