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Mud, mud, and more mud.

February 23, 2020 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I ran 22 miles Northwest and took the train back. In between, I endured about 5 miles of trails that were essentially mud puddles. Both shoes came off at different times. I gradually resorted to running on my toes through the muddiest parts to minimize the suction and aiming for the deepest parts of the puddles where, ironically, the ground beneath seemed most firm. Eventually, I came to embrace the mud as I should have long before and smiled a big grin with each muddy splash.

My body felt quite mediocre at the start and this only moderately improved as I went. Yesterday my legs had been antsing to go, pulling me along at 7-minute pace the first two miles without much conscious effort. I had a nagging feeling I ought to just do my long run then and there, but I talked myself out of it on the grounds that I had done a hill workout the day before followed by only 5 hours of sleep and thus could not be in optimal condition for a long tempo. Man, I really wish I'd just listened to my body and not my brain. Sometimes for mysterious reasons, you just feel good on days when you're not supposed to, and then on the day you had actually planned to go hard, you feel the exact opposite. In any case, I made the best of it. I decided a long run would be valuable even if it wasn't going to be at a tempo pace, and that putting it off another day made it considerably less likely to happen. Besides, my BAA training plan for the Boston Marathon calls for one long run a month to be at an easy pace.

I followed a trail I'd discovered on google maps the day before which wound westward from Queenswood and High Gate Forest toward the Modern Orthodox and middle eastern immigrant suburb of Edgeware. The trail followed a creek which gradually became less channel-like and more wild as I approached the outskirts of London. The surrounding went from suburban to outright rural with stables and farms. Still, I was never beyond the reach of London Underground. I finished my run at the last stop on the Northern Line, Edgeware, and took 20 minutes exploring the neighborhood surrounding the station. There was a Kosher bakery where I got two treats and a hot chocolate and a Persian cafe where I got a lamb's brains and lamb's tongue sandwich. As one does. The shopkeeper wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it was delicious. Washed it down with some aloe vera juice on the train ride home.