Monday 11 November to Sunday 18 November
Total kilometres ran in 2019 before the start of the week: 1292 kilometres
Distance recorded in my little tracking spreadsheet.
Feel free to follow me on Strava, where all my activities are shared.
The week in summary
Following the leg pain from the weekend Monday was a rest day, travelling up to Newcastle, doing some stretches after work, some reading, and having a catch up dinner with a mate.
During Tuesday my leg felt alright. I was at work for the best part of 12 hours and desperately wanted to get out when I was done. I got back to the hotel, had 15 minutes of rest, and got ready to run. While I’ve been staying over in Newcastle I’d thought about running in towards the city centre a bit, just down there Great North Road. My morning runs have been 2.5km in and the same back. I thought I’d give further a go and try out a nighttime street run at the same time. See how the leg is, trundle along the pavements, then turn back at some point. I also knew 10km would see me over the 1302km stretch goal for the year. The run was steady, a little ache in my leg, a couple of slow downs and stops for pedestrians and traffic AND MY GOD IT WAS COLD, but fun. 10km in the bag and 1302km done. It didn’t feel like the end, just a goal reached. Everything from here is super bonus distance. I did the maths for 1500km for the year. I then did the maths for 1000 miles for the year. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s just keep going.
Wednesday: I woke up and my leg was hurting again. Maybe last night wasn’t that smart an idea. But I’ve done 1302km for the year so let’s not worry too much. Rest, you’ve earned it! Thursday the pain was a soft ache as I did a lot of walking around Leeds. And Friday felt like the pain had gone but despite planning to run at lunch I decided to give the leg an extra day off.
Saturday everything felt OK. Dog run day too, so this would be a gentle adder, nothing too strenuous or long. I decided to start the run doing the end of a local loop, heading into the woods to the canal rather than over the fields. I didn’t feel great to start with. Maybe having three days of nothing was a bad move. And the dog took me out about 700 metres in, hard through my legs, and splat as I hit the muddy trail. I dragged myself up and kept going. At Esholt Woods and there’s a couple of decent tracks to bounce along and the world feels alright once again once I hit them. Today wasn’t different. The sound of the water running along the trail added to the carefree feeling. I’m having fun, the dog’s having fun, let’s keep going… out to Esholt, out to the canal, and back. And suddenly 12km is in the bag. Nice! Later in the day the dog’s licking her paw and hobbling. I’ve hurt her again and all the guilt comes flooding back. Sorry, dog.
I’ve done lots of trails recently and not many roads. Last weekend on the Holly Hustle I came up against hills and decided to get some more hills in. So I roughly worked out a loop along Leeds Road to Shipley, then up Hollins Hill between Esholt and Baildon, turn at Guiseley, past Yeadon, touch the edge of Rawdon and down the hill to Apperley Bridge. It didn’t look short and it didn’t look easy. Let’s just head out and see how it goes. And it went.. alright. I didn’t feel particularly knackered early on like yesterday’s run, running along pavements took a little getting used to. It was early enough, it was grey enough (not too light, not too dark), and it felt fresh enough. I didn’t hurtle into the hills, taking several walks at points so I kept moving, and the views from Hollins Hill were mighty mighty fine. I also learnt there’s quite the queue at Guiseley McDonald’s at about 10:20 on a Sunday.
Looking through Strava I found someone who did at least 70km a week. Life goals huh.
The week in summary
Number of runs: 3 (in 7 days)
Kilometres run in the week: 37 kilometres
Total kilometres ran in November by the end of the week: 79 kilometres
Total kilometres ran in 2019 by the end of the week: 1330 kilometres
The week ahead
Here is a grab of my planner for this month.
I want to make sure I notch off another 35km at least, a challenge with a busy week of much travelling and on solo dad duty at the weekend. 35km will put me on about 115km for the month, 1365km for the year and hitting 1400km by the end of the month just about doable.