Another one in the bag

Friday afternoon off, and a hideous day at work trying to sort out a gnarly problem, so by 1pm I was ready for off to have some time away from the phone.  I had 20m in the diary, so 20m it must be.  My normal 20 miler from home is basically to run to Ilkley and back, but I do find the pull back up from Bolton Abbey right at the end tough, and as I'd really enjoyed last week's 20 I thought I'd do something similar.

As I was driving Ilkley-wards, going via Silsden because of the snow and ice, I decided I might as well park nearer home, so I cut off at Addingham and parked at Bolton Bridge.  My run took me down the Nesfield road, which is now pretty much snow free, and into Ilkley.  Determined not to bugger up the mileage calculations I noted that the watch went "beep", signifying five miles, just after crossing Middleton Avenue in the middle of Ilkley.  5 to go to the turn then...

The thaw is definitely here, but what was bizarre was occasional drafts of genuinely warm air - maybe it's just in comparison to what we've been having, but it felt almost tropical!

The road to Askwith is also completely clear, and I made good progress through Askwith, but as last week I was a bit concerned by my inability to run at my target pace of 7:45 - 7:30 seemed the norm, but try as I might I couldn't seem to get comfortable at anything slower.  I was keeping an eye on my HR after yesterday, but that was steady away at mid-130s.

Through Askwith, and then I started looking at how far I had to go to the turn - there's a big hill that drops down after Weston, and I was hoping to get the important "beep" before I dropped down - no such luck - for future reference 10m from Bolton Bridge is right at the bottom of the hill!

Back up again, and I started to think I ought to try a bit of this marathon pace stuff, so after putting it off til I got to the flat bit after Askwith I pushed on, aiming to do 3 or 4 miles at 6:45.  Blimey it was hard!  I actually checked my watch after less than 1/4 of a mile to see how far I'd gone!  In the end I did 3 miles, not wanting to do battle with the hill up into Nesfield.  Miles 14, 15 and 16 were therefore 6:48, 6:40 and 6:36 - respectable, but I'm not sure where another 23 of those buggers is coming from!

I passed runningbear near Middleton Woods going in the opposite direction - very quickly!  But fortunately as I was in my MP section I at least probably looked as if I was actually moving at the time.

After the effort my legs were definitely tired, and I had my only 8m+ mile going up into Nesfield, but the last 2 were back to 7:30ish, so I managed to hold it together.  Stats here:

In the end I did 20m in 2:29:09, averaging 7:27 pace and now have 2 of my planned 8 20m+ runs in the bag.  The next one will be in a couple of weeks with Paul, and hopefully a few others.

Day off tomorrow (well maybe just a steady 5...) then back on me bike on Sunday!! Yay!!!