Janathon day 2: quick jaunt up the Grand Union Canal near Rickmansworth

Not my picture, and the weather wasn't this nice! This is not far from where I was running, though

This was a fun one! I am very lucky to work in an office pretty near to the canal and aquadrome in Rickmansworth. At lunch, I thought I'd try out a new route, heading up the canal path towards Cassiobury Park, coming back on the main road. In the end I did 4.7mi in 40:03 - I was happy with that... It was just a little bit soggy, so I was glad to be wearing waterproof trainers as a hopped and jumped over muddy puddles on the canal tow path: next time, I'll go after it has been dry for a few days, maybe.

A while ago now I had an hour's "efficient running session" with Helen Hall at Ten Point in Chesham Bois - a very enjoyable and interesting experience. One point that has made quite a difference to me is the idea that an excellent approach to warm-up and post-run cool-down is brisk walking. It gets the blood going to the right places before the run starts, and flushes the system out afterwards. Certainly, for me, making this change to my runs has been productive: I feel that injury is less likely, and definitely ache less afterwards. I bought a copy of her audio recording to guide me through my runs, and this talks through the idea as well - worth a listen, if you're interested!

I'm trying to push my distance up a bit, after recovering from a slightly sore Achilles a while ago: this was probably the longest run I've done since the Summer. One thing's for sure, though: it felt good!