I like to think I’m quite adventurous on my runs, when choosing routes. Or, at least, I did. You’d think living here for 16 years, I’d have run on every single runnable road and trail around. I’d have been confident that I had done too.
It was a curious combination of disappointment with myself and excitement that I discovered a couple of new trails in the woods today. All within 2km of home as well. What have been doing for the last 16 years, seriously?!
I did discover a beautiful area of the woods too:
Given I’ve got 8km to play with now, my fear of getting lost and having to run more than I need to has subsides somewhat. Perfect conditions today too- sunshine, no wind, 22C. Nice! I know what you’re thinking though, this is Silverstone, not Tennessee. What on earth are you talking about, Tom?
Well, in the background to all of this RunTheDate malarkey I came across a virtual run organised by Lazarus Lake, the chap behind the Barkley marathon. If you’ve never come across it or him, google it and watch all the YouTube documentaries about Barkley. It’s a brutal and unique event. Really, do look it up, it’s bonkers.
Anyway, he’s organised a virtual run, the ‘Great Virtual Run Across Tennessee’, or #GVRAT, tracking the 1000km across Tennessee between May 1st and August 31st. Given I’ll hopefully cover half of that in May alone, I signed up cleverly pre-loading my running calendar to ensure I don’t just stop and spend the summer eating crisps and biscuits. Well, I’m sure I’ll do that anyway. At least now I’ll keep running too.
All the same, I’m in, number 9397 and I’m now 3.6% of my way through, given I’m now 36km into my RunTheDate challenge. This obviously won’t detract from RunTheDate, as if anything could.
9km tomorrow. Given I’m knocking on the door of regularly racking up 10km per day, I’ll begin to slow it down now. A 70-80km week is not unusual for me but not having any rest days is. Therefore, foam rolling, strengthening exercises and as much sleep as I can will begin to come into the game.
Starting now, time to sign off to increase the chance of me getting some decent sleep tonight.
Thanks for tuning in, see you tomorrow. Usual reminder of why I’m doing this:
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/tomfanthorpe2
longruntom 