Till death us do part

I think I've pretty much recovered from my illness. I still have lots of the symptoms - sore throat, tiredness, bunged up nose - but I'm running OK. I sniff a bit more than usual, and as soon as I get hope I rush to get a hankie to blow my nose, but other than that, it's pretty normal running.

The new shoes seem to be going OK. It's hard to know for sure whether they're as good as my Nikes once were, but they're definitely reasonable. The only annoyance I have with them is that they feel ultra wide. That's only really a problem on corners, and hopefully that's the least of my worries during a marathon.

Last night's run was just to Oakwood and back. Same old, same old. A slightly disappointing 14 minutes out - I've been hitting slightly lower recently - but I managed to up the tempo on the return journey, and I got hom in a shade over 27 minutes. Would have been less but for me having to stop for a few seconds both the times I crossed the roundabout at the top of Windmill Hill. Bloody car drivers - think they own the road ;)

When I got back I drank, warmed down, had dinner and then iced my knees. I don't know if it really helps, but at the very least it feels like I'm being proactive. I'm icing them using a couple of bags of value frozen peas - they're way better than the freezer packs we had because they change position to surround the knees. It's weird afterwards, because my knees are so cold and I've always been taught that having a cold body is a good way of getting injured, so I walk around very gingerly. Or, like last night, get Hazel to take them away and don't even move...