Over the Easter weekend I took my leftover Easter Eggs and a room full of boxes to Reading.  I have established a new nest here.  Trying to balance the final months of my degree with finding a job in the Marketing industry.  It’s a bit of a stressful time but it does keep things interesting.

One good thing about this is that it means a whole new city of running routes!  I’ve been keeping my agoraphobia in check by exploring bits at a time to reset my homing pigeon slowly.  This seems to be working.  Right behind my house there is a Cycle Track that goes as far as Newbury and even back to Bristol.  It is beautiful with an abundance of large willow trees over lapping the water.  The track itself is a bit small and only just big enough for one walking one way and one another so it makes it a bit of a challenge at rush commuting hours.  It’s the most natural place I’ve found so far in Reading that has considerably less central focused trees and parks than Bristol does.

Another good thing is that I had a run last week with 0 elevation.  I don’t remember ever seeing this in my running years to date.  I think Portsmouth had a bit that was below sea level along the coast.  A flat out 0 for 5k is just odd for me.  It means I can work more on speed work without being exhausted.  The hill nearest me only equates to 76 elevation when run up and down twice.  Friends tell me that Reading was built in a swamp which accounts for the lack of elevation.

I’m also close to a couple of local climbing wall so I’ve been doing more of that with friends.   It’s a nice way to get strength training in that isn’t just crunching kg’s at the gym.  Progress is measurable with the colour route systems and it makes you feel like you put your body properly through the mill the next day.  Victory caffeine afterwards is always a win.

Up Next?

I’m tapering off the running a bit as I’ve actually signed up for the Bristol 10k on Sunday 7th.  I hope I can beat last time’s PB of 55:42:0.  Although my training hasn’t been much at ten miles a week this year it has been regular and steadily improving in terms of distance and speed so I hope this puts me in good stead.

Happy Running,

xxx

Eleanor