Waking up aching

We’re just about to drive back to London after being in Yorkshire since Wednesday night and I woke up this morning with every single leg muscle feeling the pain of covering almost 30 miles  in four runs since we got here.

So I decided to set out this morning for a nice easy recovery run… some hope. While I vowed to just do three miles this morning, I headed up one of the back streets in East Keswick for what I thought would be a nice leisurely stride through farm pastures, only to end up on one of the local main roads, Harewood Road.

The road goes from Collingham into Harewood and at weekends is fairly quiet but as I discovered this morning, weekdays are a much different proposition.

There’s no pavement either, just a scrubby messy and incredibly uneven grass verge with lots of overhanging trees. As I ran along, and lorries thundered past by the dozen, I had to keep jumping on and off the road and stumbling along the verge a little to avoid them before I could finally turn and run back into the village itself.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 3.50
Target: 951
Miles to date: 1,295.65

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Nearly running barefoot

Hangovers all round after Laura’s sister Alice’s wedding to Andy on Saturday night but despite the fuzzy head, my main wedding gaffe came before we even set off for the wedding.

The reception was taking place in a marquee at Laura’s father’s house and the plan was for the family to stay in a Day’s Inn hotel just a few minutes walk away from the venue. I’d planned to run back from there to Laura’s other sister Annamarie’s house where we are staying for the rest of our time in Yorkshire the morning after the wedding and so only took running kit with me to the hotel.

There was a slight flaw in this plan: I forgot to pack trainers so despite being up and, well, I won’t say raring, but ready to go, I couldn’t go out and run.

Even worse, I had two choices of clothes, either the tail suit from the night before or my kit, in which to go down to breakfast. The former of course would have looked like I’d not been to bed, the latter would have to be with socks only – I’m not sure running shorts and brogues is a good look.

Nonetheless, the latter it was as I padded down to brekkie in running, shirt, shorts and socks with no shoes!

In the afternoon, we were heading back to Eric’s (Laura’s dad) house anyway, so I drove back to Annamarie and George’s and arrived at the barbecue after a long run of 7.6 miles. This time, I made sure Laura, who was driving there, took a full change, including shoes for me!

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 7.60
Target: 948
Miles to date: 1,292.15

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Off roading in East Keswick

We’ve been back in Leeds now since Wednesday night getting ready for Laura’s sister’s wedding tomorrow and it’s been pretty busy.

With Laura veering between helping out on wedding and relaxing with the twins, I’ve been left to ferry my mum around who is over from Greece for the wedding and wants to check off as many of her rellies as possible while here.

This morning though, I was up earlier with the express purpose of getting a long run in. I figured nine miles would be good and so mapped something fairly innocuous out on the walkjogrun.net site. By the time I was coming out of the north Leeds village of East Keswick, where we are staying with Laura’s other sister, though I decided it is too lovely around here to just stick to roads.

Around .3 of a mile outside the village, I came across a bridle path I explored very early on in the challenge that runs past the River Wharf. Last time I took it, running eight or nine miles seemed like a massive distance so I was keen to get the chance to explore it a bit more.

Whenever I came to a path, I decided , I had to leave the road and follow it – and quite lovely it was too as it took me around dense woods, farmers’ fields and by the river around the villages of Collingham and Linton, one of the poshest areas in Leeds.

I have already decided that if we ever move back up north, it’s where I want to live. Hugh stone period houses with great gardens and views of the river below… just delicious.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 8
Target: 942
Miles to date: 1,277.53

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here