Image courtesy of Digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I left home this morning with the intention of repeating the 2.5 mile loop I did the other day in an attempt to get mile 1-2 down to below 10 min/mile, and the average time for the full route down to below 10:30min/mile. The good news? I managed this 🙂 I even managed to knock 50 seconds off the pace for the first mile with the long uphill! Similar weather conditions to the 18th when I last did this route – high headwinds up the hill at the start, but instead of being dark it was lightly snowy (and then when I got back, heavily snowy!). The bad news? I didn’t finish the route. I’d wrapped up warm having gone to bed last night and woken up this morning with a tickley throat, and got FAR too hot. I do not deal well with being too hot. I’d been in two minds whether to bother wearing a t-shirt over my thermal before covering up with my wind-proof shell – and going for this in combination with a buff, which I don’t normally wear, I started to cook. Walking back after I’d stopped my watch, I was actually a very comfortable temperature in all my layers, I was just wearing too many for running in!
The other thing I was unpleasantly reminded of on this run, is why runners tend to wear leggings – I wear looser fitting lightweight tracksuit trouser type things, and when they get wet, or in this case snowed on, they chafe on the front of my thighs like crazy and on particularly soggy runs I have previous for getting mild friction burn on my legs! I guess I’ll have to try out those tighter fitting trousers I’ve been avoiding – I like bootcut trousers where I can’t see how wide my thighs are compared with my ankles (I know, tapered legs?! Noone on earth has those!!!). I’m trying to take the positives with the pace, but I’m a bit gutted I didn’t finish it. I shall try again later in the week! Tuesdays are the day I go out with the Run England group, so hopefully tomorrow will blow all the cobwebs away – if work doesn’t finish really late like it did last week, I didn’t get home until the end of the session last week 😦
Evening: I didn’t feel I’d earned my exercise star for today just based on the run this morning. We went to Durham for the first time and visited the cathedral (GORGEOUS!), and I had warned Pete I was intending to try climbing the tower as a fitness gauge. We went to York and visited the Minster before I started running and working out last year, and I literally nearly passed out trying to get to the top. I made it, but it was so, so hard. I wanted to prove to myself that I was getting fitter by re-doing something that I’d really really struggled with before. The tower was closed due to high winds and icy conditions so I shall have to go back to do this one – fortunately it’s only half an hour away from us!
If I’d got my stair-climb done, in combination with my run, that was going to be my exercise star. Instead, I did the same workout as yesterday, but only 2 sets with the lighter 1.5kg weights as a light toning session so I’m not too tired before tomorrow’s run, which is normally in the region of 7km.
My new Women’s Running magazine arrived today, so I’m working my way through that! Will see what this month’s workout’s like and maybe try that at some point this week 🙂
Blue Runnings 
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