The hills have eyes

Day 312 Wednesday 7th November 9.2 miles : miles to date 2053.4 Well that was an odd one. A lunchtime run from Berko in my Ron Hill's meant a choice between mud glorious mud, or playing chicken with oncoming cars on the road to Tring. I plumped for the road on the basis that I still had an afternoon's work and no shower facilities meant I couldn't scrub the dirt off. Baby wipes and out of date fake LaCoste aftershave only goes so far to tamper the smell. The road choice was surprisingly undulating and I set out just trying to run evenly. As I neared Tring, I decided to keep going and loop around the outskirts towards the canal. I ducked out of coming back that way and eventually found a hill, that got steeper as you went up. By the time I got to what I thought was the top, I was puffing hard. As I rode the crescent, it hit me it wasn't and I had another forty feet to go. Legs and lungs were burning, but as any X-C runner will tell you, hit the top and keep on striding. The downhill will make you run faster naturally and despite that, you will also recover. I slowed myself down when I hit 6.20 pace on the way down, despite the hill moments before. I then switched onto cruise control and kept it steady all the way, clocking an average 7.02 per mile. It was odd in that I just didn't think I was running smoothly, evenly, fast or with any great style. Given the number of inclines, all in all, an unexpected decent time with limited dirt on the legs (cheers Ron) and just a mild smell of mildew under the pin stripe.