Stop Thief!

Decided to hit some mile reps tonight rather than a long run. Quite warm for running miles as quickly as possible and given that, not bad times. Reps 1 & 3 were a little downhill and the times probably reflect that (5.43 & 5.52) so reps 2 & 4 a little slower. Weird thing happened though. I took my water belt and left it at the start of the country lane where I had planned to start my reps. I came back after mile 2 and had a drink and then placed the belt and water bottle in the long grass behind a sign. On return from lap 4 the belt and bottle gone! Nowhere to be seen! Now there was nobody around and who would stumble across that and think 'Great I'll have it'. The only thing I can think of was a curious and sweet drink attracted animal dragged it off. There was a small animal track close-by. Rabbit? Fox? either way they are probably high on my honey and fruit juice mixture right about now!

Nottingham Hill

Still got tired, achy legs but that didn't stop a cracking little run. I've done this route a couple of times before and it really is very nice. Nottingham Hill is tough, windy and fairly long but the views from the top back across towards Tewkesbury, The Malverns and over into Wales are worth it. Just over 8 miles, most of it off-road equates to a good morning's workout. Not many other people around despite the glorious conditions. Only one moment of concern when crossing the very final field: cows (or bulls, potentially) but turned out to be the nonplussed, not interested cow variety of bovine. Thankfully.

The week ahead probably consist of a long-ish run Tuesday night, possibly a lunch run on Wed/Thurs and a work run Friday. Weather looks good!

Leckhampton Hill

Ooh me legs felt that! Not too muggy tonight but have had tired, achy legs for a few days and I suspect this will do little to ease the pain. Nice route though. Bit of road to the base of the hill and then onto the tracks up through the woods until it broke out on the bottom of the escarpment. A nice view back across Cheltenham from the very top before dropping back down the hill to the bottom. Just a 4 mile run back to the start from there!

I topped up my mileage last week with a steady lunchtime run. Sometimes it pays to slow things right down and have a nice pleasant run ;)

Past week

It seems much of my recent running has been done in very humid conditions. Last week, in the US, I ran four times and each one finished with me resembling someone who has just got out of the bath fully dressed. The four consisted of a couple of local trail runs (8 & 6 miles), a 5k race (awful awful conditions) and a 7 miler in Patapsco State Park (really muggy, but really good). On return to the UK I thought I'd be prancing around given my 'conditioning' but a run on Tuesday night (see above) clearly demonstrated I was still jet-lagged or have completely lost form. It was hard! 11.5 miles the latter part of which was a shuffling stumble.

Double run today which included a sweat-filled run to work and then a much more pleasant short outing at lunchtime.

Next week is the White Horse 5k which is a very popular club speed session. Not sure what I'll be expecting in terms of time, a sub 18 min would be very nice thank you.