18 weeks, 73 miles and a brief return to night running

I am pleased to manage to stay above 70 miles again this week. My aim was to have a couple of longer midweek runs and manage at least 30 today. It was quite relaxing being able to settle into a running pace and not have to look out for ice like last week.

I started the week with 7.5 miles on Tuesday evening and followed this up with 2 separate 6.5 mile runs on Thursday evening. I had taken my backpack with water bladder out for both of Thursday’s efforts and carried 750ml of Hoegaarden belgian white beer. It is very rewarding being able to drink cold beer through a straw positioned on your shoulder with only a couple of miles left.

I repeated the 7.5 mile route on Friday night then twice more starting at 4am yesterday morning. I was quite pleased I could get through the morning effort with rain and darkness taking up the vast majority of it. Listening to podcasts has been a real boost to my training so far this year and I found I could settle into a steady pace and listen attentively for the whole outing. There is a podcast I’ve mainly listened to this week about the 90’s comedy Seinfeld where a 20 minute episode is discussed for over an hour. I think my familiarity from having watched this so often when I was younger helps me visualise the scenes from the episodes.

Waking up this morning knowing I had to cover at least 27 miles was a reasonable motivating factor. I had a pint of squash and a chocolate bar after each 7.5 mile lap and managed to cover 4 laps without too much difficulty. The 6hr playlist of podcasts I had set up last night was more than enough company for that time. I quite enjoyed being able to occupy a void like described below.