Weekend Long Run - 29km

dannewton just finished a 29.77km run, that lasted for 186 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 2172.0 calories.

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Description from Strava: Its been a while since I've posted here.... mostly lack of time, its been a pretty busy week! What with work, and stuff at home, and having to spend time visiting family in hospital, I've let a couple of non-essential things slide.

I have still kept up the regular training though, it is time that is important to me. It helps me de-stress and process what has happened over the course of the week, and helps to look after my mental health too.

But although I've been running regularly, I've not found time to post any blogs regarding it, until today at least (I also missed reply to comments I had received recently, so sorry about that!)

Training-wise, there was 17km easy run on Monday, a super productive speed session on Wednesday, a shorter easy run of 6km on Thursday along with some strength training too. Tuesday and Fridays were rest days

Today is Saturday, which of course means the Long Run of the week

And just like last weekend, I was hoping to try a new route out today...

The above shows a route around 2 small villages: Cherry Willingham and Reepham. They are both on the East side of the City of Lincoln, and I've never worked out a route around there... well until today at least.

The two loops here work out to be just over 10km, and to get there involves meandering up the bypass (which I've done many times) and then at the right moment I then leave the bypass and cross a footbridge

The only concern was I didn't know if there were paths alongside the road. I had checked streetview on google maps to see in more detail, and it looked to be ok for most of it... and so I guess I had to just go and find out for myself

After popping to the shops first thing to post a parcel, I got changed into running gear (just shorts and a T-shirt today) and headed on out

The weather looked to be lovely and clear, with blue skies and sunshine...er, well, until I started running along the bypass that is!

Oh? Fog?

Well that was unexpected!

Suddenly my Shorts and T-shirt combo (perfect for warm sunshine) suddenly didn't feel quite so suitable. I did have a spare layer in my backpack just in case the weather turned, but I decided just to wait and see how the run went.

It was on the chilly side in the fog, but if I kept moving, I would stay warm enough

As I run down the hill towards the river, I noticed that A) the fog had managed to become even thicker, and B) the River itself had flooded again!

Not quite as bad as the incident a few weeks ago, but still very, very high!

As I was trying out another new route, I had created and saved the route onto my watch to help me navigate.

Soon enough, while making my way along the bypass, my watch alerted me that it was time to change direction and head to the right, ie. across that bridge

After crossing the bridge I found a path alongside the road to Cherry Willingham, and was relieved to see that this path seemed to go all the way into the village

I was also relieved to see that the fog was finally starting to burn off too.

It's been ages since I've been round here, and was surprised how big the village turned out to be, and also how empty it was. Literally the only signs of any human activity were two people walking their dogs.

After running an interesting but quiet loop around Cherry Willingham, I headed back out onto the main road to head towards the next village of Reepham

In case you didn't believe me, here's a picture of the sign to prove it...

I only ran along the edge of the village, but it was quiet again just like the previous one.

seemed strange how quiet it was, by this point it was lunchtime on Saturday, I expected more people around than this lol

But then I hit a snag.

I had been happily running on paths which connected the villages to each other...

And then when leaving Reepham, the path ran out

Bugger.

I checked my watch, and then the map on the phone. Fortunately it looked ike I only had 1km to cover before I was able to hit the Wragby Road (which is one of the main routes into Lincoln, and should have a path alongside it.

The Grass verge was reasonably flat to run on anyway, and as the road wasn't overly busy I managed to spend most of the 1km on the road anyway.

Oh and look what I saw... Snowdrops!

These pretty little bulbs are a sign that Spring is just around the corner, and that warmer temperatures and longer days are on the way.

With the brief road section safely navigated, I turned onto Wragby and started to head for home... the watch was still providing navigation, but by this point I knew I was heading for the bypass, and the route home was simply to follow it all the way back...

...and before I knew it I was on the final stretch. Apart from the unexpected fog it had been a good little run out, and it looks like I've found another decent route for a long run which is pretty cool.

Tomorrow will be slow easy recovery run, along with some more strength and conditioning, and then I'll be spending the rest of the days trying to catch up on chores

Monday will be the start of my taper for the race in 2 weeks time, and hopefully I can find some time to get back posting again, but we'll see how that goes...

*Today called for 25km to Navenby, but I changed my mind at the last minute lol

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If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/10733798778

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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