Xmas Eve 

14m & 8.58 p/m 
2hrs 5 min 

It's just gone 9am and I'm back from my longest run to date, a crisp, gorgeous Xmas Eve morning. Sian and the boys are in Wales so it was a 6.30am start as I hit the Hagley Road to town, as the sun rose over the second City. It really is the very best time to run, and it was surprisingly busy! I took the road in to town, did a few loops and headed out to Canon Hill to join the throng of dog walkers, before returning via the University, in a blinding sun!

Feeling fresh; this must be one of the slowest runs I've done in years - purposely aiming for around 9 minute miling and a chance to burn almost 2000 calories! I'm putting faith in Pfitzinger (which advocates this pace - 8.54 to 9.15 for a 3.25 marathon time) and have also started collating statistics on runs for previous marathons. It does seem like there may be an inverse correlation between miles logged and marathon times, but this will need to be examined in a lot more detail.

Anyhow, it doesn't seem to have takes too much out of me so, with the weeks long run in the bag, it's time to head out for a welsh Xmas …..