Where have all the flowers gone?

Today was one of those days that make you fantasize about having a coffee-maker by the side of the bed; piping hot coffee within easy reach of an outstretched arm, steaming up the windows; caffeine flooding a semi-conscious body with each gulp – glug, glug, glug – so that your next step after sitting up is to bound out of bed and embrace life in all its fullness. The power of positive thinking didn’t seem to conjure up one for me, so I just got up and ran 3.5 miles at 6:45 pace. I didn’t realise at that time it was 6:45 pace, of course, but that explains why my feet didn’t want to go around another lap to make 5 miles. All in all I was satisfied to tick one item off a “to do” list.

It’s officially Spring and this weekend the clocks go forward. The theme song at the moment might as well be “Where have all the flowers gone?” Apparently it’s because this has been the coldest winter in 5 years on this side of the Atlantic. British Gas pounced on this statistic and a few months ago offered to peg its customers’ cost of gas at a certain rate for the next 5 years, and scare-mongered dozens of people into signing up. Of course, the pegged rate, unannounced at the time of signing, was suddenly upped by 22% from last year. Sign up and you're bonded to pay gas at this higher rate for the next 5 years. Sneaky, huh?

I’ve been thinking of incorporating long walks as part of training to do my sub-4. I know that might seem a bit pointless – why walk for 3-4 hours when you can possibly get better cardiovascular gains from running half that time? The plus side is that it means less pounding on the joints. While I want to get to 42K, I am unwilling to put that sort of pounding on the knees from those long runs. And personally I think that the barrier from 1/2M to M is more mental than physical - the body can go a lot longer than we think; and after carbo-loading, hydrating, and eating on the run, the only thing left is for the mind to get used to working for 4 hours or so. We'll have to see whether that works or not.

Useless trivia for the day: Where do sheep buy online? Ebaa.