Long Run

Been a bit lax in blogging the last few entries as not spent much time in front of the computer at home. I decided to do my long run yesterday not ideal after Friday's speedwork I know. The decision was based on the weather forecast on Friday. Sunday was looking to be strong winds and rain but a bit warmer than of late whilst Saturday was dry but cold with wind picking up.

I decided to take my chances on the Saturday as didn't fancy a long run in wind and rain. Saturday morning was very frosty, I had planned on going out at 11am but decided to hang off a bit until the frost/ice disappeared a bit. It did warm up a bit but the downside was the wind had gotten up a bit and it felt bitterly cold out in it. I expected my legs to be tired but running on tired legs is something I'll have to get used to.

My legs felt like anvils to start with not surprisingly and I found the first 4 miles quite difficult, they were also a bit more undulating than my legs wanted to deal with too. I bimbled along some new tracks for a bit of variety (exploring will keep me sane on my long runs I think) before heading into Cuerden park and doing a loop round part of it. I noticed loads of tracks heading off here there and everywhere, I need to come back for an explore soon when I don't have a mileage target to reach.

The climb out of the valley was quite tough but my legs were getting into it by then, after about an hour I had a gel though I think I could've done with taking it earlier as I felt quite depleted of energy after Friday's efforts. I found the middle six miles surprisingly good, it was a little flatter and my legs remembered how to run at a decent pace. That wore off around the 10.5 mile mark and the last two miles were on very, very tired legs (and into the headwind, not fair).

I thought I had a blister on the sole of my left foot for the last two miles as it was very sore but when I got home there wasn't one. I think my running shoes are ready for retirement, they are over a year old with 400 miles on them. Unlike my trail shoes I won't be running on them until they fall apart....so some new shoes required.

Total run was 12.8 miles at 9:40mm pace which I was surprised at, it felt slower.

I have just rested (i.e eaten lots) today though if the wind had been slightly less fierce I would have probably taken a bike out for an hours spin or so.

Tempo Run

Today's run was 1 mile easy, 4 miles at tempo pace then 1 mile easy. I ran in the opposite direction to the way I normally head due to the wind direction and I managed to get lost on the way back! The last part of the run is through residential streets and I managed to miss a turning. It added on 3/4 of a mile that I didn't need to do so ended up doing 7 miles in total.

The tempo pace was supposed to be my best 10K pace plus 15 - 30 seconds. My best 10K pace is 8:20 so it should have been around 8:35 - 8:50 range. I averaged 8:20 for the four miles which was too fast really. I spent the whole four miles looking at the pace on the Garmin and constantly trying to slow myself down a bit, I'm hoping to get a feel for pacing soon though I didn't need the Garmin to tell me when I dipped under the 8mm mark as that felt really hard. I found the last tempo mile in particular hard due to overdoing the first three I think. I need to be careful with the speedwork pace as its an injury waiting to happen otherwise.

Ride home

I decided to wear the overtrousers on the way home and I'm glad I did because it was really cold. It was already starting to frost up in St Annes at 5pm. They really are quite swishy but when I was stopping on the way home and faffing about for ages taking photos they really came into their own as the only part of me that ended up cold were my fingers as I took my gloves off to operate the camera.

I took a few light trail pictures (I'm such a sucker for them).

It looks like the orange light trail is trying to head skywards but it was only a car changing lane. After a few on the Marsh Road and a few on the roll down into Preston I thought I better get a move on before things froze any further. As I passed round the edge of the docks the water was utterly still, its so rare to see it like that. St Walburgs (I think) had a lovely reflection:

I had one more faff on the tramway bridge before trying to hermetically seal myself into my gloves and jacket to ride through the ice box and then home. I think I added over half an hour to my commute home and it was after 7pm when I got in and couldn't be bothered thinking about food. Luckily Jez had had an invite to meet up with some friends for a curry - so I pigged out on that with the obligatory pint of Kingfisher (so much for January healthy eating!).

Ice free commute

Hurrah. I decided to ride in today after not getting out last night and according to the forecast it was due to stay above freezing overnight then get really cold again on Thursday night (not sure its going to now but hey ho) so today was seemingly the best choice.

It was wet on the roads on the way in but no ice at all so no slides of any description. I also wore the paclite bottoms for the first ride of any real length today and they were ok, no sweating madly at all and not restrictive. There was a constant swish swish of the fabric but that was mainly drowned out by traffic noise so they may turn out to be the good investment I hoped.

They do look like clown trousers on me though, particularly when I've got the lower legs cinched up. They do look better when on the bike (as most bike kit does) but they fit well round the thigh so unless my stumpy legs lengthen by an inch or so I'll just have to look ridiculous standing around in them.

They did a very good job of keeping the wind off my knees even if there was no real rain today, I felt toasty all the way to work. My knees are usually the bit of me that gets most cold commuting as my tights aren't windproof. Not sure if I'll wear them on the way back home tonight though, depends how cold it is.

Aborted Night Ride...I'm such a muppet

There was much discussion today about whether we would go out riding and where, would it be too icy etc. Abbey Village was discounted in favour of Riv and even though it got minging later I agreed to go and I dragged Jez with me.

We got there, it was black as the ace of spades due to cloud but roads were ok on the way over. It was only Jez, Stu and I who were riding in the end and Stu was a few minutes late (but early for Stu). We sat in the car looking at the minging cold night that I'd insisted we come out in, waiting.

Stu arrived, out we got and started getting everything ready....except I'd forgotten to put in the battery for Jez's light, oops-a-daisy. Sorting the lights and batteries etc was my responsibility and I can distinctly not remember chucking Jez's battery in the kit bag. I had put my own in though. Just to make things worse I had asked Jez to check whether my lamp was on the bars of my On One as I couldn't find it.

I briefly entertained the idea of riding myself and getting a lift back with Stu while Jez went home but as it was my mistake and I'd dragged him all the way out there I insisted he took the battery (we both have the same style of Light and Motion HID) and went riding. Judging by the look that flashed across his face I could see he didn't think this was the act of selfless charity that I did. Though he got over it and got ready while I packed up and headed home.

As I was writing this I got a phone call from Jez to say they were finished after less than an hour! Turns out Stu had fallen off in the first 400 metres and if you looked closely (as in fall on your face onto it close) the mud was actually hiding lots of ice. They bimbled around a few of the lower level tracks before deciding it was too icy to do much else.

So I didn't miss much but at least I was willing to go out there!