Wet wet wet!

Yuck! The weatherman predicted an overnight downpour and he was spot on. At 7:45 this morning it was still lashing it down outside but I knew that I had to get out there what with only one run this week (though I did get three 100-length swim sessions in!). Things were no better at Jack Straws Castle and group numbers were severely down on the norm - I think that there were nine hardy souls out today. The real hardcore. Still once we got going and settled down to some serious talking somehow the rain became less of an issue. It's funny how often this is the case actually; you've just got to make the effort to get out of bed in the first place.

The crazy thing about today though is not just that we went out but that we then stayed out for a good 20 minutes longer than usual. I was fully expecting the group to cut things short but once we'd strayed down the Parkland Walk to Ally Pally then the die was cast. Which was fine by me because it meant that we ventured up Hillsborough from Crouch End and that's over a km of climbing - and if you include the section over the Archway Road and up to Highgate then you can take in 2km of uphill. Great training. Then came the 3km stretch along Hampstead Lane and here I felt good and managed to open a sizable gap at up to 4 min/km pace.

Overall a decent run of around 15km with 5km of hard effort at the end. In this topsy-turvy world of training it was nice to have something in the tank for this kind of result (especially as my back is still not 100%). However I could hardly feel my hands by the time I got back to my car and I'm just hoping that the weather front has done its worst for this particular weekend.

Distance: 9.3 miles

Time: 1h 22m 29s