Time to cut down on the cranberry muffins

After doing the London marathon on the 17th April, I gave myself the rest of April, May, and June to take it easy and give my body a chance to completely recover.  Since then, I haven't done anything more than a 5 mile run.  I've been going to Achilles workout sessions on Tuesday evenings where possible, have been doing a bit of pootling around on the bike, and have started swimming as part of the Achilles tri team in preparation for a sprint tri in 3 weeks time, but apart from that I've been enjoying taking a relative rest.

From today onwards though - July 1st - I need to get back into a training groove for the marathon on Oct 31st.  My training usually consists of around 3 mid-week runs of up to 6 miles, an increasingly long training run on Saturday, peaking at 18 or 20 miles, and then often some long distance biking on Sunday, to build up endurance.  While I have enjoyed having the time off, I'm looking forward to knuckling down with training and getting back into the swing of things.

My best marathon time is 4.52, and I'm sure I have the ability to beat it.  There are some things I might try differently this time round, such as investing in a heart rate monitor (did have one once but never used it and then gave it away), more cross training, maybe some swimming in place of one of the midweek runs, and engaging with a coach who can show me how to do interval training.  The only way I have ever really trained is by running distances which seems to be a fairly unsophisticated approach compared to some.

Now I'm officially back in training mode, I should also start paying a bit more attention to what I eat.  I do consider myself a fairly healthy eater anyway, but one thing I could do is start cutting back on the cranberry muffins.  The cranberry muffin bought from the pastry cart next to my office is my savoured breakfast treat, but healthy it is probably not - so it might be time to break out the muesli, fruit, and yoghurt more often in its place.  I only said cut back though - completely cutting them out may lead to classic withdrawal symptoms, such as irritability, mood swings, and inability to concentrate.  A little bit of what you like, in moderation, can't hurt..