With the guilt of doing ZERO cardio or any training for Tough Mudder in 2 weeks due to the pains and repair of the C2C I knew I had to do something pretty decent this week. I must have put on about 7 pounds during the St Bees break after the C2C and I can feel it.

So I decided to go for a a run with decent distance rather than going for pace. I thought I’ll aim for the route my mate Johnny and I planned to do before the C2C challenge and see how I get on with my fitness and ligament issues I’ve had lately.

As I started I could feel the right shin and ankle feeling tender already… this was really worrying thinking that this might end up in disaster… but after a few miles I completely forget about it and it never became a problem.

The first 6 miles was OK apart from having to take a few stops due to feeling a little unfit and the heat was so hard to run in. But wow Rivington and especially Anglezark in the summer, incredible running through the trees, uneven terrain etc it was absolutely marvelous regardless of how many times I had to stop. I never went all of the way around Anglezark reservoir before and it was a really fun path to run through.

My Camelbak of water lasted pretty well until the end and I had an energy gel around 5 miles but after 6 miles I just hit a massive no energy slump and I just cruised home at a very slow speed. My muscles are this point were getting quite tight and I kept having to stop a lot for fitness reasons taking breathers which was surprising. But I’m not feeling down at all it was great to get out and get a pretty decent set of miles under me. I checked my Facebook running group and there were a few other guys who put in a similar set of miles and a bit slower than me so I felt pretty good about that too.

Surely it will get easier with the more miles I do. Today I feel very tender though as if my body is on protest with the abuse it got yesterday. Hopefully it will recover for tomorrow and I can get out again.