Like, I'm guessing, many of you, I was glued to the telly and Andy Murray's match against the Fedster this morning. And for the most part, the boy done good, no? It all went a bit wrong whenever it actually mattered, unfortunately. But it was fun while it lasted.

So, that anticlimax over, it was time to head out for the week's long run. The weather wasn't quite up to yesterday's standard, but it was lovely, clear and bright and not too breezy. I set off in high spirits and settled into the rhythm very comfortably.

Just because I've not much else to say this week, I thought I'd talk a little about the music I use to motivate and distract myself when I'm training. Lots of people have lots of different approaches; some run with a friend and chat (madness, there's no way I could hold a conversation), others reckon you should match the BPM of your music to the desired BPM of your heart. I just listen to dance music - mostly from the late 80's and early 90's - hardly any of which is on Spotify.

Colleagues at work, a number of whom are DJs, despair of my musical taste generally - I love pop, including most of the 'manufactured' stuff from talent shows here and in the US. Most of the American Idol winners, and some of the losers, I absolutely love, for example. Can't be doing with boy bands, though. Westlife, Boyzone, McBusted and the Jonases. No. Just not. Girls Aloud? Yes, please. And who's in the Sugababes this afternoon? Who cares, just bring them on.

When I'm not in a pop or bop mood, however, I do like some grown up musical appreciation time. For meaningful lyrics, sung in a voice that can melt your heart, I often return to Lucie Silvas and India.Arie. After the long run each week, as I soak in the bath, I may bung on some classical loveliness, or listen to something like this little lot. Thanks again to Spotify's paucity of content, there are some key bits missing from this playlist - Skunk Anansie's Stoosh and Alison Moyet's Hometime, for example. But it's great for bubbly bathing, with a book and a glass of something squiffy-making.

Anyway, this run today. I hit half way in 48 minutes 30-something seconds, which left me somewhat behind schedule for my guesstimated 1 hour 35 finish time. But it felt really, really good. I honestly felt the benefit of the hill session earlier in the week, especially on some nasty uppy bits in the ninth and tenth miles. And, on the flat, the stride length and knee lift I noted during the interval session on Thursday were really eating up the distance with apparently much less effort than I've been expending recently. It was a much less tiring experience the any of the other long runs I've done in the past few weeks.

In fact, I actually put on a bit of a spurt in mile 9 to try to make up some of the time I lost in the first half of the run, and immediately after I turned round at half way and found there was a wind in my face that definitely had not been on my back. I think that may have been the quickest mile of the day, but at the end of the last mile I definitely paid for my exuberance!!!

I ended up finishing in 1 hour 34 minutes and 57 seconds. This is about 15 seconds per mile slower than that last time I ran 10 miles. But it's perfectly in line with my expectations and didn't hurt nearly as much as it could have!

Just before I sign off, BIG respect to everyone I saw and who saw me out there today. Lots more runners about than I've seen before and LOTS more wavy, smiley stuff. Particular shout to Will 'Machine' Lockie, who totally annihilated me last time I did the half marathon, when he'd barely done any dedicated training at all. See you in the office tomorrow.