Week 13, Day 4.1
Goal: 8 miles from last night ... adjusted to 4 this morning.
Actual: 3.32 miles.
Ok ... it’s official. I am completely unable to run in the mornings.
I was supposed to do 8 miles last night, but after a gang of kids came past vandalising all the cars, I decided it might be a better option to stay in yesterday evening and do the run when there was less chance of (a) having insults hurled at me (b) being pushed in the canal or (c) being spray painted.
I decided to do the 8 miles this morning instead.
Steve Marathon Coach was more sensible than me and pointed out that as I’ve got intervals this evening, it might be worth cutting the 8 miles down to 4 miles. I didn’t argue with this. A 4 mile trot in the morning in the sunshine sounded lovely!
In reality it was heavy-legged, lung-burning, breakfast-craving despair.
It shouldn’t have been. The mud was all frozen so all the paths were solid and dry and my trainers made a nice satisfying crunching sound on the trails. The sun was just peeping over the horizon and everything was frosty and beautiful. However, just having had to crawl from my nice warm bed and put my trainers on, I wasn’t feeling particularly enthusiastic about the beauties of nature.
I didn’t even make the 4 miles, instead trailing home after just over 3 miles. It did all look very pretty outside, but there needs to be a longer gap between bed and run before I can truly appreciate it.
Time: 28:35
Distance: 3:32
Pace: 8:37 min/mile
What canal is it that you run along? I run along the Liverpool-Leeds canal, and whilst I really like the scenery I am forever worried about being pushed into the canal by a gang of yobs...
ReplyDeleteI mainly run along the Oxford, but if I'm going on a long run it jions the Grand Union not far from me - which has lovely pubs ... just right for running refreshment! :)
DeleteI know what you mean about being pushed in the canal - there isn't much room to escape if you meet a group of yobs on the path! I'm always a bit wary of running it in the evening. What the Liverpool-Leeds one like to run?
It's very good - generally well maintained and plenty of places where you can hop on and off it to mix up the terrain of a run :)
Deleteit sounds really nice. There's about a 1-2 mile stretch that's lovely here but once you're away from the towns it's a bit hit and miss and there are a lot of very muddy patches. I just know that one of these days I'm going to end up in the canal slipping over in some mud!
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