Good one

Last night I had an excellent training run. My legs just wanted to go faster all the time, my breathing was easy and I never really tired. Did my hilly 11k tour in 62 minutes - 8 minutes faster than last time I ran this route - at the speed I would need for finishing the half marathon in under two hours. That is promising. I now need to focus on endurance and put in a first attempt at running for the full 120 minutes (at a lower pace) on Saturday.

After that, there will be a week of altitude training in rural Kenya.

Several factors may help explain the ease of running yesterday:
1. I did not run for two weeks, so my body was eager
2. I played a fair bit of football recently, so my body is fitter
3. The weather was gorgeous, almost early Spring like, and I did not need to wear a jacket and long pants
4. My iPod shuffled good songs
5. I had pasta for lunch

Which was the most beneficial factor? Instinctively, I rank them like this in descending order: 3 - 2 - 4 - 1 - 5.

Paris is coming close.