It’s been an April-like week here, with the weather alternating between clear sunshine and heavy showers… even hail at one point, which is not such great fun to run in. So it was a relief to wake up this morning to a kind of normal, overcast day, even though, as I ran off down the road just after 9am, it started to drizzle lightly.
I was quite surprised by the energy I had, fairly bouncing off down the road and it caused me to wonder what was different.
One thing was a little effort this week using some different muscle groups, namely my arms, which you can read about http://davidjfoster.info/?p=329. Cliff is forever advocating that I do more cross training and I know that he’s right… an hour of this every week would certainly help, aside from putting a huge smile on my face!
I had decided to run to the Beacon today and I did so via Oldlands Mill and Ditchling. Nothing much to report aside from a huge fallen branch that someone had kindly cut a chunk out to stop it completely blocking the path.
As I neared the bottom of my favourite track up the Beacon, I caught a group of cyclists catching their breath ahead of the climb. I then ran on up the track and on up to the Beacon itself, arriving in 49 minutes, a respectable 6.1 mph average speed over the 5-mile route.
The drizzle was marginally heavier up there, which made the cool wind more apparent, so I turned straight round and headed back.
I reckon that the two cyclists I found catching their breath by the roadside at the top of the hill were from the group I had passed at the bottom, one of whom was recovering horizontally! As I ran down I encountered the rest of the group at various stages including one who had only reached the half-way mark. It’s nice to know that runners can beat cyclists at something… there’s no competition in any other regard.
I guess the ideal compromise would be to have a Brompton Bicycle in a comfortable back-pack so you can run up all the hills and coast down the other side! Maybe it’s time I had a coffee with Emerson!
The route back was equally uneventful and not stopping to take photos probably helped me get home in just 45 minutes, average 6.67 mph.
Overall, 10 miles in 1.34, 6.38mph average, which I’m pretty happy about!