Day 7 dawned murky. Another new low temperature last night of -7.4 C, reached early in the night, by midnight, and then things started heating up to leave us at a balmy -1 C at 7am.
On most Wednesdays I run with a group of people from one of the hospitals I work in, round Bury Knowle park, which is soft ground, interesting, about 0.67 miles in the perimeter circuit and a good chance to chat and get fit at the same time. Some of these people haven't run before or for a long time. One of my best friends, N, started the group - he took up running about 4 months ago in a gneral fitness craze after he found his wife to be pregnant! So, after about eight years of him smoking and telling me I was crazy for running, I now find myself loping round the park with this incredibly enthusiastic chap who is literally bouncing along. It was a wonderful experience, and I really hope he keeps it up, for his, the baby's and my sake as well. He's very positive about life and things in general which helps enormously. Running is far more in your head than in your legs.
N did his first race on Boxing Day, a 5k in the literally freezing cold, and, just before we started out, he mentioned that if he beat 30 mins he would be happy. So there's me trying to calculate pace, thinking I hope I can manage a 30 minute 5K and trying to find another way of selling a particularly nasty short steep hill on the third rep to a rather tired and puffing runner. We walked for little bits, but he finished in 29.32 mins and I could have cried! One of the best races I have taken part in, and not for my own time.
So I decided today we should do some efforts. It was only the three of us. We went round the park once to warm up and then raced each other to various trees and articles of park furniture, walking back to recover. It was fun and I hope seeds a regular session, as much for me as anyone. I really want to get some speed back in this month. I ran over to the park and did another lap after to make up the distance, and was quite delighted to relaise that I had just recorded my first post 30 mile running week for months, without it seeming like an effort at all!
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