A day off and back to running

Took today off today, partly to assuage the guilt of being away enjoying myself (apart from the last 5k of Puig Major) and also because it's Karen's birthday and we thought it'd be nice to do something togevvah.  She got to choose, and thankfully it wasn't shopping - it was a bike ride, as part of the build up to the Northern Rock Cyclone that she's riding the 65m route in with my sister-in-law, Kath.

We set off over Halton Heights as usual (it'd seem rude not to - this picture shows how much climbing there actually is - Embsay's the 2nd village back, just above the farm you can see with a green and a grey elevator) and zoomed down to Barden Bridge.  I must've hit high 40's mph down here, which was worrying as I'd decided that if this was to be a wifely pootle I wasn't wearing a helmet (not even remotely logical, I know...).

At the bottom we regrouped and on Karen's instructions headed left to Burnsall and on to near Linton where we turned right to Grassington.  We'd reached this point in well under an hour so I suggested heading on up to Arncliffe, but K preferred to go up to Conistone then get home.  This proved to be a wise move as she struggled a bit on the way back but after heading home via Hebden and App'trick we stopped off at the Cav Pav for some nourishment.  I went for the athletes' snack of a massive sausage butty, whilst K had some soup - and no cup of tea as the prices are so astronomical and I'd nearly run out of money.  Shame Dunnies can't open a Bolton Abbey branch.

Back up past Halton East for a very pleasant 30 miles at a pedestrian 10.8mph average, but with a couple of thousand feet of climbing and a HR struggling to get over 100bpm (averaged 85!) a good work out in K's build up and a pleasant leg stretcher for me.

After we got home I realised that next week is coming up fast so nipped out for a quick 5 miles before picking Maisie up from school.  Usual Halton East run, not knocking my pipe out but it felt reasonably effortful.  Ended up with 7:14 pace, HR averaging 133 and a couple of 6:50 miles to finish.  Feels like a reasonably productive day off, so off to eat pizza tonight.