With Manchester Marathon out of the way, and after the requisite period of recovery, binge eating and taking frequent naps on my laurels, I’m back in training. I’ve no race lined up, but the past year has certainly been a long slog, spent primarily in recovery mode: recovering from last Springs’ reverses, letting myself go (certainly as far as training was concerned) over summer and then slowly building myself up over Autumn and Winter. I’ve now set my first PB in any distance since December 2013 (and my first Marathon PB since March 2013 – not a bad way to celebrate my induction to the V40 category!) and, while not the fittest nor the fastest that I’ve ever been yet, I feel that my efforts are at last having some effect!

And it’s probably as much a childish impulse to run fast with exhilaration, as it is to claim my Sundays back from 20+ mile runs, that I’ve turned my attention to my long neglected 10k training. Training started yesterday, and with sunset now after 20:00, I had plenty of time to head out on the country lanes linking the surrounding villages before it got dark. It will be great when I am able to do all my running in the countryside again, and even more so when the migratory Huncote Harriers return to their natural habitat from their Enderby wintering grounds. With a bit of luck and some planning, I might even be on time to run with them again on Tuesdays!

It feels nice getting faster again… It makes you feel that anything is possible!