Yesterday I left home at about 11.30am for a long run. The plan was to run from Otley via Menston to Guiseley and then down Hollins Hill to join the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Buck Lane near Baildon/Esholt. From there I decided to run eight miles along the towpath next to the frozen canal to Kirkstall before returning home via Headingley and Bramhope.
About 24 miles. Ice and snow underfoot ... no problem with decent footwear. Temperature below zero Celsius ... wrap up warm.
The furthest I've run since early September has been 15.7 miles ... I knew I could manage an extra 50% though if I kept the pace reasonable.
Arrived home at about 3.00pm barely tired. It all seemed so easy but I'm not sure why. Had a decent (large) cup of coffee about an hour before leaving home and an energy bar after about 17 miles but apart from that I seemed to be flying along in the brilliant - but cold - sunshine.
The canalside section was eerily quiet but provided the easiest running surface as the snow hadn't been churned up by other traffic (runners, walkers and cyclists) and thus hadn't re frozen into dangerous shapes which could easily cause a twisted ankle. This was in stark contrast to the main road from Headingley, and particularly from Bramhope, which caused untold minor problems with all the snow frozen into injury inducing ruts.
Anyway 24 miles at about 8:35 per mile across snow and ice - very pleasing.
Oh ... one last thing. About an hour after arriving home I realised I had a tooth missing !!! No idea why, something obviously happened whilst I was out running, minding my own business.
1 comment:
Well done Chris for venturing out for your run. I ran 32 miles on the Sunday before "the big snow" and that was -6 C with solid ground, for you to do it on ice/snow is brilliant.
I had to "laugh" at the tooth story, where the hell did it go? I remember a long run I did earlier on in the and when I return found I had a massive gorse scratch across the front of my legs which was really deep, blood everywhere and knew nothing about it...I was obviously in autopilot mode!
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