The art of not knowing where you are. I don’t mean getting lost, as clearly blokes don’t get lost… it’s more that I (we) weren’t quite sure, exactly, give or take a mile or two, where we were.
The first Tuesday of the month is Herd Pub Running night. They are not to be missed, mainly because they involve a pub. It usually means running somewhere different as well. This Tuesday’s run set off from the Green Man in Ringmer. It was a very flat route across fields of wheat, quiet country roads, and past acres of young sweetcorn keeping warm under their plastic blankets.
We ran as one group which meant a long line of threaded runners occasionally re-grouping when a directional decision was required. And there lies the numb of the issue. I didn’t really get the impression that our leader, or indeed anyone in the group, really knew where we were going. It was quite exciting and to give our leader his due, we did eventually make it back to the pub.
Embarrassingly, at about mile 4.5, I suddenly announced to Radar (she who gets lost walking out her own front door) that I knew exactly where we were. If I’m being generous, and she wasn’t, then I was only out by a couple of miles. She mentioned this a few times as the evening went on. All in we ran 6 pretty quick miles.
Then Thursday came along. Scratching my head, I would propose that it was November when I last attended a track session. I was persuaded by OATR to go, who promised me a few post run craft beers at the Elly, to help Porter celebrate his birthday.
What a night to return to track running. It started with a timed mile (6.47 min), to be sandwiched with six 500 metre lung busters (6.5 min/mile pace), before finishing with three 200 metre sprints at around 5.5 min/mile pace). We then ran, slowly, to the pub to sink a few beers – re-hydration and carb rebuilding. 6.6 miles all in.
On Friday, I popped out for a recovery run with Mrs CC5. 3.4 miles at a nice gentle pace. Just what the doctor ordered before a monk fish curry and a *ahem* a beer or two.
So far this week I have run 26.3 miles and drank about the same amount of beer. Life is all about achieving a balance.
