Time to step up?

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Geoff's on board, training and going to the gym. Mark has said he'll do it but hasn't registered yet so we'll see how that pans out and I've got £516.20 sponsorship so far and a new MP3 player so all's right with the world. In fact I've got a second hand Zen thing that I got for £50 but is worth over £120 with a rather attractive velcro-based arm strap thing. Good.

Thursday night was footy as usual. Pretty good in parts but wasn't knackered at the end which is 20% increased fitness and 80% not trying as hard as I should. I'll definitely change that soon.

Friday night was another run, although my first with new exciting Zen/strap combination. Nothing special or new to report, hard work but the time was OK. I know the time isn't really important but I like to see visual (or even statistical) signs of improvement within each distance.

Sporting events on Saturday involved my first visit to Craven Cottage since November to see us get thrashed by Arsenal. They were good, Henry was magnificent and we were appalling. Our next home game is a nice easy one, some distinctly average team also based in Fulham. Eeeek. The only memorable thing was seeing Victor Lewis-Smith (Evening Standard amusing if a little predictable television critic) take his seat near us and seeing two 'stars' of Big Brother (7 I think) outside after the game. For those who know about these things it was the nasty idiot Maxwell behaving like a moron and the extremely aggressive Saskia strutting like a very chunky peacock. Memorable may be pushing the point slightly.

Sunday was another run and it wasn't too cold, there was little or no wind and I wasn't knackered as I'd had a lie-in that morning. My time was pretty good as well - 852 compared with the previous 6 of 939, 900, 877, 894 (whoops), 861 and 867. Felt like I'd given it my best shot and if I averaged that in the run I'd do it in just over 56 minutes but obviously only if I kept that constant pace over the 10k. I've decided to do 2 more runs at 1.5k and then up the distance to 3k. My routes are restriced to the road/pavement as I want to measure the distance out in the car first. Later on, once I reach a more consistent and predictable speed, I'll do things like run for 30/45 minutes but for the moment I quite like the fixed routes idea. I've already measured the 3k distance in the car and my first attempt will be next Sunday with a target time of 29 minutes dead. Wish me luck.

Let's not forget that in this run I have 2 very simple aims:
1 - Run don't walk AT ANY STAGE
2 - Finish in under an hour (or else I'll owe Garry money)

Told you they were simple.

Playlist is coming along nicely - thanks for all the suggestions. If you leave comments on this blog could you give me a clue who you are, unless of course you want to remain anonymous which is your perogative. Thanks for all the support/advice, it's all very, very much appreciated.