The weather has continued to be lovely and warm and sunny. Long sleeved tops have been notable by their absence from the laundry and vests have began to appear with regularity. Although not exactly so hot that running becomes uncomfortable - training in this decent weather should help when I get to London and have to race in warmer conditions than we usually get in Cumbria.

After my day off on Monday I was aware that even Tuesday was still quite soon after my heavy weekend to be doing  a tough session. Thing is, if I wait until Wednesday to run a session then I'm not going to do another one on Thursday, and Friday is my day off, and anyway Sauturday this week is a race again. So Tuesday it was to be.

I met up with Darren to do some reps but instead of the usual 2 milers with stationary recovery we ran the Crosby 10 mile loop in 4 sets of 4mins easy jog 11mins hard effort. As I've said many times before, this is my favourite session, possibly even my favourite run. 10 miles is a great distance to run. Its short enough to be done hard without needing a drink. But its also long enough to be regarded as a decent mileage for the day. Possibly the best thing about running 10 miles is seeing how close to one hour you can complete it. Or how much faster than one hour if its a race.

Whilst this session is more or less  the same as doing 4 by 2 mile reps its a bit tougher than that as between the start and finish there is no time when you stop running. Perhaps due to this and I expect also with the weekends exertions in our legs (Darren raced a 10 mile event last Sunday), we were only achieving just inside 6 minute miling for the 11 minute efforts. We finished the route in 63mins 45secs. Not an astounding time but OK for the first time of asking this year. I might do this again next week.

Next evening was again superb in terms of settled warm weather. I collected Penrith Stu from the factory of dreams that is Reeds Printshop and travelled the long lake road South through Pooley Bridge, Glenridding and Patterdale to eventually arrive at Middle Earth soon after 5 oclock. At a relaxed jogging pace we climbed to a little known spot called Priest Hole Cave on the Eastern flank of Dove Crag. Interesting place with nice views.

Today (Thursday) was nice weather again, though not quite as good  as it has been. Finishing work for 4 whole days I drove out to Gelt Woods to let Scamp enjoy a splash in the river. Then we continued out to Talkin where he was possibly less thrilled to accompany me for one very slow lap of the hilly 6.5 mile loop. I'm sure he would have preferred to be on grass or trail but we can't always choose to do the things we would prefer. Its such a backwater that he can run off the lead for the majority of the lap anyway. Back at the van Scamp jumped in hte front seat and I changed into a vest to be more comfortable on my 'fast lap'. I ran it at a controlled pace. Reasonably hard, but also relaxed, certainly not straining or striving to beat the clock. The clock stopped at 43:37 which is about 4 mins slower than I

Latest thoughts on London marathon - Start out at 6:15 per mile (2:44 pace). In theory that should feel within my capabilities so at 13 miles I could hopefully increase the pace to give me a result in the region of 2:42.

This is the trouble with a marathon - I could certainly run the first 10 miles at 6:00 pace and it would feel within my ability. But that would be 2:37 pace and I know I am not capable of that time. So its all about putting into practice the art of a steady, even slow, start.