Good week

Bouncing back after losing the best part of 3 weeks to illness, I've managed to run 4 times this week already and still planning on putting in a steady 20 mile run on Sunday. I haven't completed anything extraordinarily long or quick, purposefully easing back into it gently to try and avoid injury. Easing back in is mentally tough. Having been out for a stretch, all your mind wants to do is make up for lost time and prove to yourself that you haven't lost power and fitness, despite the break. Of course, your body will have declined a little over this time, so exercise restraint.

That said, I did get a circuit PB of 21:13 on the local 5k loop next to our house. It's quite a hilly route, more so than the regular 5k I've been running on Tuesday lunchtimes at work. On a good day, I reckon I might be able to crack the 20 minute barrier on this route, whether I want to attempt that in the run up to the marathon is another matter. I'll probably leave it for now.

Out of interest, I've pulled together some data to show the average distance covered per week, by month. I'm not decided on what is the best data to display, but I quite liked this one as it's easy to spot a trend and explain away the dips. I began to wind up training in November and December, although took a break over Christmas. I missed a long run in February, due to skiing, which made for a slight dip after January's faultless month. And the toll of the recent illness can be seen in March.