I think I have overcome the trouble with running I've had ever since the London Marathon. I've lacked speed, but more than that, I've felt sluggish and unmotivated. Eleven lengths (506m) of the Pells Pool at lunchtime on Tuesday cured it all, so much so that I also ran in the evening. When I was a child in Cambridge, exercise invaiably meant swimming, in the Cam or at Jesus Green. My father, a doctor, lived to swim and used to arrange his rounds so as to fit in a swim on his way home. My brother and I would be taken, not always willingly. Indeed, the wet wood and urine smell of the changing rooms at Jesus Green, and the curious carvings in the wood walls, graffiti and artists' impressions of the female nude, were unpleasant, and I well remember a Sunday swim in the rain aged twelve, after which I felt very ill and was found to have viral pneumonia. I was reminded of all this by reading Kate Rew's book, Wild Swim. I shall do more of this.
For the run:
Time: 49:29(Garmin)/49.32 (SportBand)
Distance: 5(G)/5.51(SB)
Pace: 9.54 (best 8.05)G /8.58 (SB)
