Last Sunday promised cold air, rain, and icy pavements, so I gave it a miss again (making two running days in a row that I had skipped). I was not enthusiastic about runnning this morning, but since when have I been enthusiastic about running?
Sub-zero temperatures and slippery patches meant that I had to be more attentive than on a usual morning, but for most of the mile I felt no particular challenge. I wasn’t wheezing more than usual, my legs and torso didn’t feel heavy, shoulders were as loose as I needed them to be. About a third of the way into the mile, my right calf started sending warning signs of tightness, so I made sure not to ask too much of it.
In the end, I pushed my break-stride point to halfway between Aston and Henley streets (and I stopped then as much from caution for my calf as for being winded), and my time for the morning mile was 10:52.
Out of curiosity, I checked to see what route would push me to a mile and a half, and that would entail taking Magdalen Road all the way to the Cowley Road and running round to James Street and southwest on James. That seems a lot longer than only an extra half mile, and I’m not enchanted with the prospect of running on the Cowley Road, even though I usually run before 7 AM when there’s little traffic. If I need to stretch my route, I may rely on pushing further east rather than making a rounder loop with the Cowley Road.