The torrential rain of last night lifted and the sun came out for my eighth run around my local park. Spotted my MP in amongst the somewhat more festively dressed (!) crowd. No Santa hat for me, you’ll be glad to know.

I gave myself a break over the last couple of days. I’ve been up late working on my Instagram data art project Year of Colour (https://yearofcolour.com) and have had some slow starts in the mornings.

Anyway, looks like the break did me good and I very nearly got round in under 23 minutes, so about 45s faster than last week. Progress!

I am apparently now the kind of person that gets excited about owning a new pair of skin-tight leggings. Clearly they’ve had the desired effect because I improved on my last best time, even though I was trying not to hurt myself by going too fast.

I ventured up to a new area and found a few nice, wide, straight roads and kept away from the traffic. Not as photographically interesting (!) but I seem to get into a better rhythm with fewer obstacles and crossings to deal with.

Right - must keep this up over the festive period!
TENZING Clean Air Score: 88.6

Changing things up and trying a lunchtime run over the bridge to Bermondsey, Tower Bridge and back. Gosh it’s busy out there at lunch time!

I doubt I’ll get a particular fast run in on these days so I decided to use the fact I had to stop because of crowds to try out some intervals.

I remember as a kid I loved running the 200 but never got into anything longer distance, so I tried a couple of sprints in the clearer parts of the route. Then used the busy parts to recover. Seemed to work pretty well!

I’m reading a little about stoicism and trying not to get worked up when life doesn’t go my way, so maybe this is a little running-based example.

Anyway. Nice to get out of the office at lunchtime and feeling good now.
TENZING Clean Air Score: 83.6

I was a little worried I’d get leaden legs after running yesterday, but nope! I decided to start more towards the front, and go a bit faster than I felt comfortable with at first. It worked! Now to make sure I keep it up over the festive period.

Also, another milestone, our fancy new Withings scale tells me that since starting running in August I have lost about four kilograms. Feels good 🏃‍♂️
TENZING Clean Air Score: 89.9

Having a park at the end of the road is such an awesome part of living where we live. Today I’m working from home so I had a short lunch and swapped the time for a quick run. I thought I’d keep it pretty gentle, but my new “gentle” seems to be my “fast” from just a few weeks ago. Progress!
TENZING Clean Air Score: 85.9

Okay great! My slow start to the week has passed and I managed my “long” (for me) run for the week. My plan at the moment is to do three or four runs per week - 5,8,10k or 5,5,5,10 to get to about 25k per week in December. Oh and I got my half marathon place! So it looks like I’ve got something to aim for in March 🏃‍♂️😱
TENZING Clean Air Score: 88.1