12.1 miles

Nine weeks ago I went for a health check and realised that the effects of a couple of months without any running and not much swimming had rapidly caught up with me. So, I remounted the trusty steed that is the Atkins diet and started exercising again plus I cut right down on my drinking. (Since then I've lost a stone.)

For the first week or so I was nervous about running, thinking I was too heavy, but then, cautiously, I started going out again. First three miles, then fives miles. Since then, every week, I've done a five mile run one day during the week plus a longer jaunt at the weekend: 5.7 miles, 8.6, 9.6, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 10.75 and, today, 12.1 miles.

That leap up to 8.6 miles was an accident - as I recorded here - but that encouraged me to increase my distances and that's gone pretty well since. Certainly, I'm less tired now after each long run, although I still had a nice half-hour post-shower snooze today. But the running is definitely getting better and next week I'm going to go out and do a half-marathon. All I need to do now is lose a bit more weight!

PS I was also delighted by my Billy Whizz quiff in the photo :-)