(I’m training for the Bath Half Marathon in March, which I’m running to raise funds for Mind: if you’d like to sponsor me you can do so at http://www.justgiving.com/richardsandford/)

Update excitement! Running report! I am still running.

Mind you, I nearly wasn’t. Last week, after properly sticking to the plan and finishing up with a 10k on Sunday, I took advantage of a guest pass and went to a new gym, for yoga and swimming and a go on the steam room. Felt wonderful on Monday morning, all the more so as I’d spent the last week hobbling around and finding even short distances pretty hard going, so feeling good was welcome change. A colleague of mine who knows yoga was surprised I felt so chipper, but chipper I was, until about midday, when her surprise began to make more sense in light of my entire body turning to concrete. Tuesday brought only variety, with hip joints and knees choosing to turn into hot soup rather than set hard: Wednesday wasn’t much better, and by Thursday I thought that perhaps I’d overdone things a bit and I should just accept a week off. Which coincided nicely with work eating all my spare time.

So today was my first run for a week, and it felt pretty good, all in all. Lovely sunny day, towpath full of people who still haven’t learnt to steer or pedal their new bikes, lots of dogs and toddlers, plenty of people stopping to take pictures of the Gorge in the sunlight. Coming back from Pill needed a bit more grit as my legs started complaining but I made it home in the same time as the last time: nice to know I haven’t fallen behind by taking some time off.

Next week I’m away from Bristol for a few days, for work, and I get to run in the countryside. And then it’s two more long runs and then it’s the race.