Was down in London for the weekend so spent Saturday morning doing hill training with the Serpentine club in Greenwich Park. It was a long 1.5 hour session, particularly in the heat. Keep on reminding myself that heat is good – it’s going to be about another 20 degrees hotter in the Sahara when I finally get there. After warming up round the park, we ran a time trial – 651 metres uphill from the park entrance in Greenwich to the fountain near the tea room at the top as fast as possible until you reach your lactic acid threshold. Bit of a killer – the hill starts off gently enough, then steeply inclines towards the end before levelling out. Then did 2 x 12 minute loops running up and down hill. Pretty intense, but cooled down by wandering around Greenwich market for a bit.
On the Sunday caught the train to London Bridge and ran along the Thames embankment for 45 minutes – got just past Chelsea Bridge opposite the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park. The Thames all got a bit whiffy past Vauxhall Bridge thanks to low tide. I think running home with a rucksack on in the week helps as I seem a lot faster at the weekends when I go out without my pack on (unless, of course, I’m really slow in the week). My run coincided with the Asics London 10k run. Even though the runners were going in the opposite direction, the cheer of the crowd carried me along and on the way back I met them all again going in the opposite direction. Noticed a couple of ladies in their 60s running for Facing Africa, so doubled-back and talked to them for a minute. It cheered me up to see other people running for the charity and helped me find the extra energy to speed up back to London Bridge, just in time with seconds to spare to jump on the train back to the flat where I’m staying. Still not sure what’s going on with no significant lactic acid build up (as I was anticipating), but not going to question it, just grateful that I could still run after Saturday’s intense session.
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