I had another hard tempo run on Saturday: 9-10 miles on the local lanes. There are an abundance of quiet roads and byways north and west of where I live, which are especially useful at this time of year when the days are long. Winter is a different story: it’s very limiting around where I live when it’s dark.
I once more enjoyed the feeling of going fast for a decent period and ran the last mile in about 6:40, which is fast for me.
I ran the Castle Combe Circuit (CCC) on Sunday. It was my first chance to use my new Merrell Trail Gloves (TGs), which Merrell very kindly gave me to aid in my big running summer for Excellent, because I make regular contributions to their Facebook page (general reports on my outdoor activities with mostly praise and a little constructive criticism of their ‘barefoot’ shoes).
I’ll keep using my old pair of TGs, which have far less tread, on firm trail and road runs: when I compared them to the new ones, I was shocked to see how much tread I’d managed to get through. The new ones give a little more confidence in softer going, although much of the CCC was earthy rather than muddy. The luxury of having a ‘good’ pair and a worn down pair is great!
Seeing as Merrell have been so kind to me, I’ll definitely use TGs on the South Downs Way 100 and report back to them on this fairly extreme test.
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