Merry Christmas

Distance: 7.5 miles; time: 1 hour 10 min, surface: road; soundtrack: LCD Soundsystem

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's time to get serious

Distance: 3 miles (5 km), time: 27 mins, surface: treadmill

Well hello, running blog. It's been a while. I'm sorry. I could bore you with excuses about working too much, insomnia, snow on the roads, trips away, Christmas and other boring life stuff, but I won't. I have been running, but not enough - a few long runs of about eight or nine miles, with a smattering of treadmill 3 milers chucked in to keep me ticking over. Substantially below the 20 miles a week I was supposed to be clocking up before starting to train for real. It surprises me that however much you enjoy something, it can be terrifically hard to make time for it.

But what's done - or not - is done. It's now a smidge under 4 months to the marathon (what is it with me and significant dates?). And this week, as the self-aware Yanks say, I recommitted. I joined a running club to have buddies to run with at weekends. I've even started a 16-week training programme - hat tip, Runners World - http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/rws-ultimate-marathon-schedule-sub-400/131.html . The sub-four hours plan may be a little optimistic, but goals are important and I think it's worth a shot.

So, since atoning for my laziness and deciding to devote myself once again, I have stuck impeccably to the first week of the programme (I've started a week early to fit in a week's skiing in March when I won't be able to run much). It's even on my wall. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. Then I looked at the rest of the training programme. Holy guacamole. It gets harder, a lot harder, quickly. What I've found after slacking off for a few weeks is that my endurance hasn't dropped off too much - once I get going I can steam along for a good hour and half quite happily, and could properly drag myself round the half mara course I finished in October if I had to. I think it helps that I do my long runs outside; I can get lost in this spectacular city for hours. But my speed - and fitness - is undoubtedly weaker. I need to pick up the pace.

To add to the self recriminations, I've managed to put on half a stone in weight (7 pounds, four kilos-ish) thanks to not training and eating badly in the past few weeks. I feel it when I'm running; it's uncomfortable and definitely slowing me down. A rather unscientific Google scan suggests every extra pound we carry adds two seconds to the time it takes to run a mile. Undoubtedly it takes its toll on joints, too. So it probably makes sense to try and lose some excess fat while I'm trying to speed up. Farewell, mince pies. Any other runners out there trying to lose weight?

In my last post, I said that the wonderful Haile Gebrselassie was quitting running. He seems to have reconsidered - telling Twitter that he wants to run in the 2012 Olympics. Let's do it, Haile.

New year's resolution - make time for running. Running a marathon was always going to involve a degree of sacrifice. I might as well do it properly.