Another Sunday afternoon, another long run. This time a slightly unplanned trip West along the river to circumnavigate the parks. A full loop around St James’s Park, Green Park and the far side of Hyde Park. The pedometer was only reading 9.5 miles as I finished the loop and found myself about to hit the return leg, so picked-up another two laps of St James’s to make it a full 13.

Somewhat serendipitously I managed to find the perfect route around the lake to make one lap almost exactly a mile, and to pass the water fountain adjacent to the children’s playground. Will be a great place to setup some fartlek laps on a future long-run.

Was back on the old trainers for this week’s long run. Thanks to Runner’s Need’s excellent after sales service I was able to return the slightly used (see last week’s posting) Saucony’s that chewed up my in-step. The blister has healed by today, so I’ll be popping back on Tuesday to test drive a few new pairs of shoes. Am looking for something to correct my mild over-pronation, while maintaining an even pressure along the length of the foot.

Also test drove a few Go-Gel isotonic energy gel’s, the manufacturer’s website has this to say:

“Science in Sport, leaders in sports nutrition, introduce the world’s first isotonic energy gel. Each handy palm size GO Gel sachet contains 25g of isotonic carbohydrate energy. That’s enough energy for 20 to 30 minutes of exercise, and because it’s isotonic, it will still deliver energy without the need for extra water. What’s more the unique gel structure of GO Gel goes down easily, so you don’t get that sticky throat feeling associated with other gels.”

Thought they might be a bit of a waste of money, but actually did feel a pretty major boost of energy right through to the end of the run. In fact, coming back along the Thames on the last 2 mile stretch I kicked-up the pace and felt fantastic. Will definitely be buying an arm load of these tomorrow for further experimentation!