Slippery people

Janathon day 7 - first week completed!

Since I was doing intervals on the treadmill less than 12 hours ago (and have a 10k race on Sunday), I decided a short and gentle plod would be in order this morning. Or, given the state of the pavements, possibly a not-so-gentle skate, or, if I'm unlucky, a decidedly ungentle fall on the behind. I dropped the little one off at nursery, put on all my luminous gear again and headed out into the freezing cold with some trepidation.

First bit didn't seem too bad, but it rapidly got worse, and I had to go very slowly indeed to avoid the risk of an unplanned bum/pavement encounter. When I got to the relevant point, and on the basis that it couldn't possibly be any worse, I decided to run up the path past the allotments and see what the old railway line path (usually one of my favourite routes but a no-go area in recent weeks due to the weather) was like. It wasn't too bad at first sight but I soon discovered that large stretches were fairly lethal. I managed to keep going and remain vertical by running at the very edge of the path where the ice was slightly - though only slightly - less treacherous. (Incidentally this description of roads as being "treacherous" always amuses me a bit, as if the roads had promised not to do something and then gone and done it anyway. Kind of like the Liberal Democrats, really.)

After a mile or so on the path I left it to run down a steep road (that bit was VERY slow) and back along the quiet road which luckily was OK to run in the middle of as you can hear any cars coming from a distance, and home to complete a very slow 2-and-a-bit mile loop. On the positive side, my legs felt fine, and it was lovely and peaceful out without a soul around. Clearly nobody else is foolish enough to go out in these conditions when they don't have to!

Stats:

Distance: 2.14 miles
Time: 23:06
Average pace: 10:48
Total Janathon miles so far: 26.68