London 2012. One man's bid for marathon glory. by toddingtontrotter

and finally in his new house,

"I'll keep on improving"

Toddington Trotter vows.

It's been a busy week. I guess it's a busy week for most of us?

I picked up the keys to my new home on Wednesday morning so have spent alot of time shopping for essentials. Duvets, pillows, soap, washing up brushes, mulled wine etc.

Luckily I found a furnished place or I'd have been building beds and putting up curtains all over Christmas.

I'd planned to run on Thursday but after Christmas shopping with my daughters there was no chance of that happening. I should have worn the Garmin around the various shopping centres. I'd love to see the mileage. 

The girls all stayed over and we played Monopoly. The seven year old won. Again!

Still loads of running around to do today. I went into Asda at around 2pm for some last minute bits. I was amazed and delighted at how few people there were in there. There was a choice of empty checkouts! For once, leaving it to the last minute paid off.

I bought a mobile broadband dongle with a rolling month contract. That'll do for  a few weeks I thought.

By the time I'd got of the phone to set it up I'd been talked into agreeing an 18 month contract!!!

It's blimmin great. It's fast and I've used it all over the house. How did we ever cope without t'internet eh?

Oh yes. Running. I went for a run tonight. I wasn't confident as it'd been a while but notched just over seven miles. I'm just pleased to have forced myself out there. It feels important to just keeping ticking over for the festive season and to be ready to go again in the new year.

I could tell the progress I've made tonight, by running along roads I really struggled with a couple of months ago. I wouldn't say I was eating them up exactly but I am moving steadily along them and I'm definitely making much less noise.

I think I may have given myself a chance to cope with a 16 week beginners plan. (Still got to choose/devise one).

Those long run's increase every week though! I know that it'll take much more dedication in the coming months to be ready for April 22nd. It's something that I'm looking forward to proving (to myself mostly) that I can do.

Merry Christmas everyone!