Can I make a star shape?

My 45 minute 'jog' today was not as hard as I had imagined it would be. After a very good rest on Saturday, actually just reading a book all day, in bed (My back had gone into a painful mess on Friday so I decided not to run the next day)  I then managed 110 minutes Fartlek on Sunday trying not to go over the same route twice, which nearly worked.

So today's shape came out like this. And it occurs to me that I could make a star shape from it, with a little detour here and there.

Spring, Bognor and the joys of running

We just got back from a short break in Bognor. Why Bognor? well we had tried Arundel, Winchester and Chichester so why not. It is a quiet seaside place, relaxed in early spring sunshine and we ate well. There was time to stroll on the beach and even sit in the sun and watch the waves. £2.50 to see a film at the great local cinema. Which had as much character as the film 'Woman in Black' adding its own bangs and creaks during the film.

In a new place running is part exploration and the sea and a shale beach mean that only certain routes are possible. Little parks and obvious out and back routes really help but make for boring running routes when viewed afterwards. Today back in London a lovely chance to do a hilly fartlek course on Streatham Common. Managed 299 feet of climbing, which isn't easy in South London.

Making shapes on tired legs

My 60 minute 'jog' this morning felt much more like a slog. I had too much on as it looked cold when I set out, the sun soon rose and soon I was sweating. Making circles and a spiral kept my mind off the need to keep going. This is the most daily mileage that I have done in many years, but it always allows me to meditate, my mind turned off from the day to day trivia. So concentrating on the lines I am making helps me to keep going. There is an art to allowing your body to go through tough challenges and every long distance athlete knows this. Tricks, counting to a 100, changing your stride pattern, thinking about lovely places, concentrating on the person in front of you, all these things help.

I've been thinking about connection with the ground and I have worn my inov8 cross country shoes over the commons these last couple of days. They feel like almost barefoot running, but have some grip. This allows a natural stride and keeps any tendency to heel strike down.
My route this morning looks a little like a comic goofey type character, maybe I should develop him?

Comedy course, training and fartlek

I have been rather distracted by the stand up comedy course which I am doing. The need to be funny and the attraction of humour have always been strong for me and writing material that is funny for as many people as possible is very different from making art. The audience are often quiet an art performance, but in stand up, unless you are happy to die on stage, silence is not a great sound. This is interesting, approaching creativity from the base of audiences expectations, instead of ones own spontaneous process.
My training for the marathon goes well although I am having to do a lot of it on my own as it does not always fit with my club running nights on Tuesday and Thursday. The lack of intergration is resulting in less injury as I don't push myself so hard when I train alone.
One of my new routines is to do a fartlek session on the common. This is literally fast/play so you make it up as you go, sprinting between trees or for longer distances then jogging till you recover. Experimenting with an app called Imapmyrun to plot the routes I take, has shown that it will be useful for Jography. It will get the residue of the performance on to the net.