Back to Early Mornings

This morning was a return to early mornings.

Because of the weather recently, I had been been putting off the early starts and trying to fit my training in to lunchtimes and evenings, but since the distances are increasing, that has been more difficult by the week to achieve.

So this morning, to keep my training on schedule, I decided to get up early and get 10 miles in.

Muddy Trail

I ran up the Mount, which is 200m from our home and a great warmup session for a long run. The weather was trying to have it’s final go at me though, as although it was not raining, the ground underfoot, especially on the narrow trail sections, was extremely muddy and slippery and I found myself jumping from one side of the channels to the other and back again, like a motorbike on a wall of death, trying to flout the laws of gravity.

Still, being out so early again I saw a heap of wildlife which reminded me of the serenity of running at this time in the morning, even so close to the city. This morning I surprised a fox (a rather mangy one that I think I’ve seen on several occasions), a number of deer (one of which sprinted the wrong way ‘away’ from me, and then proceeded to spend the next 5 minutes running the ‘long’ way round the open fields to try to escape as I continued running towards her) and then there were the usual plethora of rabbits, and hedgerow birds to brighten my journey through the North Downs trail from east to west towards Puttenham.

My reward when I finally made it to work was a Friday morning scrambled egg breakfast with my team; traditional, but at least I felt like I had earned it.

So all in all a great run and an optimistic return to my schedule, but Sunday an Monday are going to have to be just as early