Miles 16; Units 23; references to Tapering: 37

The miles don't tell the whole story. I had three rest days this week, a mix of a couple of evening events and a desire to rest well for the Lymington 10k at the weekend - a short race to take advantage of the fitness and endurance from my marathon training. I am also in the first of three tapering weeks - this period when you feel like you have to explain to everyone why you aren't putting in the huge miles at the moment. Tapering is a weird period - whilst it is great to have some time back, you do find that it plays with your mind - you start to feel that the training is leaking out of you at every moment...that you can't run any more...that you will never run again. And yet, when you've done this before, you have to maintain your confidence and remind yourself it works. Which, in a way, is why you do short races like Lymington. It's odd that, in warmup, you try to push the heart rate up and can't seem to find the pace you know you need - and yet, when the gun goes, there it all is. It is a great reminder of the output of some rest. Race stats - 21st of over 800 people, 39.07, 2 seconds slower than my best - however, the race is 50% trail/grass, and over 2 miles are along the seafront (exposed, as you can see from the photo above), with a 20-30mph headwind. so, a very pleasing performance, and a superb training session for Edinburgh. As I ran a 10k instead of a 2-hr run today, ironically I will probably have a longer Sunday run next week. I have just got to get the right balance between maintaining fitness without risking hurting myself.

On the wine front, a quietish week, with the best of the bunch being a Chilean wine, Viña Leyda Las Brisas Pinot Noir, 2008. The Leyda Valley is just eight miles from the Pacific. The sea breezes (las brisas) cool the land, which in this valley, makes such fresh alluring pinot noir. It is strong too, at 14%, and it holds it well. Really silky, bitter cherries..not exactly Burgundy, pretty good nevertheless.