Canals

75 Days to Go

Well that's another week down and so far things seem on course. Thursday was a recovery run down at the club - depressingly everyone else was committed to the rep session so another steady plod on my own was the order of the day (this is starting to become a familiar experience!). I had a catch up with Mike afterwards - he was planning on running the Worcester race that I decided to dip out of (and actually ran a really good time, so a great result!).

Friday was a switched rest day following my exam exertions on Monday so I just went to the gym and started looking forward to my first weekend with absolutely nothing planned in about eight months.

Sadly, this didn't mean a completely relaxing day - there was an inordinate amount of shopping and tackling of the overgrown jungle that is my garden to be done. Nevertheless, I still managed to get in the mandated seven mile run. For reasons that weren't exactly clear, this was supposed to be done in the afternoon which meant braving Cannon Hill at the busiest time of day. Luckily I managed to find a secluded part to do some 100m strides away from prying eyes.

Sunday morning brought the longest run so far and I thought that I would take advantage of the decent weather by hitting the canal out towards Stratford. Shamefully, despite living in the area for almost five years, I've never run out further than the Alcester Road. Every year I take part in a relay race from Stratford to Brum and know that the final checkpoint is at a pub called the Bluebell Cider House which is about eight miles out of town, so decided to make for that. 

It was a really nice run, incredibly quiet almost as soon as I cleared the part of the canal near Maypole, although my rudimentary distance calculations seemed worryingly off as the miles ticked by and the pub showed no sign of appearing. Thankfully, after an hour and a half it suddenly appeared from around a bend, so after a quick refuel (I have learned to my cost that energy gels don't agree with me - energy sweets on the other hand...) I set off back.

Psychologically, it's always easier on the return even though its obviously the same distance, and I managed to maintain the same pace even as the miles began to stack up. That said, the final one back up the Alcester Road was a tough slog but I managed to get in done. So 19.5 miles in the bank for the day and 56 for the week - and crucially not feeling absolutely obliterated in the aftermath!

So a rest day tomorrow and then next week brings two (spectacularly poor planning on my part again) races - the second Worcester Midweek at Redditch and then the penultimate Fourmidables event on Saturday. It breaks up the long runs I suppose - but its still a good job they're only 10k a piece!