Hi all,

Well I'm feeling pretty knackered right now. I'm not entirely sure what's up. Every time I start a run I feel like I've run a race about 4 hours earlier. Sessions are 'ok' - nothing awful but not startling either. I'm trying to work out what it could be down to. I expect it's a combination of things. I've recently moved to very near Hampstead Heath, which is obviously a very hilly part of town! This means that all my runs have hills in them and perhaps I'm not recovering on my easy runs. 

It's also possible that I'm doing my runs at a pace that is just too quick for my fitness right now. Obviously I lost a bit after 2 full weeks off after London and then just 1-2 weeks of easy running. I could well just not be that fit and am doing runs too hard for where I am right now.

Another possibility is that I'm simply just not that fit! I expected to be feeling better than this by now - have been running for a few weeks now and obviously my body is trying to get used to the training load again and it could just be an adaptation issue that will pass soon.

Another possibility is blood iron levels. Am getting a blood test next week to see if I'm just low after the marathon and need a bit of a boost. I would have thought that a full fortnight off should have freshened me up enough, so it shoudn't be residual fatigue from that, but it could well be my iron levels have been depleted.

In other news: UKa have just sent me an altitude tent! It arrived today and I will be fitting it around my bed and pretending I am up a mountain. I may even make tea over a little gas canister for the authentic experience. I'm told it should be worth an extra 1.5 weeks of altitude and is bound to make my transition to altitude much smoother, which means I can hit the ground running (excuse the pun!) when I go to Font Romeu.

I also filled in my sizings for all the kit for the Europeans. That gave me a little tingle. We all know its all about the kit!

Hope you're all well,

Ben