Wednesday, Week 8 of 15

Run: "9 Miles, Slow"
Time Taken: 72 mins
Total Mileage So Far: 228.5 miles

By the time I've got to these longer mid week runs in my last two years' training, it's been spring. The evenings have been light and I've worn a running vest as I jog in the sunshine along the canal side.

Tonight was not spring. Because there was no cloud cover, it has been below freezing all day. With the clocks still to go back, it's dark by half five, and I'm stuck with runs along traffic-filled but lamp-post lit roads, being sand blasted by gritting lorries every couple of miles.

As I jogged down the hill in the first mile though, with the new moon setting over Shipley (maybe that could be more poetic), I thought of the positives. Running in the heat really takes the energy out of me, with the 2005 Blackpool Marathon being the lowpoint of that particular effect. My training then went brilliantly, I ran a 40 minute 10K the week before and was ready to run a really fast race. But on the day it was 30 degrees and humid and I couldn't work out what was happening to me as my legs got heavier and heavier and my head got lighter and lighter. By the end I didn't care, and took a while to get over what I saw as a waste of all that training (despite knowing that the travelling is as least as good as arriving).

Anyway, last June was another world compared to the cold tonight. Some bloke looking like Lee Sharpe circa 1992 (not aging Lee Sharpe circa Celebrity Love Island) in a convertible Laguna hooted me at one point. He waved and I waved back, and I thought either:

1. He's taking the mick
2. He thinks he recognises me
3. He wants to get across "I'm a runner too - I wish I was out there pounding the streets with you instead of sitting in this nice warm car on my way home to a beer in the fridge"


Felt strong and took it very easy all the way round. Got back to the house at 8 miles then had to do another mile circuit to make it up to the 9. Before I worked out some routes out into the country, I once did that mile circuit 16 times; what was I thinking of? How did I not just give up in boredom each time I went past the house? My mp3 player then only held about 10 songs so I must have listened to them over and over again.

Anyway, tempo run from work tomorrow. Hope the snow stays away.