Short run tonight

A quick 7km run, up Rosebarn hill and through the university.

I am doing a lot of hills at the moment (almost exclusively) and I wonder if I shouldn't consider having a go at the route.

1) The route is, whilst a bit hilly, is nothing compared to Rosebarn, Stoke hill, Wrefords lane or the route through the university, so I am running an extra 20% on the distances I am getting from the map at the moment and
2) I (hopefully) will find running on the flat both faster and easier than hill running.

We shall see.

Anyway, tonight's run was short and fast. We spotted a runner ahead of us as we were coming past St James' Park and ran him down, so I am a bit bollocked and ready for a beer.

Google map of route

The good news is that I am up to £313.41 with my sponsorship.

On a less pleasant note, my bike is very broken at the moment.

I have put a big dint in my back wheel, it's been trued, but it has a really nasty flat spot. I have got to have a new rear mech, new front ring, new axle (snapped it) and a new nut (which is a lot harder to get for the DeeMax than it would seem).

I've broken the shim on the rear pivot so I need new bearings at least and maybe a new thread cutting, a new seat post, new quick release for the seat, new brake lever (snapped the unit, not the lever) a new front rotor.

Most worryingly I have got a big black mark on the frame where the back tyre has been touching the tube. Obviously it is going beyond five inches of travel.

Unfortunately this means no bike for a bit whilst I wait for an axle and no new spring for the back.

Ten and a half miles

Slightly accidentally this went over the ten mile point. We ran out to Branford Speke, doing the Rosebarn Hill slog first.

At Brandford Speke we hung a right, across the footbridge (where a young man ran away from us. When we caught him up he was smoking an incredibly strong spliff, so his running was probably an error), and along the old railway.

We missed the Stoke Hill turning and ended up running along the Tiverton Road for a bit (not too nice) and up to the Roman Fort (Which was far from fun.)

On the map it's 10.4 miles and with the hills I reckon it must be reaching up into 12.

Google Map of Route

Short run

I have still got a stinking cold & Matt is not running tonight, so we just did a quick 3 mile run around St Leonards:

Google map of route

Planned Route

Having gone too far on the last Brandford Speke jaunt, we were anxious to find a better way across the river, so Jim and I went out with the kids to have a look for one.

First time lucky we found a foot bridge which is about 120 yards shy of a disused railway which runs across to Stoke Cannon. which will be this nice, just over nine mile run, as shown by Google maps

Bugger!

Well, tonight we set off to run the 6 mile route which I ran back in December but turned off at Rosebarn lane and went up the hill, down Wrefords Lane, turned at the bottom and returned. When we got back to the top we decided to extend it a bit and went down Argyll Road and through Duryard.

I have a bit of a cold and nearly pulled out today, so I wasn't too surprised when I started to drop behind James and Matt, but by the time we turned up into the Stoker Road stairs I had, had enough and sat on the steps to eat some chocolate buttons.

Not to good a run, but a reasonable distance and afetr three weeks off and with a cold I'm not too disapointed.

Google Map of Route