Longest run since March 2010

A little late this one but Saturday morning saw me head out for my long run of the week. I've always preferred to do it on a Saturday as it means it's done for the weekend and I don't have to worry about having that extra glass of wine on a Saturday night. It also means I can get rid of all the frustrations from a week dealing with people who seem to defy common sense on a regular basis.

I had the route planned and therefore I knew the distance. 16.72 km or 10.39 miles. Whichever way you look at it, it was a reasonable distance but I was continuing the rise in distance approaching Wokingham. I started the watch and headed off for the ups and downs of Surrey.

I still haven't run with music since the Lisbon Half in March so I tend to just let my mind wander and forget about things. It's kinda nice actually. The majority of the run was the same as last weeks effort but I only had one point that I knew my time from last week. That was after 11.4km and last week I hit it at 1:00:16. This week, my legs felt a little heavy so I was delighted to see I was still around the same. 1:00:40. 24 seconds difference over that distance. It may not be the quickest but at least it's consistent!

This was also the point where I headed of in another direction from last week and 2 hills blocked my path to my house. I just trundeled on at this point knowing that the less I whinged about it and thought about it, the easier and quicker it would be. I turned into my road for the home straight (traditionally 1:50 to 2:10 minutes of running). The watch said 1:26:04. There was my goal, come in under 1:28:00. I was moving at the speed of light (or so it felt, it was more a quick hobble by that point) but in the end, I came in exactly on 1:28:00!!

The rest of the weekend was spent with the family as my parents came to visit which was lovely but with my sister living in Cairo and still out there at the moment, there were lots of phone calls and checks that her and the family were still ok (which they are at the mo but can't get flights out). A Sunday afternoon walk in the hills of Headley Heath finished off the weekend well and helped stretch the legs out a little more too.

I actually feel that I could go back to the Ashtead Running Group now and not embarrass myself so maybe in the next few weeks, I'll head out there again.