Monday 14 February 2011

A soggy end to week 6

  For the second week running the weather conspired to spoil what would otherwise have been a very good end to the training of week 6 in 2011.
  A perfect end would have been a nice flat 10 miler on traffic free country lanes with the sun high in the sky, a mild February temperature with nothing more than a gentle breeze.  A day full of promise of perfect spring days on the horizon.  Much like last Thursday.
  Some hope.  No such luck!
  Once again I drove out to discover  yet another new route  which would take me past  the R.A.F. Memwith Hill station which I've always previously viewed from afar as shown on an earlier photo., on the horizon, but never actually viewed close at hand.

  Locally always referred to as "the golf  balls"  the facility is said to be the largest electronic monitoring
station in the world.  As it provides an intelligence and communications support to the UK and USA,
American readers might be interested to learn that fellow Americans (USAF) provide the majority of the services there. 
 As I ran past the entrance the Stars and Stripes
was flying proudly alongside the RAF flag.
 It was interesting to see that there is  a running track in the grounds.  Perhaps they let the general public in?  Will have to check.

 
The run itself was far more challenging than desired or required.  An undulating,  testing out and back course,  with a cross wind driving unwelcome , wintry rain at me for the whole of the 90 minutes.
  At least the traffic was quite light and  very surprisingly not one single cyclist , a contrast to  the menacing groups we encounter in Wharfedale on a weekend morning. 
  Given the conditions and the course I quickly realized that if I could get under 90 minutes I would be doing well.  Going through 7 I was well off the pace but last 3 miles with last 3 miles in 8.40  8.39 8.43 I was able to bring it around.
  So that was week 6 put to bed.   3 targets accomplished.   A consolidation of last week's 40 miles but progress made with a slight longer "long run", from 9 to 10, and a reasonably satisfactory first track session.
A training week which I did not imagine would have been possible 5 weeks ago when week 1 ended with an aborted 2 mile walk on the shore of Lake Windermere.

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