Day 222 Thursday 9th August 10 miles : miles to date 1453.6 I had a good run tonight, which makes it two in a row although it was the reverse of yesterdays game of two halves. I set off aiming for ten miles in 01:15 which would have been a 7:30 average mile pace. As usual I set off too fast and whilst I want to get to the stage where seven minute mile pace is comfortable, I am not there and I made my self slow. I probably went through the first five quite comfortably in around 7.20 mile pace, but then decided to come back cross country which I have missed so much whilst away. The trouble with cross country is that it slows you down and the next five were constant undulations, hills and uneven foot placement. I moved from being around a minute ahead of schedule to behind and not wanting to go past 01:15, I had to push the last mile a bit to make sure I finished 22 seconds ahead of schedule. The stats of course don't tell the whole story of the run, which included me running headlong up a very busy A road and dodging very large fresh horse droppings shortly after I passed Dobbie along leg five of the Greensands trail. The only slight problem is that this was meant to be a semi recovery run and the second half hills did tire me out a bit in the last few miles. Still, I am recovering with Dr. Bud, before I hitch back onto the real training wagon and painfest for the next eight weeks.