Running training tip #3. Sometimes it's just shoes. I've been putting leg and esp. achilles pain down to too much treadmill. But it turns out my not-so-old Air Pegasus (left) had lost their spring, notably left shoe. The replacement Pegasus pair (right) are already fixing the issues. Yesterday was another running Sunday, 30k steadily in the evening after 10k on the Heath in the morning. No after effects during this morning's jog, but a long way to go (to say the least) on underlying fitness. Now we're through the winter, should be ok. So, on with the show. For what it's worth, I've tried many cheaper and more expensive running shoes, but for 20 years these have worked. In 2013 they are way more comfortable but apparently don't last as long.

Yesterday another 12k and gym; this was a day off proper running (20k and 40k coming up in next three days). So running training tip #2: walk a lot. It works.

Working day, eating all the time,  meetings around the Adelphi. Met Jody Williams, nobel prizewinner and activist. The land-mines lady. She was very funny about reality tv. Inspiring woman, I thought.  Now she wants to ban killer robots. Stephen Sackur chaired a discussion with her, and they both used the f word (she called it the f bomb) on camera at the RSA. Which was refreshing, amid the doom and gloom. Sat in Trafalgar Square afterwards, thought of my old running routes, across the square to the royal parks, long ago when I lived around the corner. I'll re-run that, one eve next week.

Managed to fit in a 10k on the deserted (nearly) Heath on Monday afternoon - an odd mix of open country springy turf feeling, and crawling parks police vehicles.  Making sure we joggers and trees don't get unruly I guess. From there through Highgate, past Graham Chapman's old local,  The Angel. The plaque says the ex-Python "drank here often and copiously." On to the gym for a few more k at intervals, and stretching the dodgy left hamstring. It all took my mind off caffeine withdrawal. Have you had one of those headaches? Goodness. Next day weather warmed, took a short turn around the park in shorts to celebrate. Wrestled with iPods phones and all that, settling on the runner's real friend, the original shuffle with lanyard, recommended for comfort and great sound.

Was asked about training again - which is currently just getting out for longer runs, esp. at the weekend, and doing progressive work on the treadmill a few time a week, a bit harder each time. Caffeine and alcohol were given up this weekend, for the rest of the training period, but that's a fairly normal state for me down the years. Yesterday was typical Sunday active, starting at the local park ...

... where the Japanese Maple is budding again ... 

... running through the Jewish area, bustling street cafés in the sun .. 

 ... to Hampstead Heath Extension, which gives a good impression of the countryside ... 

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... past Dick Turpin's tollgate near the Spaniards Inn ...

... resisting the chance to jump on one of these, which stop near the gym ... 

 ... into Kenwood Park with its closed-for-refurb house ...

 ... and its views of the Shard ...

 ... to the Highgate side of the Heath ...

... through another park ...

 ... to the gym for a fast 5k then off to the tube station .. 

... crossing packed London diagonally south west ... 

... getting out at Mortlake, heading south on foot to the Sheen Gate ... 

 ... of Richmond Park, where I did most of my running, then headed back north after dark. 

Cold wind later did not help, but a relaxed weekend day out. Covered a lot of ground, as much as poss. off-road. Times and distances? Next time. Phone, cables etc. were a pain but legs weren't, thankfully - which is some kind of satisfaction.

Try to carry as little as possible when running - still have RSI in right shoulder from doing otherwise on the coast through '07. This weekend unlike last, jogging with a phone, tho that still feels a bit much. Crossing Hampstead Heath, admiring trees in the sun (at last), one was modified, sympathetically.

Pain in right leg taking my mind off discomfort down the whole right side. Old injuries bite back,  but it's really not as bad as it sounds. Looking for the point in this rather irregular schedule, moment when there's enough spring back in the body to do some gentle jogging in the hills in a couple of weeks. Not  there yet, but not yet out of time.

First proof of spring, long shadows in Finsbury Park after the gym last night. Just stretching my legs on a Saturday (as you can see) before doing more miles today. Across town, thousands of amazing folk doing the marathon in the sun. It's just great that running, getting out and doing it, is such a focus for all of London, on this day each year. I don't watch the TV coverage of the astounding serious race, mainly because ... PI training secret no 1 ....

.. I don't watch telly.

Always a tough choice for me, passing this sign while walking or jogging to the gym. We'll come back to that. But a stranger on the way today asked me how I stay fit. Which I'm not, huge work needed re. basic fitness, for this run. I just run for the freedom of it, anyway. In the north, I run all over the moors and coast, the crazy stuff on springy stuff. In London I run through Highgate to a treadmill at the excellent Factory in Finsbury Park, gym chosen 10k from home.

Tomorrow, marathon day.

Who bombs a marathon? Poor people, my goodness.

Left my glasses in the dark on the big steps at the north of Chelsea Square. Damn. All John Adams' fault, rambling on a podcast about the Hendrix and the Rolling Stones at Harvard in the early '70s. Then Suzanne Vega was eulogising the Fab Four. It would distract a sniper, let alone a jogger. Got to Albert Bridge before I remembered the spex, went back, there they still were, regrouped. I was doing a 'private marathon' on a Sunday night, kind of thing runners get up to in London, and I'd stopped for a banana and a drink from Tesco's South Ken. Went out today with no phone, just the iPod nano. It's better with no phone, sad that it feels almost rebellious. Chelsea's a fantasy world at night, genuinely beautiful, but Albert Bridge is more than that - as magical in its way as Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, floating in the mist, impossible not to smile. It's easy (and boring for others) to play "I used to go there, and there, and there" in London, as though the place were a big board game, that you play through your life. But I did used to live the other side of that bridge, and must run back next Sunday and take a look. It was a very happy time. This Sunday run started in NW4 after 5pm, with 5k walking to see if the crippling left ankle pain would fade, steadily running on it from Edgware road, east to Hampstead Heath for a full circuit on softer ground. Back west to Rosslyn Hill (listening to Janet Baker talk about Yorkshire grit), across and over Primrose Hill, packed. Through Regents Park, and across Marylebone to Edgware Road again, before heading into Hyde Park, and Ken Gardens. After the Chelsea débacle, the back streets took me to Belgravia, and to Buck House. Years since I ran the Mall, but my brief foray into the ICA only terrified the staff, and I ran on and over Hungerford, to the Royal Festival Hall. Last night, we were honoured guests at a National Youth Orchestra reception and concert there. Heard an interview today with Simone Young, the excellent conductor. Tonight, I was using RFH simply as a public loo. In said loo, a sound installation features a chap whistling all of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Blasted home with jazz, Mingus and Miles. Pain all over (including ribs, annoyingly), but also feeling much stronger the last few k, which was a surprise. All good, don't want to make this too easy - as the old North Korean proverb says, Race to the Stones, but run from the Beatles. Home, stretching, the news tells me Colin Davis has just died, and my whole life runs past me, very quickly. Thoughts for another day of reading his manuscript letters in the BL Tippett archives, and bumping into him just the once, in Highbury. Failed to interview him. Another reason to keep running this year.

I was at School for Communication Arts for a half day, and they said "What kind of training do you do for a 100k run?" Most of the students were writing briefs for Brothers Cider or else helping rebrand soft cheese and squirty cream. All in a church in Brixton:

The imagination and workrate at SCA blow me away every time. The idea that they'd be impressed by anything I do was humbling.  Running's just something I've done to stay sane, down the years, and the only answer to their question about training is "I'll try to get as strong as possible by the end of June without breaking anything. And I'll keep telling people I'm doing 100k, so the chance of backing out diminishes and becomes unacceptable."  Inspired. Next time I better run to SCA. Three months today, till the race.