Long Run

After a couple of aborted long runs in a row and with the E2NB race coming up, I really needed to get out for a 20 miler today. Well today or tomorrow, but I don't like putting things off.
The weather forecast threatened rain, as did the sky. I woke up at 7.30, having slept for 10 hours, recovering from all that night-shift malarkey in the week. It was a good sleep but my head still felt foggy.
I dragged my feet and moaned about it a bit until Peter accused me of being negative. Flippin' cheek. The King of Negative calling the kettle black. I'm the kettle.

So off I set at the crack of 10am or so, - planning to run up the canal and then back down the Water of Leith and stretch it out to 20 miles somehow. After the first 2 miles my head cleared and I was enjoying myself. A layer came off, as did my buff and gloves. The sky constantly threatened rain and occasionally showered a bit but it was quite still and it was  pleasantly warm.
Up to 5 miles it was easy peasy.

There were eggs lying around here and there. I suspected fowl play! (I know, I'm sorry.) It made me think that what I wanted was some salty eggs to eat, so I promised myself I could have this once I got home.

From miles 5 - 9  I was toiling a bit. My legs were sore. I think all that staying up all night makes you creaky and also I've accidentally just run the highest mileage week I've done in ages. 52 in the end. I got to the Alan Alan bridge, which we know of old is pretty much exactly 10 miles from our house, and I had only run 9, but at this stage I was discouraged and couldn't be bothered adding an extra half mile in. There's something about the upper reaches of the Water of Leith walkway that is just boring. Especially when your legs are sore. Sorry and all.

So at the Alan Alan bridge I turned around, pausing to have a GU that I'd pinched from Peter. (He's been spending his winning Sweatshop tokens on fancy over-priced gels.) This one was called salty caramel with a smidge of caffeine thrown in. It was absolutely delicious. I'm sure I could make a salty caramel gel of my own for a fraction of the price. Whether I will or not is another thing.

I'd decided for this run I wasn't going to try and eat anything. I'm fed up of the whole sorry business of trying to eat and run. I hoped one gel would be enough to head off any kind of massive crash at 17 miles when allegedly all your stored glycogen runs out. This worked fine. The caffeine picked me up, and also it was downhill pretty much from there home, I never felt as bad again as I'd felt at the nine mile mark.

The last few miles felt fine. My legs were achy but not getting worse. I could have run another mile but it didn't seem important. What did seem important was buying some eggs, scrambling them and eating them on toast with some salty olives thrown in. So that's what I did. Delicious.