Six miles this evening. Another tough run, though the earlier thunderstorm has cleared the air wonderfully.
It was my usual medium-length, midweek course of around 6 miles: a mile to the canal, 2.5 miles along it and another 2.5 back along the A4 and a couple of smaller roads. It’s not a smooth route, so I shouldn’t be too disappointed that my time was slow.
The canal is usually alive with flies, and much of the path is through bumpy, adjacent fields. The A4 is loud and fast, with most of the pavement obstructed by overhanging branches from the adjacent trees and bushes. It’s only the first and last miles that are reasonably clear. At least the flies weren’t too bad this evening – the rain must have kept them indoors. Perhaps they were glued to the web.
The weekend runs of the training programme have reached the half-marathon stage, and I’m trying to find local events to go for. The fact is there are virtually none. This weekend would be an ideal time to get a half under my belt, but the only ones I can find are in Aberdeen, Argyll, Newark, Cornwall and Dorset. If this was Australia or the USA, these would be trivial distances, but in England, to drive 100 or 150 miles is a major excursion. I’ll decide on Sunday morning. If I’m aching for pain, I’ll set off for Sturminster Newton in Dorset. Of course this assumes that I won’t have done my long run on Saturday. And Saturday is preferable.
I will do one or two half marathons in the next month or two. Burnham Beeches in 2 weeks time looks good. Main problem is dealing with the requirement to do, say, 16 miles. Do I run 3 miles then do the race? Or do I do the race then run a further 3 miles? Neither option sounds terribly appealing, it has to be said.
The impending football season will provide some interesting challenges to the schedule. I don’t suppose there’ll be too many people arriving at Loftus Road having just run 12 or 15 miles or whatever. In most cases I suppose I’ll end up running long on Sunday, but it would be better to get it out of the way on Saturday morning. I also like getting along to the gym on Sunday morning for a fairly gentle hour of cross-training. Or should I say, I like the idea of it.
