28km down, 14km to go....

As the Amsterdam marathon looms nearer (just five weeks to go now) the training runs are getting longer and longer. I'm now in the habit of getting up early on Sunday mornings to slog it out around various routes for an increasing amount of hours. I can't walk down stairs without saying 'ow, ow, ow' out loud every Monday morning, but it feels great to be breaking a personal record every week, and still to be standing after three hours on the road! I guess that running is good for the soul, if not for the knees.

I run with a little training team of colleagues (Gavin, Elisa and Jakob) which is really motivating and makes those Sunday runs much more enjoyable. We've been getting creative with our routes and finding places in and around Amsterdam we've never been to before. Today the team were treated to 'Lucy's Four Park Special', all planned in advance on Google Earth (what DID we do before the internet?) involving loops of Westerpark, Vondelpark, Rembrantpark and Erasmus Park. The graph above is due to my new shoe chip, that connects with my i-pod, allowing me to upload the data from each run to a website which tracks my progress. It's all very 21st century... all I need now is bionic knees and there'll be nothing stopping me.