Wow, can’t believe it’s over a month since my last post. My hand is doing better, although I’m still not really supposed to do much typing. My knees are still a bit niggly but not to the point where it affects my training.

All in all, training is in fact going rather well. Since I’m doing a TI swimming course, which puts more emphasis on form than effort, I’m going to interval training every week. I also tentatively started back with turbo this week. I still have to take it very easy but as long as I don’t push too hard, my knee holds up for the duration of the session.

Yesterday, I did a 10M run around Stortford. There were a couple too many walking breaks for my liking but overall, I kept my pace reasonably well. I also did my first nutrition test for the Clifbar Shot Blocks, small energy chews that taste quite nice and have a darn side nicer texture than energy gels. My stomach took the test perfectly well. The blocks are still quite big and require more time to chew than I thought – I might have to experiment with biting them in half as the chewing time for a full block interrupts my breathing rhythm.

I’m also very pleased with my new hydration rucksack. The straps snag a bit on technical fabrics but as long as I either wear a body warmer or make some protective sleeves to go around the worst patches, that’s something I can live with. The bouncing of the bag is surprisingly almost unnoticable and so is the weight. The sloshing of the water in the bladder was a little annoying at first but I got used to it. All in all, I’m happy with my kit choices so far. I haven’t posted about my new running shoes yet but I think they deserve a post all to themselves.

Happy running!