Go east!

As a prelude to today's long run I went out for an easy 4km yesterday evening to see how my ankle/peroneus coped. My conclusion was that they were OK, and that I'd wear the Ultra 290 shoes as they have a low(ish) drop and that seems to suit me currently.

Today I planned to do 18km to achieve a week's total of 30km and to ring the changes I did the eastern part of the Sheffield Round Walk. This is a deceptively hard loop and has highlighted weaknesses in the past. In several of the woods the bluebells are in bloom and I thought the best area was Lady Spring Wood which has the perfect combination of dappled sunlight and ancient woodland.

Slightly tweaked in GIMP

Bluebells are a beautiful start to summer and whilst being a feast for the eyes are incredibly hard to capture by camera effectively.

Within the first few km I wondered how the run would develop as I had niggles from the right ankle but these settled quickly and I committed to carry on. Hopefully this won't prove to be a mistake. I kept the pace very gentle with a slowish target heart rate and walked on both ascents and descents. My goal was to be little faster than what is becoming my target 'race pace' of 7min/km. During the run I felt calf muscles, ITB tension, peroneus tension, patellar tendons, sore quad insertions but as the irritation moved around I hoped that each was trivial and would pass; which they did.

The roller and food at home made things feel better but now, early afternoon, I feel to be stiffening up  and I think more roller work and stretching is called for.