The long way home...

Schedule called for 24km in 1:45 tonight. I dusted off the 23.1km St Leonards-Gordon-Top Ryde-Home route from around this time last month, added on a loop around the block and voila! A 24km route. One with a nasty steep little hill that would doubtless bite me on the arse at 23.5km, but such is life. I wonder what happened to the first bloke who said that. I bet he's just hanging around somewhere.

Anyway, after watching the morning rain gradually ease off into an afternoon notable for occasional glimpses of a fabled ball of fire in the sky, I left the office at about 5:20pm for the run home. The run didn't get off to the best of starts: it was quickly apparent the long sleeve top was just a little too warm for the conditions (although it did get cooler in the last 45 minutes of the run), and the iPod lasted about 7 minutes before the battery mentioned that I'd neglected to pause the player when I got to the office just after 8am. Valiant effort from the little fella, though, and his reward is suckling at the USB 2.0 teat for a few hours.

Illie was a little vocal through the run, but it's tough terrain, with little flat, just constant inclines and quite a few steepish declines. I was stupid early and bashed it up the rolling incline to the 11km marker just after the turn off from the Pacific Highway to Lane Cove Road in about 46 minutes, which in the context of a 1 hour 45 minute run was a bit silly. I was fine until about the Lane Cove River, after which it turned into a bit of a slog. I was able to roll along reasonably well, just not in a particularly spritely fashion. I would pick up periodically after a gentle decline, but that would last until the next incline. Got colder as I rolled along.

Still, made reasonable time, and despite nearly coming to a standstill on the steep incline in the add-on, managed the fractionally over 24km in 1:43:18, for 4:18 per km pace, which is pleasing. Strength is definitely there at the moment, and I'm sure Illie will settle with the taper and some treatment.

An interesting thing I hadn't mentioned of late - you may recall I was suffering some issues with the arch of my right foot. I've had a bit of a fiddle with the lacing of my shoes, and have them set up now with the lace missing the third eye from the top (I use all the holes). This has reduced the arch pain (which was getting quite bad when cold) to the point now that it's nothing but mild stiffness. If you get arch pain, might be worth trying out.