I’ve been quiet for a few days… but I’ll excuse myself. Been busy. Been training. And I’m pleased to report that my new Saucony Grid Trigon Ride shoes (how’s that for a mouthful) seem to be paying dividends. I’m no longer experiencing any problems with my lower calf muscles after my weekly “Big” runs. Yesterday I did 23km. I was planning to do 28km but took a road past my house and could not avoid the temptation! Anyway, the 23km took 2 hours. Extrapolating that to the full marathon means I would be very pleased with a 4 hour time. Of course, Sean tells me that one should double your average marathon time for racing at the North Pole. So 8hrs it is then! (Feels like I could walk faster than that…)

Today was another day of major exercise. This time the real stuff - no average 23 km run in the park - instead 5 hours of shopping at John Lewis. Bianca and I had to get a wedding list sorted for our big day on 5 May. I had not realised that 5 hours of committed shopping could be so exhausting. I’ll be thrilled to head out for what I hope will be a 28km run next weekend.