8 weeks, 64 miles and 800 miles of driving across 4 days

I made the decision to swap this week with one from a few weeks ahead in my plan. I had originally thought I would run less the week of the 4th Ashes test as I am going to the first day but figured I would lose more time to run this week than that one.

I ran 5.4 miles on Monday and Saturday with a few 7.5 mile runs thrown in between. I had the opportunity to see the Edinburgh Military Tattoo with work on Thursday and stay over into Friday. I then had my cousin Annie’s wedding yesterday so had 200 miles per day of driving for the last 4 days of this week.

I really enjoyed both occasions and got away with watching around 2 hours of cricket on an iPhone yesterday evening at the evening reception. I defended my actions to the bride as bonding with her new cousin in law! She quipped back that she had heard this happened at weddings!

I timed my drive back today so I would get home for the lunch break of the cricket. After listening to the first 2 hours on the drive back. I started my 22.5 miles fully equipped with the BBC sport app streaming Test Match Special to my phone and my Bluetooth headphones fully charged.

There is a certain intensity of emotion running can offer and combined with today’s play panned out, there were some fist-pumps and punching the air at key moments in the match as I was running along. I would lie and say most of the car drivers going past I’ll never see again. I did laugh off some people in front passenger seats pointing me out to their drivers!

To say it was a baking hot day, having the cricket to distract my attention did mean the leg cramps were less of an issue and although my pace dropped off after each 7.5 mile lap, I was reasonably comfortable for the last ½ mile or so.

I’m looking forward to building back to a bigger mileage week next week and think my wierd energy did get me through the long run today.