Inspired By Ennis

Today's run: 6.16 km (3.83 miles) in 46:48.
Injury check: Delayed pain.
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Inspired by all the Team GB Olympic success last night* I got up and went for a nice, long run. "Long" being a relative term, of course.

Realising that running to somewhere worked quite well for me, I mapped out a route around the local streets that was about 5k and would finish in a park only a few minutes walk from home. It felt good, too. I got as far as 4.5k as I entered the park and decided to push for 6k, which is the furthest I've run in five years.

The time is inconsequential really, because it involves pauses at traffic lights and includes a mix of terrain: nothing too steep - as I purposely avoided a lot of the big hills around my part of town - but a lot of long, gentle slopes both up and downhill. The best things about this run (apart from the distance) were that I kept a pretty good average pace and that I actually had a bit of a sprint left in me at the end - only 50m to reach a nearby landmark in the park, but still a sprint. 

The worst thing about this run was the complaining my knees did for the rest of the day. I'd probably have been alright if I'd sat around resting them but I didn't - I walked at least four more kilometres across the course of the afternoon. Both knees were tweaking by the end of the day; I think it was probably exacerbated by the fact that I was running on pavement and concrete instead of grass. 
Pity my local streets are almost entirely made of pavement and concrete...

*but mostly inspired by Jessica Ennis's abs