3 titled blog

Rest day postponed AKA Back in at the deep end AKA Revisting an old friend



I woke at 6.50 am this morning on my rest day to get the train to Derbyshire to see my family. The Victoria line was down so it was the Tourist line (Piccadilly) to St Pancras. I'd paid a little extra for some 1st class tickets, so then I could do some work on the train. Sending emails and stuff to do with New Heights Fitness. The first leg was uneventful, but at Derby that changed, The connecting train was first going to be 10 mins late, then 15, 25, 35, back down to 20 and then finally 15. So at 10.05 am instead of 9.50, I was on the way.
My bro picked me up and we went to his family home. I had my running stuff with me, as I had planned to run tomorrow and have this for a rest day, though taking heed of the forthcoming weather, I decided that it had to be postponed til tomorrow and it was time to pound the ground.
I had in mind a familiar foe, Potters Hill. It was the hill I started running up when I was 19 to get me fit during university holidays. I remembered the old days when it kicked my arse, and my progression to eventually conquering it and doing it faster. I was still wary of the hill as I tried it a few years ago, with a hangover, and didn't treat it with respect. It didn't destory me but I did have to stop at the top for a while to check I wasn't dead!!
The run today was made a little harder due to adding another 1k of incline before my old run and I decided to keep going and link another old run to it instead of the small loop. It's basically 3k of incline straight off and with an extra 1k on this before on the new route from my bro's house. The main hill starts at about 2.5k and is 1.5k long. I started the run not too slowly or quickly at about 5min/k and carried on upward. It was cold and hard to catch my breath at the start but once warm it was fine.The running was good, on my toes, in my new NB trail shoes, a mistake in hindsight, it was either tarmac or frozen trail. I got to the start of the main incline, knowing that there was 1.5k to go and it was unrelenting. I meet some horses coming down the hill about halfway up. What winds me up about horse riders is I give them a lot of room when in a car and on a bike, but they were almost ontop of me and gave me very little room at all.
Anyway, I kept plodding away up the hill, feeling good and in control and had a lot more to give, but this was about getting up and around a good distance, at a good pace, without getting too knackered.

The route

Soon it was done and it felt good. I didn't have to rest at the top and carried on around the loop, past the farm where the dog with half a jaw used to come out and try to bite cars (I wonder why it had half a jaw, hmmmm). Then linked it to the end of the other run I sometimes do, past Wingfield Manor. This is the manor house where Mary, Queen of Scots, was kept in custody by the Duke of Shrewsbury, before Elizabeth had her head cut off. It is a ruin now due to Cromwell (spit!!!!).
I got to 11k and was about 500m from the start of the run, when I decided I hadn't quite had enough and wanted a little bit more. So I went through the churchyard and then along the River Amber.
It was time for the last incline of the run and the final leg home. Banana and a cheeky theft of my niece's strawberry milk to finish off. Tomorrow I will rest. I'll have to. There is at the moment, 21.24, about 4-5" of snow :)