Gosh it’s lovely out there today. To take advantage of it I got up early, got ready and... my watch hadn’t charged overnight. But once I was out it was perfect conditions for my eleventh half marathon.

I’m sticking with this one-a-week challenge unless it’s looking like it’s unwise. I kept myself way away from everyone I saw along the way, which mean crossing roads, stopping, moving off the path and across grass, avoiding pinch points and narrow paths... basically anything that would result in being too close to other people. One muppet decided to take advantage of the space I’d made and go straight between me and someone coming the other way. I didn’t really hold back on my opinions so I think he got the message! Other than that, everyone seems to be being pretty sensible.

The roads are quiet, and I think going out earlier is the best thing to do, so I’ll try that more too.

Surrey Quays isn’t somewhere I’d explored before, and I found a lovely part with houseboats, wide paths and a very Amsterdam-y architectural vibe. I’ll be back!

And thanks to Tom Ravenscroft for the soundtrack. The Baby T mix was great for keeping me going for the last half hour. Recommend if you like old school jungle and electro - on BBC Sounds. 🎵

Over the last couple of days it’s sunk in that we’re really in for the long haul. For those of you who don’t know me so well, my wife Emily and I have four kids, two recently confirmed as autistic. So it’s been a complicated few weeks - first self-isolation and now the lockdown. With plenty of adaptations to make so we can all get along, do our work, do our learning but mostly not just survive through this but also have some awesome times together!

Anyway, today I was getting a bit overloaded so went out for a nice long run. Felt strong, ran at marathonish pace. Made sure I stopped, swerved, avoided where needed and enjoyed Tom Ravenscroft along the way.

I’m thinking of running more often, but maybe shorter runs throughout the week to help with the overwhelm.

I’m also thinking of keeping up the Sunday half marathons and perhaps adapt my fundraising challenge to include doing that. But I’m a bit worried folks might have a dim view of that because it’s a couple of hours out of the house. Do you have any opinions on that? I feel like I’m being careful and generally staying away from folks, running at quiet times, running in the middle of the road (!) but that might come across badly. Would appreciate your thoughts.

I think going at another time of day might be advisable - super busy and even though I was trying to avoid anywhere that I thought would be particularly busy, it was a constant effort to give folks a wide berth.

Still, great to get out and try to maintain my fitness.

On that, I’ve been using Runalyze since the start of the year, and the last few weeks my “marathon shape” has started going down now. A bit frustrating after all that work, but it doesn’t match how I’m feeling so maybe the stats aren’t all they’re cut out to be?

Challenge completed! When I first started thinking about running longer than a 5k, after graduating Couch to 5k, I signed up to run the London Landmarks Half Marathon that would have been happening today.

Back then I'd started running a couple of 10ks and decided to put a challenge in my diary on an important weekend.

Reaching 42 having just run 10 half marathons in as many weeks when last year at 41 I could barely run a few metres without needing to stop feels like a huge accomplishment today.

The race was called off, but I was impressed that the organisers pivoted to offering a local "run where you live" challenge instead.

So I went out today and ran around near some of my favourite local places. The William Blake mural (which is an amazingly ugly thing, but celebrates a wonderful local hero), the Horniman Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Peckham Rye, the cemetery and a few other places.

It was blustery, so not my fastest pace by any means. Plus I think when you're doing an actual race, you have a bit of extra boost in the legs! Thankfully folks were generally being sensible - they must have mostly got the message by now about the 2 metre rule. And I ran in the road to get around folks, so not even the slightest chance of contact with anyone.

It feels good to be celebrating another year having made such a big change to my life. I'm fitter, lighter, stronger, more focused, and even if the world has some horrible things going on in it at the moment, all of those self-improvements will hopefully enable me to make a useful contribution to fixing some of them.

To top it off, I've now run 500km since the start of the year, and completed the Strava monthly running distance challenge for the first time!

Thanks for your encouragement everyone. I really appreciate it. Even if it's just the occasional thumbs-up on one of my posts it helps me know that folks are following along and keeps me sticking to the running regime.

Cheers to all of you!

Emily and I have been talking a fair bit about the virus being airborne when you’re in close proximity to runners. All that deep breathing and rapid exhalation when someone passes close by seems like a recipe for getting ill.

So rather than hitting the park I did some road running. I think I only saw a handful of cars on the way, and hardly anyone else out and about. Well done London!

Assembly of the treadmill starts today now that we have wrangled it into the basement.

So “2 metres” seems to be a lot shorter than I thought it was!

Either that or there are some covidiot runners about who are running too close to everyone.

I’m getting used to running round folks giving them a wide berth, stopping when there’s no clear way through, going out into the road, running on the grass. It’s a bit of a faff, but the right thing to do.

I can’t help thinking at some point we’ll be prevented from going out because of the general level of muppetry here, so making the most of it while I can!