3 hours 48 Minutes 41 Seconds

That time, is the time my watch thinks I can run a Marathon. I'm beginning to think it might be a little drunk to be honest. However, I'm starting to shift my mindset. It may not be entirely accurate; After all my best Marathon time is 4:05:51 in London in 2019, and I can't trust that time, as that was London, and my watch had a brain fart as I navigated Canary Warf. My most recent best was last year in a time of 4:51:38. So shaving an hour off in a year, seems optimistic. However, I know I'm starting to train better. Not just harder, but smarter. I'm mixing up the runs, mixing up the cycling, throwing in some HIIT, as now I'm older strength training, as much as I loath it, matters. I managed a much needed long run of 16 miles at the weekend, around the time my training plan stated I should be targeting, so I'm doing ok there too. I've started to embrace Yoga, and stretching too. Even the dreaded foam roller. Yoga has been a game changer, stretching is really keeping me fresh. But it's helping my mindset too, I feel calmer, more focused after Yoga, so it's the area that I've really committed to honouring in my training. It's a must off. It's helping me generally in life too. And life will always be challenging, so I can't use that excuse. But lately, I feel more committed to training, I am finding time, but importantly embracing life, work is fun but challenging, and I'm finding I am less moody about life. Yesterday, I had a brief grump, getting my son ready and him not getting dressed. But I realised he just wanted to spend more time with me, and getting dressed was a reminder to him, the day had to start soon. I looked round the house as I made a coffee to go and start the day and realised I'm very privileged to have all this. It's what me and Em, aspired to for so long, now is not the time to take it for granted. I'm also working at fuelling better and this has helped a lot too. In short recognising at 43 it's possible to still be a good endurance runner, but I have to help myself, you can't blag it like you used to when I was younger. Where I am behind is the logistics, I need to plan the route for the Marathon, get the bikes serviced and ready, look at the routes and book accommodation. But there is time for that. So I'm finding my must haves, in training, Long Runs, recovery, fuelling, yoga and mindset. The rest is a nice to have. So back to the time and the watch, maybe it is possible. I've made changes, this isn't last year, I'm in a different place. So let's go and see what we can achieve. Even if I don't get closed to that time, maybe I'll shave a lot of time off and then, who knows. Russ