I took a day off today before going to Hungary tomorrow to to see the in-laws. The reason for the day-off was to get my long run in before jetting off so I don't feel so guilty sat in front of the tv watching 3 World Cup games a day for a week! :-D
However my plans were thrown into disarray when a meeting was arranged at work (which I had to be at) so I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone (where does that phrase come from !?) and run to work and back. Nothing unusual about that you might say, accept work is 22 miles away. So it was that I set off this morning at the crack of dawn to make the 9am meeting. The route is all on road, and when I say on road I actually ON the road, as there are no pavements down the A4146 (from Leighton Buzzard to Hemel Hempstead). Quite a fast road too but being early in the morning meant that I missed rush hour came through unscathed. Only 1 lorry driver took exeption to me being on his road!
It was actually a nice run (as nice as running on the road can be!) with lots of countryside around with the morning fog sitting over the fields like a blanket, and the sun rising in the clear blue sky. So much better than being in bed and driving in! I managed the 21.74 miles in 3h20m averaging 9:20 m/m. Not bad for a morning run when the body and mind hasn't yet woken up!I made it in plenty of time for my 9am meeting too.
That was the easy bit! Evidently as it hotted up during the morning the return leg was going to be a bit tougher. Meeting over and few other last bits and pieces to sort out and I was back into clean running gear for the journey home. My legs felt surprisingly ok in the first few miles, and didn't grumble. I took an extra bottle of fluid in the back pack equalling 4 litres in total. I needed it all! It was once again a pleasure to run. Over this distance you expect negative thoughts to enter your head but that never happened. I think mostly because I was concentrating on the oncoming traffic so couldn't afford to get distracted with unimportant thoughts like 'my feet hurt'. If anything the return leg felt like it went faster than morning. I finished the total distance in 6h54m (43.71m). Great!
Now I can enjoy my holiday, watch the World Cup, drink hungarian beer, eat lots of food, sit in the sun, and perhaps go for a light run.
Mate that is an awesome idea.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could do that however work is 50 miles away so not necessarily a good idea :-)
Have fun with the in-laws.