Day 32 - Footpath Closed

Damn it...

So, another Saturday morning run and a wam one at that. The plan was for a 7 miler off road on one of my tried and tested routes. One point in the route is on a railway bridge over the M6, after last Sunday's running the stations run I had noticed a lot of machinery and workmen at the said bridge. I was therefore naturally cautious that their shannigans may result in the closure of the aforementioned bridge. If I tackled the route in the proposed direction, I would hit the bridge at 5.5 miles, a closure at this point would mean turning around and adding 4.5 miles to the run instead of 1.5 miles. I therefore set off in the opposite direction.

The first mile was ok, which lead me to the field, the grass is all cut, great. Then over the stile and the path between the now waist high crops is virtually non existent. I then 'thrashed' my way through the field only to find the bridge closed. The above sign only attached to the actual bridge, not at the beginning of the footpath!! A curse of the sign, and I then back 'thrashed' through the field and managed to get back to the road having completed that mile in a spritely 14 minutes!!

A quick rethink and I ended up heading out through Knutsford, a quick field crossing and then back along the main road to home. Those next three miles I knocked out at around 7:50 pace. I was pleased with that and made a mental note to avoid the route over the bridge for the foreseeable future!

Stats
Distance: 5.74 miles
Time: 51:23
July Total Distance: 9.14 miles
Streak Total Distance: 274.66 miles

Day 31 - Post Juneathon Stats

In a bid to continue the blog, I thought I would provide some statistics of the Juneathon. Over the 30 days of June I had completed 31 runs (one day contained 2 runs). The following graph shows the different totals as follows:

Juneathon Stats courtesy of Endomondo

The weekly mileages were roughly even at between 60 and 68 miles. The times were consistent as well and ranged between 8hrs and 8.5hrs, with an average pace of around 7:30 minute miles for the whole of June!

Now that June was over and July had started I thought 'should I carry on?' Why not, maybe I could get a little running streak going. That was it then, the seed had been sown, I took my running stuff with me to work and would I either run at lunchtime or on the way home from work. Work was busy and as lunchtime coincided with a conference call with a client, I decided to embark on a little evening run.

The run was more of a reconnaissance mission to explore a country lane and footpath that I had looked at on previous occasions but was unsure as to where it led to. After leaving work I drove to the start of the run and parked in a layby on the country lane. The run at a nice easy pace took me on a field crossing directly opposite Jodrell Bank and out towards a farm. On through the farm and across another field brought me out onto a lane that was part of one of my many running routes. I headed back in the same direction and checked out the other lane and now realised which lane this was as I had passed it on numerous occasions but had never run down it. About turn and back towards the farm and the field crossing back to the car. The first post Juneathon run done, Julyathon? Sshhh someone might hear you...

Stats
Distance: 3.41 miles
Time: 28:32
July Total Distance: 3.41 miles
Streak Total Distance: 265.52 miles