Run on (for a long time)

This week I’ve done a fair amount of running. In fact, I’ve run nearly 16k in the last 7 days and just over 20k if you include last Tuesday evening.

Where I live is great for running routes. The river Cam is just a minute or two away from my back door and from there I can choose to go left, towards the city centre or right towards bates bite lock. Running in the dark limits me to going left, as the route is much better lit and there’s less chance of being run over by a cyclist with no lights. For longer daylight runs I’m looking forward to running to the right, just for a change of scenery and to feel like I’m getting out into the countryside for a bit.

 

On Sunday Mr M and I did a longer run out along the path towards the lock. It was a beautiful morning: the sun was shining and, although it was hard work, we both came back buzzing with adrenaline and the joy of being outdoors. On the back of Sunday’s run it should have been hard work going out tonight, but again we both finished feeling pretty high.

It’s strange to think that somewhere along the line I’ve gone from hating running, to really enjoying it. At the start, I would end a run feeling breathless and sometimes a bit queasy and it took a huge amount of effort to get past that. Now that I’ve built up my stamina and fitness levels, I actually feel happy at the end of a run.

There are two bits of running kit which I’m particularly appreciating at the moment. The first is my Ronhill jacket, which is fluorescent pink, reflective and comes complete with a little tail light to stop me getting run over! It’s fabulous at keeping me just the right temperature and seems to work equally well on cold evenings and sunny days. It also stops the wind which is a major consideration in Cambridge (no high ground between here and the arctic!). The second thing is my new pair of trainers. I went to a local sports shop (Hobbs) where they do gait analysis and came away with a pair of Saucony shoes which just get more comfortable with every wear. I would never have found them without the assistant’s help, mainly because they are a size and a half bigger than my last pair!