Arthur's Seat

Back in Edinburgh for the weekend, preparing for the sale of my flat. A good opportunity to do some running in cooler weather than we've been having down south. Saturday I did 4 laps of my usual route around Inverleith, plus a little extra, for a total of 9.45 miles, and felt good - I could have happily continued but I had some chores to do.



Sunday I re-ran the route of the BUPA Great Winter Run, a 5km race around Arthur's Seat, the hill which dramatically overlooks Edinburgh city centre. The route follows a road which climbs around the hill for around a mile, levels out for around a mile, with fantastic views over the city, and then descends over the course of the third mile.





The hill isn't particularly steep but it's relentless, and it's generally pretty windy on top. So it's a nice wee run to waken you up on a Sunday morning. When I did the Great Winter Run - which isn't quite a full lap - I went round in 28 minutes 20. This time I did the full 3.25 miles in 31:08, so a bit slower, but I'll blame it on slowing down several times to take photos...













Last weekend we were in Hertfordshire and dodged the 30+ degree heat by getting up early to do a few laps of Fairlands Valley Park on the Saturday, and then had a leisurely run across the fields to Datchworth on Sunday. The intervening weeks have been a bit quiet on the running front due to work commitments, but I still totalled 46 miles for the two weeks. My total for the year is now 465 miles and I'm on schedule to exceed my 750 mile target comfortably.

Half-way

Half way through the year, and the challenge is going well - my total for the year now stands at 428 miles, well past the half-way mark in terms of distance.

This week wasn't such a productive week for running - I had a short notice request to go and work in Reading on an urgent project which meant no lunch-time running. So just a couple of runs at the weekend, but due to my inactivity during the week I felt like doing a longer run on Saturday, and in spite of the temperatures in the high 20s, managed 4.5 laps in Greenwich for 9 miles - my longest run since the Milton Keynes back in March. Today I felt a little stiff but ran a gentle 4 laps of Greenwich in rather cooler weather - still around 25 degrees but a nice cool breeze.

Tomorrow marks the "official" start of my training for the New Forest Half on 26th September. I'd like to break 2 hours this time (I aimed to do that at Milton Keynes but was scuppered by starting too fast and by the unexpectedly steep hill in the final mile). So I think I'm going to set 1:55 as my target. It's a tough target: 8:45 minute miles for 13.1 miles, and the website says the route is "undulating" - so I think I can do it if I train well.