I'm definitely back in the groove now. The running four or five times a week is starting to feel like a habit again, just something that happens, instead of a torment or even a particular effort.

Not that running is getting easier, you understand, just that going for a run is. Thursday morning's session was an 'interval' run. A joggy thing with sprinty bits, in short. And I'm fairly pleased to report that, like Tuesday's run, the legs felt fluid and bouncy, high knee lift in front, definite kick up behind. All sort of runnerish. This is in sharp contrast to some of my colleagues and fellow Brighton-Marathon-aiming-for-ists. They're dropping like flies, including, I'm sorry to report, my fellow Argus blogger, Dan. Injuries and strains all over the show.

So I now feel it's even more important that I do this damned thing, and do it well. I'll be slavishly following the programme, no cheating. It had just better not rain on Sundays for a few months, that's all. I KNOW it might rain on the big day, but training in the rain is just not fun. It's not comfortable standing at a bus stop in wet clothing and running in it is at least 3.14159265 times worse. And it's risky health-wise. I caught a horrible plague (slash man flu slash slight cold depending on your gender and sympathy slash patience level) last time.

Anyway, back to my moutons, as Sandy was wont to say. I did this interval session thing. The sprint section on the first rep was not that impressive. And it went downhill from there. But experience tells me these sessions are usually not that great when you're doing them - the benefits usually come on the form of increased stride length and pain threshhold and a general improvement in pace over the longer distances. So let's wait and see. It's another short run tomorrow - my training plan's outside in the hall and I can't be bothered just now to check the details - and 10 miles on Sunday. I'd love to do that in an hour and a half, but 1 hour 35 seems a bit more likely. What ho, see you soon.