This morning was frosty and misty but as the river was visible from the bedroom window there was no excuse not to go out. NRC said I should do a 4 mile/6.4 km run today so I judged that this should be just about possible as long as I got out while the mud was frozen.
As I set off the sun was shining and I soon warmed up despite it only being about 4C, so off with my jumper. I started pretty slowly, knowing that pacing is even more important with these longer runs. Every so often I'd pass on one of Coach Bennett's more relevant observations to Mr OBK (I don't think he'd appreciate all of them 
)
I'm finding that having my heart rate on display is a really good visual prompt to slow down. If it creeps up I take deep breaths or walk a few paces until it drops back to what I consider more reasonable. Today I managed to keep below Zone 5 for more than half of the run which is progress.
Some parts of the path were a bit tricky to negotiate. Deep mud, ruts, hoof prints, frozen evidence of where the horses had 'been' so this was another factor slowing me down but I chose to see this as a positive.
Turned towards the sea wall, the mist was thicker here even with the bright sunshine. The light was amazing, the photo doesn't quite capture it. Further along the path there's a cement road so we did a few hundred metres on that just as a change from the mud, then onwards to the sea wall.
As we turned the sun went in, probably all the mist evaporating and rising to cover it. It immediately got a lot colder so I sped up, both to get warm and to get it over with. By now we were past the 4km point so headed homewards along the sea wall knowing it was metaphorically downhill from here (joke: the only hill around here is the sea wall). We hit the 4 miles quite a long way from home so I decided to keep running, again because of the cold but also I had to go somewhere at 11 and it was already 10.20. By the time I stopped the run the distance was 7.05 km and I'd been running for over an hour, my first time ever (1:00:40 to be precise 
do I get a badge? )
Isn't it just marvellous to be able to go and run this far and not get puffed out? To have an excuse to be outside in the frost and sunshine and see the beauty of the countryside or wherever you live? We are so fortunate, thanks to everyone who has supported and advised me to enable me to experience this <3
Freezing 6K ❄️ and last run of 2020
Recovery run 4 - so far so good!
