Hello and thank you all for the replies to my last post , it was interesting to read your comments about Luton and them hills - they do exist honest !  

Since the half marathon I have been running regularly but with no particular plan in mind other than to keep myself in trim for a half marathon in March . The running has been going well until last week when my Sunday 9 miler became a real struggle , I just felt so lethargic and even though the pace was ok I was glad to get home . This continued on the Tuesday with a 4 miler in the early hours - my legs felt like jelly , no power at all and I just didn't feel right so I rested up for the week. In the meantime I decided i should replace my trusty Suunto Quest watch , he has served me well for three and a bit years but the strap has come off a few times and I want to try out some of the new technology , I don't even have GPS ! I opted for another Suunto as I love the Movescount software which is very user friendly , and i found a brilliant deal on a Suunto Ambit 3 run . When the box arrived I was pleased to find a HR belt included , which I wasn't expecting - double prizes !! SO , this new toy with it's bells and whistles was just what I needed to give me some motivation and Sunday's run was much much better than last week . I had the HR belt on , the GPS , the cadence monitor , you name it I had the information but did it make me run faster or better - no it didn't but there are some very useful features on it and once I work out how to use them all I am sure it will help me hone in on my weak points and where I am improving . As for the run itself , I decided on 6 miles including the steep climb from the Globe pub but after mile 6 I was still enjoying it so ran another mile then stopped as I think I am still getting over whatever I was suffering with last week. Come to think of it I have been sleeping a lot more the past few days so maybe I have been just over doing it . 

I still haven't got any concrete plans for running next year other than the BUPA 10000 , I am sure i will be at the Silverstone Half for the fourth year and then I will have to study the calendar ! One thing I should be doing is more Parkruns because it has been a while. Marc mentioned in a reply to one of my posts about the Luton Parkrun whch has been going for about 6 months . I totally missed this as I have not really been following the Parkrun scene lately (other than Nick's excellent reports) so I had a look and to my surprise a new Parkrun has been created in Leighton Buzzard ! Yay a local Parkrun for me - it has only been going a few weeks but is already getting over 100 runners each time. The route is on woodland paths and grass , not my favourite surface but I will be hot footing it over to Rushmere country park very soon.

I hope the rest of the week is a good one for you all.