That was the plan, yesterday morning, to get from A to B without tiring myself out or getting too sweaty. It didn't go to plan.
I'd gone out for a dog walk with friends on Friday and this route had taken 40 minutes, I meant to set off at about 8.30 but was running (or not meant to be) a few minutes late. I walked down our road to the bottom of the hill (my normal warm up walk), jogged gently along the bottom road (no-one to be seen) and then walked up the steep bit before starting the gentle jog again when I hit the flat (a single car going along the road didn't delay me at all). Over onto the aerodrome (a couple of dog walkers out and about, it's a lonely morning) and the Garmin went beep, first 1k done, another 2.5 to go, hang on, is that the time? I've only got 15 minutes to get there? Best run most of the rest of it, so at the other side of the aerodrome instead of walking down the steep bit I ran it, across the main road (at the crossing, but no cars out for some reason) into the park at the other side, a short 200m walk up the steepest part of the hill and back into a jog up the rest of it as I hit the lovely shade of the woods (saw my second dog walker). I scared a couple of walkers out for an early morning stroll on the wooded path and emerged at the top of the hill to 100+ people, half of whom were wearing brightly coloured shirts. Yes! I'd got to the beginning of Riddlesdown parkrun with 2 minutes to spare before the off!
Long story short: I ran to parkrun, ran parkrun and ran home (the long way round this time)! It was really nice, I was in a gentle rhythm and just kept going, clocking up my longest run so far. OK I was knackered at the end and when debating which way to come home once I was back up the hill to the aerodrome the reply was 'the direct route'!
You see, my 'problem' is that my Saturday run is really the only time I get to increase my time or distance (Tuesdays being before work and Thursdays being before I meet up with a friend, so unless I can get up super early (highly unlikely) they're restricted in the time I have) so if I run a parkrun then that's 'only' 5k (the only is in ' ' because a year ago the thought of running at all was nothing but a pipedream) which seems a 'waste' of the free running time I have. I've run home twice but that means I need to find a lift there, so........
Anyway, with a big grin on my face (smug git that I am ) I can say I ran 14.75k (9.2 miles!!) in 1 hour 41 minutes (and a few seconds), burning 800 and some calories (still not enough to treat myself to the plate of ribs from Weatherspoons, which was just over 2000 calories for the meal!!! I need to run for about 4 hours to justify that!).
And the middle section, between 3.5k and 8.5k was a time of 30:11, which I was pleased about (I had thought I was taking things easy and running slower).
Can anyone tell me where the tag 'N'ICE' comes from? Is it internet slang I should know?