Heart of the matter by Simon_Doyle

Post Virgin London Marathon I've pretty much signed myself up to the 'do-nothing-but-continue-to-eat-marathon-training-sized-portions-club.' I can count the number of runs I've done since the marathon and still have fingers to spare, so it's fair to say that Doyley has been a bad lazy boy... and no blog since May 11^th.

My last run was last Saturday when I managed a 4-mile run at the kind of pace that wouldn't have troubled a certain Sir Jimmy Saville if he was still running. It's pretty amazing how the months of training it takes to build up fitness can be lost in a matter of weeks. Clearly I'm not back to square one, after all a four mile run without stopping would have been unlikely when I first set out on the road to VLM 2010.

I suppose at the moment I need to set myself a goal rather than just waiting for the ballot results in October to kick-start me back into it, if I get a place of course. The World Cup and Wimbledon have been convenient excuses not run, and I'm sure my next excuse will be the painting in the bedrooms which is just screaming out to be done.

Some of you may recall how I kindly entered my girlfriend in the ballot as a 'surprise'. I guess if I can get her motivated then maybe she might return the favour and nag me into getting out there. Why is it I manage to do all my training through all the crap weather winter had to offer, but when the summer arrived I truly couldn't be arsed?

Hopefully, with the World Cup out of the way after Sunday I'll be able to knuckle down, maybe start following a 10K training plan, and get myself signed up to some races so that my collection of medals and T-shirts expands rather than my waistline.