Long Sunday Run

Dave had gone to Greece and Simon was doing the marathon in Sheffield so that left Kenny, Paul and I for the traditional Sunday run. Kenny trotted down the hill on time and noted the complete lack of activity at Paul's place. As soon as the clock spun to 7:15am Kenny was champing at the bit for us to leave without him on the basis it would be a great blogging material. I felt we owed him at least a jog past and as we headed up the hill a flustered day glow yellow top emerged. Just at that moment Kenny spotted a runner duck onto the cycle path and like a red rag to a bull we were of with the first objective clearly defined. Turned out to be a disappointment, some lady jogger that we crashed past before even reaching Crabtree Lane. But that locked in a decent pace for the start of the run.

I tried to call it long and slow, but time pressure was on us all and seems always will be. Unless we become miraculously faster the only answer is to start earlier so we can go further. Like 7:15 is not early enough? Right - where can I buy a head torch? We headed off along the Wheathampstead road and I foxed the guys by trying out some variations on the normal route to get directly onto the paths by the Lea river. By the time we crossed to Marford Lane Paul and I were turning back to collect Kenny. At Marford Lane Paul and I ran up the lane and called back to Kenny to turn left and go down, so we'd catch him on the way up the other side of the ford. But he turned right and up and seemed surprised to see us turn and come down towards him, No Kenny your other left! Then we decided to take the low paths next the river, which involved a sharp right up some steps which Kenny nearly missed as well. Then as we pushed out over the field there were various shouts taken from army movies which can't be repeated here. Original plan was to get all the way to Brocket hall and cross the A1M, but that was out of the question if a return by 8:30am was to be achieved. So we cut up at Waterend Lane on the Wheathapstead 10km route and made it onto the Greenway. On the steepest part at the bottom my head was most unfortunately aligned with Paul's toxic gas exhaust and I got a lung full of the worst he could produce! After crashing through the nettles (added upside of compression socks is that they double as nettle deflectors) and soggy grass on the hill the Greenway was like the promised land. The soft even surface is a joy to run on and mentally we know we are heading back. Paul and I were running side by side and without even thinking about it we had up-ed the pace to well under 7min miles. A target appeared in a white top travelling just under our pace. We decided to get past him before the gate and double back to collect Kenny and try and get the guy a second time. But Kenny was refusing to let his heart rate get above some magic number and white top guy had decided he was not going to be our prey for a second time. He looked back. A glance at the Garmin confirmed he was running for his life now and had kicked to six thirty pace - game on! But we ran out of Greenway and Paul wanted to go straight on and the prey turned left down the hill. Then he collapsed in a heap, well stopped and walked down the hill. Te he we still had 3 more miles to clear before home. Last bit up the hill of the main road actually has a sign saying not a footpath and then that was it, a final switchback on the field to collect Kenny and the jog home was pleasant enough.
The Garim tells me this was predominately a zone three run, with ave sub 8min miles so happy enough given the terrain and the one slow mile to recover after the hunt on the Greenway. The hunt pushed it up to zone five for the two fast miles with some instant recovery on the main road taking me right back to zone three.