As it turns out, running 15 km after nearly five weeks of not running further than 10 km is not as easy as one-two-three. (I wanted to say “as easy as riding a bike”, but I didn’t want to offend any cyclists.)

Despite sticking to a low heart rate zone and not pushing myself, I found today’s 15 km run challenging. Strictly speaking, I did do more than my workout brief – the slightest of slightly more. Today’s workout was supposed to be only two hours long, but when two hours had elapsed, I had two kilometres left to reach 15, so I decided to go for it.

I am shocked by how quickly I seem to have lost my ability to run longer distances. Hopefully, I can swiftly return to my previous form.

Matters seemed so grim I resorted to a late afternoon nap and recovery run – which did help.