London

I know that sounds like I had company on my week's "long run" in London's Hyde Park, but actually the company was in my head thanks to reading the Sunday papers just before setting out.

So I went fast… and it hurt (nicely).

It was grey and raining when I started; I found a straight, flat-ish stretch of road inside Hyde Park, alongside the lake which was slippery at first but also gave me 1400m or so of straight, so no awkward turns necessary. The only obstacles were geese and ducks wandering in front of me, and also the occasional Hooray Henry on a horse. To be fair, these riders are usually from the Household Cavalry barracks and do know what they are doing and their horses are not spooked by runners.

That's the current Big Question, stuck here in London.

Only got one run in so far -- an easy 4-miler in some beautiful English countryside. I limited it to four because the footpath I was on did a disappearing trick and left me surrounded by farm fields with no clue where to head next.

Not the actor, just his voice. It started with a dry throat and slight loss of voice -- just perfect for interviewing people, not -- now I have the full Roger Moore. I phoned Abby to let her know my voice had finally broken.

This happened to me on my last England trip; that time it preceded an intense bout of flu that wrecked the last week of my stay. So I am taking avoiding action and haven't run for the last two days, I'm figuring I'll just look at it as part of the taper for Sunday's 10k.

Done five miles including some 'fast' 400s and one 800 alongside the pond. Stretch by the fountains, then an easy half-mile jog/cool down to finish.

This morning was better. I feel like I am getting my legs back. Did a steady two miles to warm up then really hit 3 fast quarter-miles and one half-miler along the banks of The Serpentine, the big pond (well, they call it a lake) in the middle of Hyde Park.

RunnerNYC has hooked me up with a friend in London, so I may get some company one of these days, although we have the typical scheduling conflicts going on :)

Much better this morning; varied pace five miles in Kensington Gardens.

Dreams of stepping off the plane and straight into an easy six-minute per mile pace run soon evaporated as the reality of a London "summer" and the after-effects of a nine-hour flight with all the associated travelling trimnmings, took hold.

But today I finally got back into running shoes with a 6am loop round Hyde Park. There was a break in the monsoon rain, so much as it goes against the grain, I heaved myself out of bed and out of the door without so much as a cup of tea.