I decided to swap round my runs over the weekend as I have more time before church on Sunday than I do before my swimming lessons on Saturday. So I ran my 8 mile road run on Saturday and my 12 mile off road run on Sunday.

Saturday – Road run

When I woke up and looked out the window I realised it was going to be pretty icy and it was. I kept to the route I’d planned but there were places where it was really icy and quite dangerous.

There were times when I ran on the road as it gave a bit more grip. I didn’t worry about my pace as it was difficult to get any push or rhythm going.  I had to run on the grass next to the cycle track on my way back as it was so slippy.

Anyway I got it done without falling over or causing any injuries. Looking at Strava I think a lot of runners had similar problems with the ice!

Sunday – Off Road run

I’ve not been up on the Gleniffer Braes since last September and in some ways I was looking forward to getting back but in other ways I knew that once I was back then my build up to the ultras for the year has started and I was initially planning to wait a bit longer.

The reason I decided to get going with the off road stuff was the Hardmoors 55 race is less than 2 months away and I really need to get some runs on the trail.

All the snow and ice had gone but it was very muddy and very windy once I was on on the Braes. I was keen to run as easy as possible so I kept a close eye on my heart rate and if it went over 130 I eased off.

I wore my Inov-8 talons and I’m glad I did as it was very muddy so at least I had a bit of grip. Once I ran my big loop I did another mile or so out and back up the hill as I wanted to run 12 miles.

I’ve had a good solid week of training with a good mix of speed work, easy runs and an off road run (plus a couple of days cross training!) …..

I’m getting ahead of my red line on my 2015 miles in 2015 challenge …..

I’m also doing well in Jantastic with a 100% after 3 weeks ….