I am undergoing a course of rehabilitation for my achilles tendon just now, gradually building it back up after having been injured for the past few months. No specific cause, just overuse. Part of the reason I am building the distance up is because of a bit of a shock – an email reminding me that I had registered for the Glasgow Half Marathon in October, and telling me it was time to start training!

Anyway, today I went out for a 6km run, trying to keep to heart rate zone 2 as much as possible. That’s where the most efficient fat burning is done, but it is amazingly hard to keep your heart rate in that zone (60-70% of max heart rate). I started off mostly jogging, by the final kilometre I was mostly walking…

Anyway, while I was out I saw these thistles by the canal and thought they were worthy of a quick picture. And taking the photograph gave me an excuse to stop running for a while!