Weekend Long Run - 27km (first proper LR in a while, felt good!)

dannewton just finished a 27.06km run, that lasted for 181 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 2093.0 calories.

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Description from Strava: First time writing a post in ages... mostly down to lack of time, and making sure I prioritize what's important, in in this case it meant getting back to basics...

i.e. Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat

I have managed to get back into a more 'normal' running routine... and now back up to running 4/5 times a week at a more consistent mileage

The graph above shows the dip at the end of March and beginning of April, and those 5 weeks of reduced training have had an appaling effect on my fitness levels.

Nothing I can do about whats happened, apart from looking to the future and getting back to the grind.

As part of 'back to normal', I went out today with plans for a nice long run. The route was going to be a little different today, as I was planning to meet a friend in a nearby village to walk and talk (and visit the bakery there).

I decided to plan a route that would enable me to cover the required distance (I was aiming to run approx. 25km today), but would hopefully time it so I could finish it in the village just about at the time that her bus was scheduled to arrive

A quick 5 minutes on Strava to measure out a route, and I was set. It gave me an estimated finish time of 2 hours 50 minutes, so I resolved to set off at 10:10am this morning. Fingers crossed I would end up in the right place by the time her bus would arrive at 13:15

(I gave myself a little buffer in case I was running slower than expected)

I set off on time and headed out on the first part of the run, which was down via some back roads (farmers tracks like the one above) towards the village of Branston

It is technically a private road, so no cars or motorbikes are allowed, but they do allow walkers cyclists and horse riders (and presumably runners too!)

The weather was forecast to be bright and sunny (if on the chilly side) but there was rain expected to move in later. It was quite warm in the sunshine, so I ended up taking my jacket off and placing it in my running vest

After 30 minutes of easy running on the back roads, I arrived in the quiet (ish) village of Branston. By this point the sun had already disappeared, and it was beginning to cloud over. It still felt quite warm though as I quickly passed through the village

...and before I knew it, I was approaching the bypass.

I often run alongside here (both left and right), but today I was going to cut straight across it and head towards the City of Lincoln

The clouds behind me were looking increasingly ominous!

For now however, the weather stayed dry, and I sauntered down Canwick Hill.

Apologies for for the shaky image, I guess I was sauntering rather quicker than I meant too!

I turned left to admire South Common, which as the name suggests is on the southern edge of the city. Its a place where many people leave their horses to graze, although you'll have to take my word for it here as they all seemed to have disappeared!

Looping round the edge of the Common, I eventually linked up with Cross O'Cliff Hill, and started to make my way back in to Bracebridge Heath... where I promptly found rain!

It appeared to be a very local, thundery shower, and seemed to be just over the village. It took me about 10 minutes to run through the village, and I was soaked through.

Was very local though, as when I left on the road towards Waddington, I left the rain behind. Very peculiar!

Even though the clouds still looked full of rain no more actually fell during the run, and with the warmth and the fresh breeze, I dried out fairly quickly.

Throughout the run I was texting my friend, and updating each other on where we were. She had headed into town to do some shopping, and at this point she was just waiting for the bus to turn up so she could meet me in Navenby

I meandered through Waddington and Harmston... and then Coleby...

Checking my watch, I was comfortably on time, and in fact I was actually going to arrive about 15 minutes earlier than planned, and then my friend text me to advise that her bus was running 5 minutes late

So when I arrived in Navenby I had about 20 minutes to spare before she turned up.

20 minutes was too long to stand around and wait. I was dressed correctly for the temperatures while running, but shorts and a tshirt wouldn't be suitable sat down and not moving

I hastily decided to check a map, and saw there was a small loop around Navenby which kill some time:

And it was perfectly timed, as no sooner than I completed the loop and arrived back at the bus stop, than her bus turned up.

We then spent a pleasant 40 minutes walking and talking, and generally catching up. I popped in the Co-op to pick some things for lunch, and she headed into the bakery to pick up supplies.

I was beginning to cool down quite quickly so put my jacket back on (I knew I'd need it at some point today)! We then caught the bus back home to Bracebridge Heath, and I was able to have my lunch and a quick shower too.

It was a different way of executing a long run, but it was nice to meet up and spend some time with my friend, and I managed to tick off the long run for the weekend at the same time too!

As mentioned at the start, I've lost some training momentum recently but I'm startig to get back into it again. I've have cut back on the mileage in the past 5 weeks, and that means I'm now behind my yearly distance target. I'm not too concerned with this at the minute, and I have plenty of time to claw that back over the remaining 8 months

some number crunching: 120km/8 =15km, 15/4 weeks = roughly 3.75km extra added each week on top of my current 68km target

Thats easily doable, especially if I start making inroads into it now

Anyway, enough of that for now. I'm now gonna sit and have a well earned rest this afternoon/evening. Tomorrow, will be a nice easy recovery run of 8km, which will put me over my target for the week. And then the rest of Sunday I will be cleaning the bathroom, and getting my stuff ready for work on Monday

Hopefully I can begin posting a little more regularly now (but no promises lol!)

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If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/11274950432

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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