New Start: Day 1

Day 1 Restart Phase: easy 10 miles on trails out past Wonderland Lake and onto the Eagle Trail Loop. Basically one mile trending uphill to start with, then four miles downhill to the turn at 45 minutes, four miles back up and then the downhill finish.

Praise be that although there was a stiff wind, it was nowhere near as strong as when I did this same run last week. So although there was less help going out, there was nothing much to battle against on the way back.

Already there is progress; last time out I ran at 8:55 pace for 84 minutes covering 9.5 miles at an average heart rate of 130. Today it was 8:42 pace for 87 minutes covering 10 miles with an average of 129. It felt pretty easy, apart from a slight cramp in that bu-ttock when I restarted after a pause for a glug of Cytomax.

The trails are busier than I've seen them for months; this is always the way in the last couple of weeks before the Bolder Boulder, as the down-the-pack runners in their brand-new shoes frantically try to cram in some training. Some of them will be out there the day before the race, in the belief it will do them some good. I really admire their spirit!

To celebrate the New Start, I went to Office Max and got a spiffy new "planner" - a ring-bound, undated calendar and notebook combined. Keeping a training journal is vital part of my running. Sometimes it's a chore to put the numbers in, but I always enjoy recording the subjective feelings and reactions.