I just finished a 15.161km running that lasted about 1hh:37mm:4ss !
TL:DR - Really enjoyed that one! Left hip/calf feels much better too!
Todays run was the weekly long run. This time last week I did 22.1km (half-marathon) which took a significant amount of effort, so todays 'long run' was an easier 15km. Most people seem to do the long run at the weekend, I guess due to the fact that most people work 9-5 during the week and get the weekend off. My shifts are all over the place so I don't have that luxury. Instead I prefer to do the long run at the start of the week, and then that way I can adjust the other runs depending on how I get on.
Watching the weather forecast, there was snow due at some point last night and early this morning, but it has been hit and miss recently, so I wasn't sure quite what I would wake up to. It turned to a 'nice' amount of snow courtesy of Storm Darcy. I say 'nice'. It was about 3 inches, which is enough to enjoy it, without it stopping you from doing anything.
And enjoy it I did! It was mostly sunny, but towards the end there were a couple of snow showers blowing into my face... that wasn't fun, but the rest of it spent crunching through fresh snow certainly was!
A slow pace mostly due to potentially slippy conditions but also a long run should be the slowest run of the week. I quickly leant to run on the snow as much as possible, as the crunchy fresh snow provided plenty of grip underfoot, the danger was the slush on the edge of the roads, and where other people had previously walked.
The route I chose was initially 10k (out to Harmston and back) and then to run up to 5k around the village. In previous runs my left hip has been feeling tight, and I wanted to keep an eye on that. By finishing around the village I would be in a position to stop and walk home if it got too bad. It turns out that I needn't have worried... It was slightly stiff in the first 2km and then it went away, and I finished the rest of the 15km in relative comfort.
I arrived home ready to rest and relax, and almost immediately got a phone call from work. A lady (who owns an allotment) had come in to the shop where I work and wanted to pass on a message to let me know that the roof of our shed had blown off.
feckin' brilliant...
So instead of a relaxing afternoon, I hurriedly had a bag of crisps and a Go-ahead biscuit thing, put my wellies on and spent 2 hours trying to sort the shed out..... more on that later
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