I'm back

As some of you already know, my Dad passed away unexpectedly on 2nd May. My focus since then has understandably been family, hence the lack of updates. Thank you to everyone for the kind messages of condolence and support, it has meant a lot to me and my family.

If I am honest, the last few months have been really difficult. Travelling between Croydon and Hillingdon has been taking up a lot of time, diet has been pretty rubbish, and a near constant state of tiredness pushed training to the bottom of my list. I didn't train for over six weeks and my first run was three miles of pavement pounding. You will remember from previous posts that I was being very cautious about moving from the treadmill to the street; it is fair to say that I ached for days after that run, but I haven't been on the treadmill since.

Given the new demands on my time, I have taken up early morning running. At first I found it difficult to drag myself out of bed at 5.30 am, then go for a run, but it wakes me up like no brand of coffee I have ever tasted! I am told that with early morning training, one doesn't run as quickly as they usually would. This has been a very encouraging as I am averaging about 10min 20sec per mile, which is about the pace that I ran the 10k last year. This week I have increased the distance before breakfast to 5 miles and will be at 6 miles next week. I think I will cap it at that as it will be impractical to do mega early morning miles on weekdays - the really long runs will be on Saturdays.

That brings me almost to the end of this post and I want to end with something that has been on my mind for a while now: Life is far too short, so it is vitally important to squeeze the most out of it. That's kind of the path I was on when I signed up for this run, and Dad passing has only reinforced that belief. I do however have a tendency to procrastinate on everything, so I need your help - if you see me wavering, please tell me that I am!

So I am back. I am running to raise money for HALC and I am now doing so in memory of my Dad, Brian Fewtrell.