After yesterday’s double running, I thought it would be good to try and do a similar 15km today if I could. Two small issuettes getting in the way:-
- The vintage cycle race/family day is on the route I used yesterday, so maybe a bit hectic
- I don’t appear to have got up early enough and it’s warm
Okay that’s the excuses out of the way, now I have to get out of the door. When I leave the house it’s not quite as hot as I imagined and there’s a little cloud cover; I decide to change routes and not plan on achieving a specific distance, just seeing where my little legs carry me.
First off, down to Argo’s loop, no sign of Argo and his owners’ house is all shut up, maybe they are having a lie-in on Sunday. I trot past the beagle kennels and cause a commotion, next past the contadino’s house, where they have three horrid snappy dogs that lie in wait to frighten you. They scamper up a corrugated iron enclosure, which is just about high enough to keep them in. I love dogs, but really dislike these. I make my way to Laundry Lane , which has plenty of tree cover and find to my astonishment, that I am doing a sub 6 minute kilometre. Now it is downhill somewhat, but with the high temperatures here in summer, 6 minutes a km is a pace not seen by me since Spring in London. That is a nice spur to keep me going and I pootle on down the winding switchbacks, and come across some sunflower fields. The first field I see is all sad and droopy, the sunflowers’ petals have fallen and the stalks are rotting, in advance of harvest. But only 2 minutes further on I find another field still in full bloom, altogether a much cheerier sight. At this stage I am about 4km in, but I think the picture stop messed up the GPS as Map My Run decided I hadn’t moved an inch, despite me continuing to run. It seemed to catch up a little while later, although exactly how accurate it was, who can say?
It’s very sleepy and snoozy, not much traffic about, I hadn’t seen any cyclists – although they may all have been at the vintage bike event, and I made my way to the usual cafe stop. There Gio, had my water, cappuccino and brioche all ready to go. A quick pitstop and I was off again. This time taking the War Of The World’s lane back towards home. The reality of living 4km up a hill, means that any run I do, I tend to end up a long way from home and have to scale the hill again, which as the day gets hotter is no mean feat. Generally I counter this by taking a gentler, longer route home, running whilst I can and then doing the final 3-5 kms by walking.
WOTW lane to my home is about 7/8km as the crow flies, but I’d need to cadge a lift from a flying crow as the gradients are horrid, so the gentler route is closer to 9/10km. Today, I wasn’t sure I was up for a 10km run home, but I took my time on WOTW, which was nicely covered by cloud. I overtook two pole walkers, who in fairness, looked at least 20 years older than me, so I’m not sure it was a great achievement. And then I met two women collecting botanical samples. It looked more professional than random plant cuttings, as one had a scalpel type blade, and the other had labelled plastic bags. Or as they were close to yesterday’s alien abduction plants, maybe there is something more sinister going on?
I trotted on and just as I was leaving WOTW lane, I saw Arturo and his owner Hairy Biker Man walking towards me. Arturo came up to me – I said buongiorno and petted him for a bit. HBM told me Arturo is 3 years old and needs lots of walking, but his other dog is 15 years old and needs his rest. He wished me a good run and continued on his way. At this stage the GPS stopped again, and I’d been running for what I knew was at least 0 .5 of a km and according to Map My Run I hadn’t moved an inch. Curses. I stopped the clock and created a new run. I knew the distance from yesterday’s run to the hill in Royston Vasey and was able to calculate exactly how much Map My Run had missed off this time. All in all, my legs did eleven+ kms – not quite up to my early aspirations of 15km, but every little helps to getting the targets done.
Next time I see Hairy Biker Man, who unsurprisingly didn’t speak Italian with a Geordie accent, I should find out the name of Arturo’s companion.
Oh and a big shout of thanks to my running mates on C25K Health Unlocked for their messages of support.
Playlist
To Cat – another rather random affair, that makes no sense whatsoever….based on famous names…
Michael Caine – Madness
There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis – Kirsty MacColl
Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes
The Prince – Madness
John Wayne Is Big Leggy – Haysi Fantayzee
Geronimo – Sheppard
Grace Kelly – Mika
Joan of Arc – OMD
Just Like Jesse James – Cher
Free Nelson Mandela – Soweto Singers
Rasputin – Boney M
Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz
Bruce Lee – Robbie Williams
Sherlock Holmes – Sparks
Real Slim Shady – Eminem
Dance Like Mick Jagger – Se7en Sense
Andy Warhol – David Bowie
Black Man Ray – China Crisis
Roll Over Beethoven – ELO
Barbie Girl – Aqua
Walks Like Rihanna – The Wanted
Stats
Distance 11.32km
Time 1:14:41
Average Pace 6:35 Mins/km – that’s good!
Elevation Gain 113 metres
Alzheimer’s Challenge
Kms Done 1234.60
Kms to Run 783.40
