Royal Windsor

7 miles in 60:00
Route: Windsor Circuit 2
40 minutes of squash - Andrew 3 -1 Jonathan

A day in Windsor with my good friend Andrew! It felt good to be running around the Great Park again. This is a classic route - oft run in preparation for the Windsor Half. The Park is beautiful - at one point on the route, a dozen or so deer ran past me. Fantastic! It was a bit wet, but if anything that made the running all the more pleasant.

Fairly pleased with the time - nothing spectacular but a steady pace. Andrew biked alongside me and ran around the central loop, so we had a short delay while he locked up his bike. Otherwise, I tried not to stop too much. Also, the route is quite hilly, so it was nicely challenging.

The squash game afterwards was slightly less successful. 3-1 to Andrew, the swine! He seems to have the edge on me at the moment. Yes, I had just run 7 miles while he cruised around on his bike, but it's no excuse. The first game he wiped the floor with me. By the second, I had found my form and did the same to him. Games 3 and 4 were too close to call and could have gone either way - in the end Andrew's killer instinct (or my lack of it) won through. Not all bad however. I was happy to have given him a game, and the work-out is intense!

Might try to run 3 times next week. Not going to overdo it this far from the marathon. Sticking to 6-8 miles at the weekend is plenty for now.