Quality or Quantity?!

Hello blog lovers.

I know I was planning on a long run today, but I also had my family coming for dinner. Still, there is no excuse for that because the Old Boy was going to be cooking it. So what excuse can I use now for not doing a long run? Hmmmm. Well there is none. I must have caught a bit of  couldn't-be-arsed-itus as I was out running this afternoon.

But I did have company with me on the 6 miles I did actually run. Smarty Pants came with me. In fact she stayed with me for all of the way until we got back on to our estate! That is her furthest run for a couple of years at least!

I am trying this new discipline for myself. It's to run consistantly at my marathon (over more than 3 miles) and not on a track! I wanted to incorporate a couple of hills. The Old Boy took me for a nice drive,yesterday, to have a look at the route for the TW half that I will be doing this month! Well, the hills there are......I just can't talk about it!

But I think if I can discipline myself to run steadily at 12 m/mi then I am in for a good chance of doing ok ish. I explained to Smarty Pants that I will be doing Summer Hill, and that she could come along and then at any point on the return to Southborough Lane she could return home while I carried on to see how far I get this time! But I am going to be trying to run at 12 m/mi, no faster and (hopefully) no slower, well maybe on the hills!

She was looking forward to it. I estimated that to get back to Southborough lane it would be about 4 miles. I knew Smarty Pants was quite capable of doing this, especially at the pace that we would be doing. She normally runs quite fast, so a nice easy longer run, I think it will do her good as well. I just said to her that it is about three miles!

Anyway, to the running! We set off from Smarty Pants home, and headed for the first time up Southborough Lane, just a small hill, nothing to worry about, and hopefully still keep it to my chosen pace. We already had to slow down though, as we started off a little to fast! I don't want to burn out before we start!

Our route went through Jubilee Park. I just love running through parks and woods, away from noisy, pollution spewing cars. But it wont be for long, through the park and then back on to the roads. Coming out in the middle of Summer hill.  Now for a real test for me. Can I run up to the roundabout from here. I haven't done it so far. So maybe today will be the day.

We tippy toed through the unmade road, avoiding the muddy puddles and potholes, till we got to the road. Smarty Pants looked up. "And I thought this was going to be easy" she said. We started up the hill. Nice and getnely, slowly, easy paced, nothing that is going to tire us out. I want to get to the top of this hill. Smarty pants was getting into the groove. She was pulling away, I just kept plodding away, I don't want to give up! The hill seems to be growing steeper before my eyes, my legs muscles hurt, they are complaining like mad, but I am determined. this run today is all about quality, no walking, no moaning, just constant paced jogging, keep on moving!

I was just so pleased to see the sign for the roundabout, just passed there is the top of the hill! I did it! I ran to the top of the hill!, Ok so it was the smaller of the Summer Hills, but still a nemesis of mine! From here it was a fairly straight forward jog, down Blackbrook Lane and then up Southborough Lane, and then say bye to Smarty Pants as I carry back on up till Pettswood!

But Smarty Pants didn't want to go home just then! She wanted to carry on with me! This could be her longest run so far, for a long time. No time for stopping then, just straight up into Pettswood. And still, on the flatter bits of the route we were still having to slow our pace down, and keep it in check! Maybe I should just have kept going at the faster pace, but as this is a discipline run, I felt as if I should stick to my plan.

We ran over the bridge then along the high street and then back under the railway lines to head on home.  Smarty Pants thought we were going to go down the first turning, I think maybe she was starting to feel a little tired now. But we kept on going up to Shepperton, and then home from there.

The last bit of tiny hill work, minute compared to Summer Hill, and then the incline up to Pettswood. Not far to go, back to where we started. Smarty Pants had found a last bit of energy as she picked up a bit of speed down the very last road. She finished her run in 1:08 for 5.69 miles, I wanted to carry on to make the 6 miles, so I just took another couple of little roads back to my house.

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