Feeling guilty about three days of yoga and only one run this week (Monday), so did my first blogged long run this evening on the route home from work. Took the Limehouse canal up to Angel, then back through the square mile, past St Pauls and over the Millennium Bridge home.

Realised as I was passing Moorgate that quite a few of my running routes seem to loop via a series of HSBC or ex-HSBC offices. My crow-flies route home takes me from Canada Square along the Thames, past what used to be the Blue Building, St Magnus House, Thames Exchange and home (which is directly opposite Park St). If I stretch it from a 6k to a 10k into the City I pass Bevis Marks and Arthur St. This evening’s 12k route stretched out to the other side of the City past Basinghall St and the new Queen St branch.

In a slightly hazardous moment this evening I nearly put a cyclist into the canal, unexpectedly getting three-abreast as two bikers tried to pass me from opposite directions at the same time not paying attention to each other.

Today’s musical diversion provided by the magnificent David Guetta.

7.22 miles in 1:11:01 at average 6.1 mph; 1,117 calories, heartrate 164 (peak 188)
[peak achieved chasing a trio of faster runners over the Millennium bridge]

Went to Cormac’s yoga class today for the first time in six months after breaking my wrist snowboarding - in fact the very injury that got me running in the first place.

Extreme pain putting any pressure through the right hand, but I figure it must be doing my healing joint some good.

Planned to run home afterwards, but the class was so tough after six months off that I actually fell asleep in the Shavasana relaxation posture at the end…zzzzz. How embarrassing…

After the unexpectedly extended vacation and no exercise to speak of, I felt like Elvis in his Vegas years on the plod home from work today. Going to have to step-up the training regime and run my way back to a sprightly ‘Hollywood Elvis’ by April, or it’s going to be a miserable show on the big day.

3.72 miles in 37:32 at average 5.95 mph; 487 calories, heartrate 156 (peak 175)

Back from Sin City. Marginally richer financially, but at what cost to my waistline and fitness? Expect to find that ten consecutive 18-hour days spent sitting at a poker table drinking coffee haven’t done much for my race times.

Running home this evening, really looking forward to busting a sweat for the first time in a fortnight…

Took the motorbike in and out today, as knew would be in a hurry to wind up everything at work and get home to pack (which I haven’t actually started yet). So, will be giving the marathon blog a rest for a week and focusing on the poker blog instead. Check by the other site if you’re interested in how the boys and I are doing:

• http://www.extremepoker.co.uk

Office to home, 6 km or 3.72 miles according to NikePlus MapIt!, which is currently a little bit broken otherwise I’d stick a pretty mapping gadget on here. It’s a nice route and one I’m well used to after a summer of commuting on foot. Off the beaten track and almost as the crow flies, it follows a combination of the River Thames and the Limehouse canal westerly from HSBC back to the South Bank, or more specifically Bankside, where I live.

Forgot to replace the batteries in the mp3 player this morning. Had to resort to a host of mental arithmetic to keep my mind off the trudge. Counting everything, calculating the percentage distance covered/left, number of paces on each side as I circumnavigate the Shadwell Basin, speed relative to the Thames Clipper as it passes me by, average bra size of the girls I pass enroute - anything to distract me from putting one foot in front of the other.

I’ve done this before though and the numbers just get a little dull after a while, tonight I took my mind off the trudge by considering a marathon haiku to kick-start the blog.

Twenty six point two
A test of mental resolve
No more cakes for Luke

On second thoughts, maybe that’s a little demotivational as a start to the official training regime - perhaps a limerick would go down better?

There once was a boy from a bank
a charity he had to thank.
So he joined up with Shelter
to sweat and to swelter
<I’ll leave you guys to fill in the last line with your comments
- keep it clean, my colleagues may be watching!!>

3.72 miles in 36:43 at average 6.08 mph; 329 calories, heartrate 129 (peak 167)

Not a terribly auspicious start to the training schedule. Have setup my just giving page and the training blog, and just about to start pestering sponsors, but am now right into the middle of a series of vacations and business trips. Just back from a weekend in Spain, am off to Vegas on Wednesday to add some material to extreme poker, and then only have one weekend in London before heading out to Hong Kong for work. Back for a week, then have two business trips to Florida. Going to have to pack the trainers…

On 13th April 2008 I’ll be joining another 30,000 elite athletes, c-list celebrities and grannies and grandads to run the London Marathon.

I accidently conned Shelter into giving me a Gold place for next year, silly me thought I’d been donating £20 a month to them since 1999, but turns out my cash was going to a different (but equally deserving!) charity helping the homeless. Anyway, I figure I have eight year’s worth of £20’s to make up for, so with your help I’m aiming to raise £2,000.

Bit of a work in progress at the moment, but I’ll be using this page to keep my supporters updated on my training plan, and progress towards my donations goal. You can help get me started right now by selecting the Donate link in the sidebar.

You’ll get some minor entertainment for your money, as I’ll be keeping this marathon training blog. Please check back from time to time to see if I’m keeping to my commitments, and feel free to give me some stick in the comments if you think I’m slacking!