“The best runs come when you're not chasing medals, records, or someone else; they come when you're simply chasing the best version of yourself” (Anon.) - Day 68.

First, a quick note on last week. I ran my highest volume ever clocking up a little over 55km.

With the exception of a short 10km trail on Sunday, my runs were all in the 14 to 16km range, well up from my usual 7 to 12km sweet spot.

Unsurprisingly, last week's longer runs got progressively harder with cumulative load and fatigue, and if honest, I was most probably overloading (not the progressive kind).

Today marks the halfway point of this project and the most days without alcohol (previously 66). It is the perfect time to take stock of progress and change.

The physical marker that I am tracking is my waist. At halfway, the measurement is down a further half inch to 38.5.

This week was also a good time to take stock of running progress, so yesterday, I did a second 5km time trial in somewhat sub-optimal conditions – in the dark and in the pouring rain.

Whilst I expected to see some progress, it wasn't on my bingo-card to run a personal best, beating a time that was set last year in the run to the 2023 Sydney half-marathon.

Not counting my chickens that I’m definitely going to smash out the Cit2Surf a minute faster than last year, but with 10 weeks to go, I am feeling a little more confident that it is within reach.

Irrespective, noticeable changes have taken place since the start of this project, from the aforementioned increase in fitness and reduced waistline to vastly better quality and length of sleep- ergo- much improved mental health.

This in turn is translating into a good sense of wellbeing. A better version is slowly emerging.

North Bondi (7/06/2024)