Ice and snow

Because of the icy conditions underfoot I had to slightly alter my training today. I was going to do an acceleration run (where each mile is slightly faster than the previous mile) on the route of the Otley 10. I decided though that narrow country lanes, ice and hills don't mix very well.

For those unfamiliar with the Otley 10 the first four miles are flat. The next four miles involve 680 feet of climbing (210 metres). Mile nine is downhill and the final mile is uphill to complete the loop.

I ran in the other direction instead. The temperature, as yesterday, was -1 degree Celsius (30 degrees Fahrenheit) and I was mildly amused to see other folk out and about without gloves ... I'm running in three pairs and struggling for the first 20 to 30 minutes.

Had a fantastic hot bath when I returned home and a large cup of fresh coffee. Fay had some from Sainsbury's ... Continental Blend. I don't usually drink supermarket's own but I thought I'd give this a try - it was good, I really enjoyed it. Not sure where the beans actually came from but I'd guess there was quite a lot from Indonesia in there.

Also in the bath was some stuff from Lush. They make fantastic bath and shower products, the things with cinnamon and other spices I find particularly good for recovery after long runs (or on a cold day).

I also use chocolate milk to aid recovery. In this case I drank almost a pint whilst making the coffee.

The plan is to run twice tomorrow but we'll see what the weather brings.

friends & family results

I was going to write a post last night but forgot - so here it is ...

Keir ran well in the 1 mile fun run. He finished in approx 25th place with 7 mins 06. Not bad considering he does absolutely no training at all. Oh yes ... while I remember ... at his school sports day last July he came first in the high jump (again, no training at all) with 1.35m.

At the accompanying half marathon in Leeds on Sunday morning, Ian Fisher won easily proving that he is over his major injury concerns earlier in the year. His time was just over 69 mins.

Meanwhile Simon Anderson had a poor run and came home in just over 1h 30. He's running the Amsterdam marathon the same weekend as my next 24 hr race. I'll be thinking of him ... his race will last about 3 hours. Hope he remembers that my race will last eight times as long.

Ah yes ... Phil Robertson completed A Coventry Way in 8h 08 at the weekend in apparently difficult circumstances. Read more here.

At the moment I'm planning my week of 'crash training' which will begin on Monday 22 September and will conclude with the Horsforth 10k on Sunday 28 September. Daily updates will be posted as they were in June this year. Need to take on board extra vitamins B and C before and during crash training so I've spent some time recently planning my diet for the two weeks beginning 15 September.

Today is a training free day - I have an average of one per week - where all I do is rehab stuff. At the moment I'm running a bath and using some toiletries from Lush which I find very good for relaxing and muscular aches, etc. (wiccy magic muscle [massage bar], ma bar [bubble bar], elixir [bath ballistic]) ... brilliant stuff.

22 miles tomorrow, 22 miles on Thursday and 11 on Friday to look forward to !!!