Spritely, for the New Year.

Staggered out of the house this morning at about 9:30. It's not that I had a bad head from revelry, I'd just been daft enough to stay up after the Big Ben bongs to watch Amnesty's Secret Policeman's Ball and not managed to unstick myself from the sofa. All those nuts, dates and Black forest gateaux probably didn't help either.

The particular 20 minutes I selected turned out to be the best, sunniest part of the day. I spent half the run squinting into the Sun which all the incline parts of the loop point at and the other half at the neat purple blotch in the middle of my vision.

Mustn't grumble though as it felt fresh and new, and nothing like the miserable Thomas Hardy poem about New Year I studied decades ago, but still comes back to me on New Year's day.

I found this morning I was a bit more spritely than anticipated, and had my first 6 minutes at a 9:10 pace. This meant I would run out of road if I didn't alter the route - well actually I'd have to run past my house for a few hundred yards and walk back - so I added the Woodlands Walk back in - it tacks a few hundred yards on in going across, running parallel to the road and then coming back again. And it's far more pleasant than the main road.

I followed on with the next two 6 minutes at 9:23 and 9:20 giving me a total run of:

1.94 miles, 18 minutes running at 6:1, 9:18 pace.

All remains well with foot and ankle, so on Wednesday I'll move to 7:1 x 3, and alter the course again.

At the moment, this new approach seems to be working, so I might start thinking about a 5K target for March soon.

All the best to you.

Mr Stumble.