Furthermore

Marathon Training

Well, I got up at 6 today and on Tuesday and ran a four mile circuit. Took me just under 50 minutes both times - which is pretty slow, but I'm not so worried about times at this stage. Just getting out and round is enough.

I'm going to try skipping the short run for a while at least - I'm not sure if I'll get the benefit from it. I may try to start doing it if the training isn't hurting me too much later on. I discovered that running to work is not a sensible idea - I'd realised I'd have to take in spare clothes the day before in order to have something to wear when I got to work, but I forgot about a coat, and at that point, the idea just began to seem absurd. All these logistics? Why bother when I can just do a circuit from home?

Useful things so far:

• gmap pedometer - I've mentioned this before, but it's really handy for working out distances for run routes. Here's the coming Sunday's 8 mile run from my parent's place.
• Google Groups search - on energy bars. Pro-bar opinion seems to centre on CLIF bars (not tried yet myself). The anti-bar sentiment seems to think it's all hype, and you'd be as well to eat, say, a Jordan's Frusli. I looked at those in Sainsbury's but the sugar looked very high as a proportion of the carbs. I got some reasonably priced bars from Holland and Barrett (3 for £1) which were quite nice: CarbWise Caramel Peanut Crisp. V popular in the Cambridge store apparently. I may stick with those unless I find something better.