Alarm clock Britain

Day:        39
Distance: 9.07km
Time:       51:29 secs
Calories:  701

It's 6am. Yes, that's right A.M. As in Ante Mendiem. My wife wasn't even aware there was a 6am, yet here I am up and ready to go for a pre-work 50 minute run. Oh, and my legs, shoulders and pecs are still aching from Tuesday's interval training. Brilliant.

Not only am I up before the sun today, but it would also appear that I'm up before most living souls. I don't think I passed more than 10 people during the entire run and two of those were fellow runners. So, why am I putting myself through this? Well the simple explanation is that the training plan demands that I fit a run in today and as I'm going to see the rather wonderful Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain tonight it had to be before work.

Despite the very early start and the growing collection of aches and pains once I started running I was absolutely fine and enjoyed being up and about before most people. I had wondered whether the aches would mean I'd need to curtail this run, but once I was in the 'zone' (helped along initially by Blur's "Parklife") any thoughts of turning back were forgotten.

The training plan actually called for a 60 minute run to include 6 x 1 minute hill climbs with a jog back down to recover. However, the route I took didn't have the requisite number of hills, so that part of the plan was largely ignored. As I ran a pretty similar route to the one I took last Friday (without the end loop), there was one significant hill on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich and, upon reaching the hill, I decided that I'd pick up the pace for that part of the run. I didn't job back down it afterwards as a) that would have looked weird and b) I'd have been going the wrong way to get home.

Speaking of which, by the time I arrived back at the flat the sun still hadn't risen and the aches in my muscles had returned with a vengeance, but I was filled with a real sense of achievement at completing more than 9km before breakfast on a very cold January morning.

As a parting note and for those of you unaware of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain I'll leave you with their cover of Baccara's "Yes, sir I can boogie", which I'm hoping they play tonight. In case you're wondering, no this 70s disco classic isn't on my running playlist. Typically, my views on Disco are in tune with Homer Simpson's (who famously sported a "Disco Sucks" bumper sticker on his car) but as it's the Ukes I'll let it slide.

Got My Mojo Workin'

Day:        31
Distance: 8.73km
Time:       51:02 secs
Calories:  684

For the first time since starting to train for the marathon I had a general feeling of can't be botheredness. Normally I'm pretty motivated, but tonight I just didn't feel like it. I don't know whether it was the headache I had on the way home from work, the decidedly cold night, wanting to have a rest or a combination of all three. However, I'd already agreed with Jim that I'd accompany him and didn't want to let him down (it later transpired that Jim had been feeling pretty much the same about running tonight).

The result of all this? It was a great run. I ran with ease, enjoyed being able to clear my head, concentrated on running and shooting the breeze with Jim. To help keep things fresh and to take account of the fact we were starting later than on previous Wednesdays we decided to take a different, shorter route. This route takes us up a fairly steep hill on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich. I remember including it in a couple of routes that I ran in preparation for last year's half marathon and I warned Jim in advance that it was incredibly knackering. I needn't have bothered with the warning. We hit the hill at around the half hour mark and I was expecting to endure a few minutes of difficulty, but as we reached the brow of the hill I realised that neither of us had had any difficulties whatsoever and hadn't even slowed down noticeably. A sign of progress, I think.

Another sign of progress was that, without even trying, we ran considerably faster than at the same point last week (averaging 5:51 mins per km compared with 6:19 mins per km last week), so for the first time in a few weeks I didn't finish the Wednesday night run with a feeling of disappointment.

I often find with running that it's the runs that you don't fancy, or those that seem like a chore initially that turn out to be the best ones. That was certainly the case tonight as I'm now feeling exhilarated and re-energised.

While I'm in a good mood I thought I'd share a classic piece of music. At Christmas I was given a Muddy Waters' Greatest Hits collection and one song in particular grabbed me straight away with its up tempo proto-rock n' roll rhythms and fantastic harmonica sound. "Got My Mojo Workin'" has gone straight onto the running playlist - how can a song like this fail to pick me up and get me moving?