January 2010

[Sweder]

Woke up this morning to the news that Teddy Pendergrass had shuffled of this mortal coil. Sad indeed, but not in itself responsible for the feeling that I'd been battered with baseball bats all night. I was a broken man, struggling to get out of bed; every fibre of my flesh & bone screamed to be returned to the warm embrace of my duvet. I could happily have stayed there all day.

After fighting through slush and filthy, muck-spattered road-side snow to endure a day of frustration fuelled by overtired ineptitude I bailed out early. Tired or not I needed to run today; yesterday was a rest day, as is tomorrow. As it turned out I ran but not for too long; an easy 40-minute jaunt through the melting, foggy streets of Lewes. So authentic was the creepy Victorian atmosphere, tall street lamps casting sinister shadows over the Castle cobbles, I'd have been entirely unsurprised to have stumbled across a handsome cab driven by a thin man in a tall hat or perhaps a nefarious bag-clutching physician skulking after an intoxicated wench.

I decided to repeat a 500 metre loop, starting in the high street, sharp left at the lights past Ask, the Lamb and the Lewes Arms, up the steep, still-icy hill to the Castle, through the keep and back down to the main road. I managed five of these, each proving more taxing than the last, before breaking the cycle and heading home. Not my best work, but an opportunity to try out my new offies - there was just about enough slush to warrant this - and to shake some rust from tight legs. The Garmin results were interesting to those who feel these gadgets are less than accurate. I ran consecutive identical loops, virtually landing in my own footsteps each time, yet the elevation map shows considerable variation in pattern (results below). It is a relatively built-up area; disappointing nonetheless.

6.4 sluggish hard-top kilometres tucked away. Rest day tomorrow, ParkRun Saturday and back to the hills on Sunday.