Take one runner with creaky kidneys. Give him a newish pair of running shoes and a good dose of optimism and send him over to the Grand Union Canal. Make it on a crisp, cold and sunny morning and the scene is set for today’s fabulous run.
The run in numbers:
Distance: 8.79 miles
Time: 1 hour 17 minutes
Average pace: 8:47miles/minute
Calories: 1,220
Grumpy cyclists: 2
Boats adrift: 1
I had been anticipating another good run along the canal. This is partly for sentimental reasons – youngest daughter Hannah used to go paddling on Saturday mornings and I used the time for running on the towpath – the hundreds of miles I must have clocked up!
As I have gradually been increasing my distances, perhaps a bit erratically and sometimes by too much, therefore breaking the all of the usual rules again. The weather was good, I had the use of a car and a clear morning, so off I went.
Although I’m pretty good at pacing myself, I am very conscious of switching to different fuel sources as time goes by. I start off effortlessly; this is my body using oxygen already in my muscles. Then after a few minutes, something else happens and I believe this is when glycogen is our body’s fuel. Then at 20 minutes, I hit a mini kind of wall, when the effort needs to rapidly increase. A few minutes later I’m fine. After an hour I was feeling fatigued a little but somehow my pace was consistent-ish. I could feel my ankles and knees protesting a little and this was a reminder of doing too much, without building the distances too quickly. Nevertheless, after an hour or so, this is when we start to burn fat and something I guess we all like the idea of (having said that, according to our bathroom weighing scales, my fat composition is 13%, so perhaps not too bad).
There were a couple of mini breaks. The first was at the Three Locks as this as my turn around point. As a boat had just come through the top lock, he kindly took the above photo. The second was on my return when a narrow boat had come across a boat which was adrift. I happily agreed to help pull it in. This gave everything a nice rest for a few minutes and it helped spur me on for the last couple of miles.
The last half mile seemed hard but there was no way I was going to walk, I just kept going and I must admit it was a plod. I had no energy for a sprint finish but nevertheless I’m pleased with the run. I feel so alive! The reward was the most scrummy curry!
So just a couple of other photos…..
