Monday Morning Ten Miles Richmond Park

My usual ten mile run is the following:

About four minutes from the house I turn into Priory Lane and head along its long straight length towards Richmond Park's Roehampton Gate. Once inside the gate I turn left and follow the track roughly all the way around the perimeter. One circuit of the park is about seven miles and a third. From home to the park is about a mile and a third each way so the total is roughly ten miles.

For about a week now the weather has been warm and springlike. This morning is the same. There's a bit of a chill as I leave the house at eight thirty but it warms up as I run.

Last week I ran 120 miles in six days and rested Saturday and Sunday. It wasn't a completely inactive weekend. On Saturday I had a long walk and a frisbee game. On Sunday I had another long walk around the West End looking for a new shirt for Karola's wedding which I failed to get.

But I haven't ran for two days and my muscles are resisting. They don't wanna play. They remember last week and they don't want any more of that shit.

It's my front calf muscles. Particularly my right. It's as stiff as a board. And as I run it's painful. I stop when I get inside Roehampton Gate and rub and fist massage my right calf. And it is freakishly board-like. You could hammer a nail into it and I swear it wouldn't bleed.

Anyway I keep going because it's clearly just stiffness, there's no trauma. It slows me down considerably but I stick it out and about forty minutes later it is perfectly fine.

The route is mostly flat but there are two testing hills and one minor one. The park has trees and deer and ducks and sometimes if I'm lucky a Grey Heron. There are other runners and cyclists and dog walkers. I've ran it often with the sun high in the sky, I've ran it in a low sun at dawn and dusk and more than once I've run it very early in the morning under the light of a big fat moon.

Today the sun and my muscles get warmer as I run and it is just perfect.

Usually the ten miles takes me under 90 minutes. This morning because of the slow start with the muscle problem it took me all of 97 minutes. I feel fresh at the finish and breakfast on porridge and honey. Yum yum.