Penultimate Pre-London Long Run

Last Sunday (24 March) I met up with Jo and Pia for our penultimate pre-London marathon long training run.  The original plan had been to go to Royston Heath for 16 hilly miles.  But I feared there was too much snow on the ground and felt it would be too treacherous to run around the heath. I didn't want to risk any injuries at this stage.  Instead we met at Nuffield Fitness Centre and headed towards the Roman Road.  

It was bitterly cold, with patches of snow and ice on the pavement.  With the exception of the Cambridge half marathon, I haven't worn running shorts for any of my runs in March.  Not yet!  I'm sure that most years the majority of my March runs are in shorts.  Crazy weather!  It was so cold that at one point the water in the tube on my Camelbak had frozen.  I went to grab a drink and nothing would come out.  The back of my throat was then struck by ice after an extra strong suck on the straw.  

Now I shouldn't joke about this, but I also feared Jo was having a stroke.  She mumbled something utterly incoherent to me and had a dribble running down her cheek.  Fortunately, it was just that her mouth and tongue had frozen and she was finding it hard to drink from her running bottle, and to form words.  I was so relieved that it wasn't anything serious.  Although she is so light I probably could have carried her on my back to the hospital.  

The three of us managed to enjoy the run despite the cold.

It was purely coincidental that we ended up being so colour co-ordinated for the run.  Seriously, we hadn't planned it.  

It was tempting to go for a slightly longer run than the planned 16 miles.  But as we'd run 20 miles the previous Sunday and plan to run 22 miles this weekend, we figured it would be fine to cut back a little between the two longest runs.

8 miles out from our starting point had us at one of the highest points on the Roman Road.  How high?  A massive 74m above sea level.  The hill starts at 39m above sea level and keeps going up for 1.5 miles!  The above picture is taken near the top, so you can see how challenging it is.  I wonder if this will help me prepare for the Swiss Alps ultra run in August?

At the turn around point I tried another TORQ energy bar.  This time I had Pineapple and Ginger.  Chewing was hard work, mainly due to the bar being almost frozen in my pocket, but it was a very tasty bar, with a nice ginger after taste.  I'll give it a definite thumbs up for taste.

We turned around and headed for home without any incidents.  At this stage 16 miles should feel fairly easy, but my legs still felt quite tired over the last three miles.  There are now just 4 weeks until London Marathon, when we'll have to find the strength to run an extra 10 miles.  I do hope it's warmer by then.  I'll settle for about 15 degrees Celsius.