Finally back on track!

Or rather a muddy trail…

Grey sky, light drizzle, windy and hide under the duvet-weather = running weather in my book. I swapped laced in my new shoes and headed out to see how far away the downhill slope – my future hill training location - really is. The map site I normally use said 9.7k return, but with a bit of sightseeing garmin came in at just about bang on 10k. The shoes felt great, my legs fresh and best of all – no more cold! (Touching my wooden desk with both hands…)

After passing two fast food outlets (fierce burger rivals) on the edge of town you end up in the countryside, with fields and everything. Amazing. Countryside in London is… not.

En route you pass an old round defence tower built in the 1100’s, a kastal (don’t quote me on this but I suspect the Vikings brought the word with them when they built what is now called castles in Britain…?) Not very impressive these days though.
The shoes performed brilliantly on the muddy path leading up to the site, quite a strange feeling after the London tarmac! I even tried putting my feet in a water-filled ditch… (naah, ok, I misjudged my leaping abilities and slipped off a rock)

As a reached the parking lot where the 4k and 9k routes pass by the road I met a fellow runner. He was putting gear on himself and his two companions – pugs! One of them was smaller than my cat and he claimed they’ll run up to 20k at 5:00-pace in the winter – I felt like a right snail…

But back to my run. 10k at 6:55-pace which is just about back to my normal pace – especially since this included photo stops, the kastal visit and some lace adjustments. Even my pulse behaved itself which it certainly hasn’t on my last 2 runs so the bugs are finally gone! I suspect I’ll even be a little sore tomorrow. Excellent…