Week One - Day 4

Lots of thought had gone into to-days run. Steve had gone over a few routes that I could do that would take me to about 6 miles. He’s very good at knowing where to run as he used to do a lot of running before his knees gave up and he had to have an arthroscopy. He doesn’t do any running nowadays but is able to tell me where to go – literally, lol.

I more or less knew the route he was talking about - or so I thought, and set off at 8.00 am planning to be back by 9.00 am. My plan was that I would like to run for an hour and the route today was circular, so if it looked like I was going to take longer than the hour, after 30 minutes I would turn round and run back home.

I set off and after following the tracks that I knew, I took a wrong turn - realised when it came to a dead end and ran back – 3 minutes in total – carried on running and came to the train crossing, undecided whether Steve had said cross here or not, crossed over and ran on. I knew where I was and it wasn’t where I should be! Never mind, carried on past the rowing practice area and then crossed over and ran back joining the track eventually that I had started out on. Nearly home and realised that it was going to be too much under the hour, so went the slightly longer route home.

The conditions today were ok’ish. I went so early to avoid the sun and heat but it was still very sunny. I had on my sunglasses but could probably have done with a peaked cap. There were parts of the run that was lovely and in the shade but I also had long stretches of the sun beating down on me. I was very thirsty and kept licking my lips but it didn’t do much good. I was sorely tempted to take a dip in the rowing lake! I used to have those small containers that you can hold in your hand but threw them away a while ago – will have to get one as I was really struggling with the lack of water.

The time on my feet was 58.54 – blast! Still under the hour and I’m pretty sure it was nowhere near 6 miles – I’m probably running at a much slower pace that I originally thought as Steve tells me he thinks my 5 mile run is nearer 4!!! Will do some measuring on the bike later today or tomorrow.

The last 15 minutes was quite hard going and it's daunting to think how much longer I shall have to be running for the race but I guess it's best not to think that far ahead!