24th-30th March Run notes

Monday

A Monday run! The morning is fair and a beautiful day beckons, but I trundle out for the easiest of easy runs. I head to Sissons wood and find another gear for running easy. Whereas sometimes going easy can feel harder than going fast today I can just drop into it. I do a small loop down the hill and back through the trees walking up the climb back to the main path to the road. It's just a glorious way to start the week.

Tuesday

I step out no rain. I warm up it rains, I go in and get my hat, it starts chucking it down, I go in and get my coat and set off. Before I hit the first kilometre the rains stopped and blue sky peaks through the clouds. It's another easy run with work on getting in some reasonable ascent. I find yesterdays super chilled out gear and stay there exploring various tracks and climbing back towards the Clearings. As I pop up onto one path a dog walker chuckles. "You're not supposed to run down there."
I'm a little too focused on heading up the slope but give her an acknowledging smile.

Thursday

I start down the slope that is wet and muddy after last nights rain. I take it quicker than usual but carefully until I hit the grassy track and let fly. I follow the track all the way down keeping it quick but watching my foot placement until I'm past the old railway bridge and onto tarmac and I lean into it trying to not over-stride and ride the slope all the way down to the culvert for Mill beck. It's loads of fun and once at the bottom I gently retrace my steps all the way back to the start. Focused descending will hopefully make me stronger and give me a better gauge for safe speeds. Speeds vary on repeats as workmen arrive and move cherry pickers and diggers around nearby the existing railway line clearly puzzled by me zipping up and down.

Friday

Middleton park. Easy, exploring the woods down by the path to Gipsy lane near the old golf course building. The bird song is everywhere and the woodpecker pecks away. It tries to rain but it blows over fast leaving the morning feeling glorious.

Sunday

What a morning for it. The wind was actually quite strong and blowing into the ridge line which at least meant I wasn't going to get blown off any climbs. Nevertheless, the sun was out, the birds were singing and the trails mostly dry. I stuck to my standard approach of trying to get in 150m of ascent for every 30 minutes which works well as an incentive to get off the track and up the sides of trail. You get the variation of rocks, roots, years of mulched leaf litter and bramble covered trail. You also find curiosities here and there like and enormous, bulbous tree nestled deep in the golf course all the other trees seem to be keeping their distance, or a well-made shelter and fire pit someone looks to have used for some time (although recently abandoned).

I make a few adjustments today around nutrition and hydration. I carry a full 500mL flask in my back-stretch pocket ( my vest only holds 250mL in on my front). This works and I can carry more water but the additional faff of reaching back and especially putting it away was annoying so I'm definitely considering investing in an alternate vest. Energy-wise I try out a little-and-often strategy rather than my usual each at 45 minutes and then roughly every 30 minutes following. This works pretty well and I can see myself trying to do this in a race to avoid 5 minutes of frantically chewing a bar.

This largely random type of run is thoroughly entertaining and seemingly a little spiritual. You don't really care for the paths you take, you just follow the tracks you find, up the hill, down the hill into every nook and cranny. On a beautiful day like today there are moments where I feel deep gratitude to have been afforded the time and opportunity to spend my Sunday morning like this.