Easy 6 miles to Fornham St Martin Suffolk

When I got home from work I just had an hour or so of day light and wanted to get my run in. However this was the moment that the promised snow showers started and for a good hour visability was very poor as the ground gradually became covered in a layer of fresh crisp whiteness.

Thankfully in between snow showers I got my hat and gloves, tracksters and thermal top and headed out. Numbingly cold to begin but I soon warmed up as I decided to do a 3 mile out and back course that I haven't done since last year. My schedule called for an easy 6 miles at 9.15 pace but I am never very good at judging this. I just tend to run how I feel without consciously putting in any extra effort so I am running at a comfortable pace  so I not breathless but nor am I jogging.

I kinda know fairly soon how the run is going to go for me once I am a couple of miles into the run and today felt good. At the moment there is a pattern where every alternate run feels good followed by a run where my run feels more laboured my breathing isn't so good and I am have one or two aches.

My splits today were 8.26,8.36,8.39,8.27,8.38 and 9.06 for a total of 51.54 for the 6 miles. Average pace 8.39. Thats my quickest 6 miles this year and more like it though loads of room for improvement I hope. I ran the same course back in April 09 in 50.14 which shows just how much my pace has slipped since being injured.

I listened to the Pretenders on my IPOD whom I saw last year when we went to the Lattitude Festival in Suffolk. One of the star performers and now a bit of a legend was Chrisse Hynde

Horsecroft Suffolk

I started the 2nd week of my Runners World SMART Coach schedule with an easy 6 mile run again at 9.20 mile pace. At lunch time when I ran it snowed persistantly for the whole hour that I was out on the run to the point where I was better off without my glasses.

The road I chose was probably not sensible. It was fine in being quite with little traffic but being a minor road the snow added to the previous layer and it made for a slippery but very enjoyable run.

My time for the 6 miles was 9.09, 9.44, 9.29, 8.48, 8.18 and 9.09. The times reflect the fact that I was generally running up hill on the way out and downhill on the way back. Mile 2 being the biggest hill climb and mile 5 being the reverse running down that same hill.

I also continued with my 100 push ups programme where I am on week 4 day 3 which consisted of 5 sets of 29, 33, 29, 29 and a final 40. My son Tom reclaimed  the world record in our house when he trotted out 60 in one go beating my record of 41 by a country mile!