Apologies to everyone who has had to listen to me talk about running/ dieting this year or last. You can be excused.
I ran this morning: 8.7 miles in 1:08:09, a pace of 7.7mph, which is pretty good for me. I didn't actually feel that great running today. At the halfway point I was doing okay, but I was running along the canal, and the path there is very narrow and not paved, so you are sometime running on grass, sometimes on the rock path. This creates a surprising amount of stress. I tried to keep the pace up and did better than usual: if I could do the marathon run at this pace, I would be pretty happy. Not possible, but it would be nice.
My next run will be doing the one I did on Wednesday and today, combined for a total of about 17 miles. I'm going to do this on Sunday morning, and shoot to do it in under three hours. It should be easy enough so long as I don't run as aggressively as I did today.
I'm also not really dropping any weight and I realised that I need to cut back even more on what I'm eating. I've been doing calculations in my head sort of ad hoc and basing it on how full/ empty I feel, but that's not been going so hot. I end up eating too much.
I'm also doing less preparation for my running. Last year I spent a lot time thinking about what I ate before and after I ran and getting everything ready well in advance. This year, I've just been getting up, filling the water bottle, and going. I need to do a little more prep for Sunday: yes, this will likely include wearing my running tights and my camelbak. I'll start at 5 in the morning, too, rather than just waiting until I get up. Part of me wants to try a marathon length run next Wednesday or Thursday, just to get it out of the way early and try to do one every month for the summer, but I think I'll wait until May and do four: one every month until August. We'll see though.