Tarmac!!

Brilliant long run today with Paul, Sally and Simon (and Simon's dog).  met up at the Old Bridge, and after various online investigations established that the Beamsley road was clear, so we set off that way, unsure of what'd happen at the other end.  The plan was to run 7:45s, which is a bit slower than Paul's been running his long ones, and a bit quicker than Sal runs hers - but in the event we set off a wee bit quicker than that.  We stopped for a quick conflab at the A59, and decided to run back to Ilkley then see what the Askwith/Otley road was like.  We passed the 'A" team from Bingley and Otley AC who'd started from Askwith and were doing 16 at a brisk pace as we were heading back to Ilkley.

Both Sally and I weren't sure about the pace, so we held back a little bit, but it seemed to be early miles enthusiasm by the lads because by the time we got back to Ilkley with 8.5m on the clock we'd settled down a bit.  The Otley road was clear of slow after the Ben Rhydding bridge, and with an easterly wind in our faces we slowed significantly on the climb up to Askwith, which proved to be our only mile over 8mins.

Somehow we buggered up our calculations, because we needed to do around 5.75m along the Otley road before turning, but we persuaded ourselves that with 13.5 on the watch we would be close to 20 by the time we got back - which is of course errant nonsense as we were 3/4 of a mile short.  I think none of us really fancied running back up the hill to Weston, so we turned before we dropped down to the outskirts of Otley.

Simon was finding running and controlling the pooch quite hard work, so Paul and I supplied him with some energy stuff (I'm quite impressed with the new Torq gels I'm using.  I suspect you're supposed to drink water with them, and I may splash out on some kind of bottle belt, but they're definitely palatable and I've not been feeling remotely bonkish on these long runs.).

Anyway - we got back to the bridge with 18.6 on the watch, so we agreed to head back up towards the golf course to get a full 20 in.  Simon decided to finish here, but the three of us carried on to just past the club and turned around, finishing with 20m exactly in 2:33 - average of 7:39 and a commendably low HR:

You can see the HR is in the "green" zone, which using WHR means <70%.

Very glad to have got a 20 miler in this early, and it shows just how much running with other people helps - this was a time 5mins quicker than I raced Trimpell 20 in 2005, when I had a hideously hard time.  I'm definitely going to do eberything I can to do long runs with other people - it makes a massive difference, to the extent that I'm looking forward to the next one.