5 miles am - Westminster to the Wharf - 4.50 min/ks
14 miles pm - Wharf to Kew Gardens via the North Bank & Central London first 8 miles 4.00 min/k, last 6 miles 3.45-3.55 min/ks
One of those days that goes fully to plan. Hopped on the 06:52 from Kew to Westminster keeping warm (perhaps I'm softening up, I should really be cycling there and locking the mountain bike). Very steady 4.50 min/ks to start the day. Crisp morning along the North Bank, London sometimes often looks its best like this - no one else around. Still amazed the tramps opposite Mi5 are still toughing it out, even when its dropping to negative 5, they deserve a medal, even more so judging by the typical sleeping bag rating. Only disappointment, and for only the second time in living memory I was overtaken by some joker. There's nothing worse. If I'm taking it easy, its usually OK, I'll hear the footsteps well in advance, take a look in the rear mirror and just step on it. For some reason this morning I didn't hear a thing. Its not quite the same stepping it up once they've passed you. After kicking myself in the teeth it was time to open it up slightly, can't be letting this kind of thing happen - even on a recovery jog. Its just not on.
Left the Wharf around 19:45 for the tempo back, kept it steady along Cable St into the City (5k in 21 minutes or so), before stepping on it to around 4.00 min/ks. Goal was to slowly ramp up the pace to get the legs used to turning over at tempo for a good 1.20 / 1.30, visualising the final 10k from the Wharf towards Westminster given that its the end of the marathon which I pretty much run every day. Felt strong all the way along the North Bank and up into Trafalgar Square. The slight incline from the Mall up to Hyde Park corner is always a determiner of how the legs are but felt strong all the way up. As per the morning run, there was a bit of a competitive element through Hyde Park with Joker #2 thinking he could step on it. This time I heard him well in advance and took tactical action to avoid a further embarrassing incident. The killer is slowly increasing the pace, because at first, they think they can keep up, but slowly, slowly...it dawns on them that this isn't to be the case. By High St Kensington Joker #2 was a distant memory. So it was through Holland Park, past Hammersmith, Turnham Green and the usual run in through Gunnersbury and Kew Green. Back in record time, went through the half in roughly 1.19/1.20 and felt strong. Definitely need to get this tempo in over 20-22 miles though over the next 4 weeks as that's definitely not what I can push out easily at the moment. Great to have falling snow the whole way back (and still now as I type this). Marathon feels like its getting closer.