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First Long Run of the new Decade!

January 25, 2020 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
After a hearty full English breakfast with my Cypriot friend Loizos, I hopped up out of the diner and ran for three hours. Who'd a thought that sausages, eggs, bacon, tea, and blood pudding would be so instantly digestible and such great fuel for an almost-marathon? At the very least, my legs felt no weariness and I was in high spirits and good cheer.

I started off at a gentle pace slower than 8 minutes, winding my way through the streets of Holloway until I reached a trail I didn't know about. Apparent there's a ring of trails and marked streets connecting parks around London? How splendid! I headed west for aways, arriving at a lovely wood with meandering muddy trails. My first time finding trails so close to home that formed proper dirt and in setting unmistakably nature-like in character. I popped out to the North and continued on my way, kicking the pace down to the 6:30-7:00 range for the next six miles.

At mile 12 I shifted gears again, hoping to run what was ostensibly my marathon pace + 10 seconds per mile. I managed to keep most of the next six miles in the 6:30s with one just below and two just above. I'm convinced that had I been on a route I knew or that was easy to follow I'd have had no trouble sticking to pace. The problems always seemed to arise when I was forced to slow down to check my phone for direction or making various twists and turns down alleyways and across fields to correct my course. I was aiming to reach a particular forest to the northeast, but I kept inadvertently swinging back to the northwest and missing the major streets I had intended to follow eastward.
I was traveling through the outermost neighborhoods by now, all with a very working-class suburban feel. The houses were small and pretty much all townhouses, undulating in an out and in alternating colors. Much prettier I imagine in sunlight but lovely enough even under this dreary sky. Loads of Turkish business on the main streets. Some passersby who spoke Arabic, a few Afro-Brits, though I think most of the population I saw was white. Eventually, I crossed out of the city limits of London into Enfield, over some railroad tracks, and into an industrial zone squeezed between a motorway and a small river. I finally arrived at the river just as I hit 18 miles.

Here I paused and saw from my GPS that it would take another three miles to reach large wood I'd intended to go running in, so after some hesitation, "I kept the first for another day*," and headed down the River Lea along a towpath of hardpack, much like that of the C&O canal. Here I finally hit my stride. With no obstacles to slow me or turns to make I was able to hit my marathon pace for the final three miles as I'd intended: 6:05, 6:22, 6:11. One of those ought to be my marathon pace, I hope! Well, at least they're under 6:30 which would get me into the 2:40s which is what I'm truly aiming for come April. Afterwards, I jogged for two miles along the Tottenham marshes to the bus stop and did some legs swings and heel/toe walks to combat the growing stiffness while waiting for the bus, then the tube, to take me home.

All in all, this was a jolly good venture and an inspiring one at that. I look forward to more runs like this, now that the pace (gentle warm-up, 6 miles at marathon pace + 20sec, 6 miles at marathon pace + 10 sec, 3 miles at marathon pace, cooldown) no longer feels quite so intimidating.

*Bonus Mattpoints if you know that quote and email me the source. No googling.