So, who did a really long run yesterday – the longest, for many marathoners – and then celebrated with copious amounts of chocolate? Not me, given my masochist pre-marathon chocolate-denial, though I consoled myself with hot cross buns instead.

I usually do all my long runs alone, largely because of the practicalities of family life. But yesterday I had a rather nasty-sounding 18 miles, incorporating 4 x 4 mile efforts at a touch quicker than marathon pace. So I was very glad that my teammate Gordon fancied doing it too – it’s the sort of run that’s somehow only achievable in company. Something about running with someone else for a hard effort like this pushes you on, though I certainly didn’t manage to push on and stay with him when he hared off for the last mile.

We also did the entire thing around Battersea Park – which was lovely and quiet on Easter Sunday at 9am – though perhaps a tad boring by the 10th lap. But I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to hard running, I quite like boring. Boring can be a good thing when you are just trying to focus on pace and breathing, as opposed to taking in the views and having a chat. Boring at 7 min/mile pace is nice and flat. Boring loops also allow you to forget about distance and just focus on laps, which go much quicker than mile-counting. So hooray for boring, I say. And hooray for hot cross bun recovery snacks.

So how was your weekend – does your tapering for London (at least on the long run distance) start now or are you even closer, to Paris or Manchester? Or are you of the opinion that all this marathon talk is, well, boring? I don’t blame you, I bore myself sometimes too …

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