The reason why I love Running!

Today was the long run - the easiest session of my week at the moment. Runs like these make you realise why you love running; you can enjoy the scenery and take in the fresh air without worrying about the next repetition or circuit. Sadly I don't get enough of these at the moment for my liking but train long and slow, and guess what, you will be good at running for long distances at a slow pace. That's why I limit this session to once a week - at my age I need to be able to run fast for a shortish distance.

Today's Long Run ended up being a leisurley 6 over fields, canal, farm tracks and roads. With the cold still lingring, albeit hopefully on its way out, I decided to limit myself to 6 miles today. This would hopefully not wear me out too much for the week ahead and more importantly to not allow the virus I've picked up run riot.

The stiff calves from yesterday continued to scream at me for the longest four miles of my life, particularly on the harder canal surfaces and even on the fields to some extent. I thought I would be spared this pain by wearing my road shoes with more support but no such look. Things changed in the last 2 miles as I neared home on the pennine way as the calves loosened up and I felt to have a real bounce in my step once again, finishing strongly and forgetting any troubles I'd had in the first half of the run. So, 6 miles in around 50 minutes.

Tomorrow I will probably be wondering why I do running as I struggle round the school playing fields here in Scotland for my 1km rep session, panting hard with lactic acid infected legs. Well this sort of session is the sort that counts in a race, and I want to be a good racer!

This maybe off road as opposed to my previous km sessions done on the roads at home but it is a well trimmed, flat as a pancake field which has given me some good times for similar, but slightly shorter sessions before. The roads round here are very hilly and I want to post some good rep times on some fast stuff, so call me a wuss for avoiding the hilly roads but I've had enough of this session being affected by hills, wind and road blockages! Times should be comparable to reps I did on the roads at home if not faster. Here's to a good session.