My legs are wrecked. Really, painfully wrecked. It wasn't the distance - although 33 miles is my longest to date this year. No it was the stupid bloody road section through Chepstow and over the Bridge - and boy does that flipping bridge crossing ever drag on? As I headed for England I thought I was never going to get there. It seemed like someone had turned a conveyor belt on - and I was running on it in the wrong direction. It's been a massive reminder why I keep of the roads. I think those damn 9 miles broke down every muscle fibre I had in my legs. That said, I did get a fairly good tempo going and probably should have eased back a little.
Then of course, as I headed back to Bigsweir, I made the mistake of going up the 365 steps - there's only 312 though. Never been up 'em. Never going to go up 'em again. By the time I reached the top to pick up the Wye Valley Way my running for the day was over. I must have looked a right pathetic old fart as I limped along on impulse engines - I'm not sure the warp drive will ever work again.
Overall it was a good day out though. The first section of the run was along Offa's Dyke and very scenic although I was massively disappointed to see what they have done to the path as it climbs up from Bigsweir. It's bloody sacrilege! They gone and built wooden steps in the top edge of the wooded section. That was the best bit for me in the whole of the Offa's Orra race and those bastards in the council have neutralised by advantage. I'm able to take a minute or more out of my competitors on that section - or rather I was able. What's next, an escalator?
With that shock behind me I ran steadily down to Chepstow and reached work at just gone midday. In addition to all the crappy road running I probably pushed on a bit hard on the first half of the run. After a small intermission I was back out, retracing my steps over to Chepstow before picking up the Wye Valley Way back to the car and the rest is history. Suffice to say the return run was a awful lot slower than the outward one.
In all I covered just over 33 miles with just over 5,000 feet of ascent and that equates to my longest run of the year. Adding another 4 equilibrated miles on top of my previous longest - although I'm going to take a lot longer to recover from today's run - damn those road miles..
Then of course, as I headed back to Bigsweir, I made the mistake of going up the 365 steps - there's only 312 though. Never been up 'em. Never going to go up 'em again. By the time I reached the top to pick up the Wye Valley Way my running for the day was over. I must have looked a right pathetic old fart as I limped along on impulse engines - I'm not sure the warp drive will ever work again.
Overall it was a good day out though. The first section of the run was along Offa's Dyke and very scenic although I was massively disappointed to see what they have done to the path as it climbs up from Bigsweir. It's bloody sacrilege! They gone and built wooden steps in the top edge of the wooded section. That was the best bit for me in the whole of the Offa's Orra race and those bastards in the council have neutralised by advantage. I'm able to take a minute or more out of my competitors on that section - or rather I was able. What's next, an escalator?
With that shock behind me I ran steadily down to Chepstow and reached work at just gone midday. In addition to all the crappy road running I probably pushed on a bit hard on the first half of the run. After a small intermission I was back out, retracing my steps over to Chepstow before picking up the Wye Valley Way back to the car and the rest is history. Suffice to say the return run was a awful lot slower than the outward one.
In all I covered just over 33 miles with just over 5,000 feet of ascent and that equates to my longest run of the year. Adding another 4 equilibrated miles on top of my previous longest - although I'm going to take a lot longer to recover from today's run - damn those road miles..
33 miles with 5,000 feet of ascent
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