Another 7 miles on the board. A relief. I was apprehensive, thinking that my two dissolute evenings would have filled my veins with booze and saturated fat, and that I’d be found fox-nibbled under a hedge at dawn, frozen solid. But well, it was alright actually.
Damn cold though. Well below freezing tonight in this part of the West Country. Hard to get started. My breath was strangely… solid, and I could almost feel myself choking on it to start with. The pavement seemed harder than normal, though the grass verges were still sodden from the recent torrents. As I stepped from the path to the grass I could feel my feet sinking in this sludge, and I only just escaped before my shoes filled with freezing liquid mud.
After a mile I had a brief stop to stretch my calf muscles and quads. This is my resolution for the start of the second half of my 18 weeks training. Keep stretching. Before, during and after.
After stretching I felt stronger and more serious about the task. The next 6 miles were really no problem. Yet another moonless night. The back lanes were pitch black. At times you are navigating almost by the sound of the livestock crunching their way down the other side of the hedges, and the angry barking of the dogs on distant farms. But the darkness is always a destressing environment, and perhaps I prefer it to the long daylit Sunday runs.
I spent nearly the whole run thinking about what charity or cause I should be supporting. I have this idea that I would like to buy some QPR season tickets for some local Shepherds Bush kids down on their luck. Needs a bit of thought, but I’m running out of time to get organised.
