Wall 1 - John 0

Well, this weekend was the first long bike in 4 weeks and then a long run. The bike was rubbish, as expected given the lay off. It was also bloody cold and unless I wanted a High 5 flavoured iced lolly instead of a drink I was pretty stuffed. But 3 hours later it was done and dusted, role on the return of my bike legs.

Sunday was a different matter. In 5 weeks I'll be racing the Bramley 20 miler and it'll be my first real test of where my running is going into South Africa. I've got 2 or 3 long runs before than and I need to start raising my game, and that means preparing to run sub 6.15min/miles at Bramley. It was all going well today, ran through the half marathon in 1.20 and then the wall decided to make an appearance. Despite a stop for a banana it wasn't enough I was never able to find my rhythm again. 17.2 miles covered at 6.25min/mile is OK but next weeks repeat will need one key addition... bananas, lots of bananas!