8x400m. Speedwork. Horrible! Why does it hurt so much? It hurts so much at the time then disappears as soon as you stop. Towards the end of the session I started to think about the psychology of pain and thought about GI Jane’s “pain is your friend!” When you break down pain of running, what is it exactly? The work of breathing so hard, the pain in the leg muscles? For me it is more my mind saying stop, it hurts, it hurts! Once you push past that, ignore your head, running becomes marginally easier. That or the fact I only had one leg of the last 400m to go, I sped up rather than slowed down. 

Second marathon training run. Done! 10 miles at 10k pace plus 60 seconds. Ran along the parkland walk through Highgate village, down to Hampstead Heath, up to Parliament Hill and loop round Hampstead before returning home. The view from the top of Parliament Hill is amazing. The sun broke through the clouds over the city so diagonal shafts of light filtered through. Still pretty cold! One of the underground station attendants at Hampstead came and chatted with us. She was very friendly. She said that sometimes marathon runners come and run up and down the stairs at Hampstead station! Think I’d rather be running up and down Parliament Hill! The run back was brutal up Highgate West Hill. I was overtaken by two people which was slightly demoralising but I managed to run all of it which is one thing to be pleased of I guess!