Part of the Round Walk

Today's weather forecast was grim so the Round Walk  seemed to be an obvious destination. I chose the eastern two thirds so as to avoid my usual routing. Overtime I do parts of this circuit it amazes me how hard it is. I think it's due to the repeated small ascents. I didn't watch the heart rate monitor closely but followed a perceived effort more closely as some of my recent reading has suggested that might be more reasonable whilst trail running.

Anyway, once home and having recovered the data, my heart rate was pretty much what I'd aim for on a long run.

Having started with an indifferent (or even poor) weather forecast, the morning turned out quite pleasant and there was an excellent view of urban Sheffield from Bishop's House.

Going Round a bit

In view of the horrible forecast (again) I chose to run some the Sheffield Round Walk. Even though much of the route is on well made paths I find it hard work, perhaps due to its relentless undulation. The path is never far away from suburbia but it still manages to be very scenic for most of its length.

Against the odds the weather was warm and dry so I'd over dressed. On the steep descending steps in Ladies Spring Woods , which I always walk for fear of injury, I felt my left knee a little. This was the spot where I was forced to walk over a year ago and I think that I'm very sensitive to niggles when I'm here. My right ankle was barely noticeable and I'm putting that down to wearing the size 9 Inov8 315 shoes that I've done so much distance in. My toes were tight and I wonder if the worn heel on tarmac irritated my knee,so they aren't perfect.

Actually, a km or so later I headed back for home, missing out the Limb Valley and Porter Clough sections. I thought that I'd gone far enough in terms of both time and distance and didn't want to take on too much and force an injury on myself.

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.