Doesn’t a sunny day always put you in a good mood? Today I had one, albeit one of those cold, free winter sunny days which the UK does so well and that I personally happen to love. It also changes things. I have now reached the point where I am running so far in the mornings that I have to alternate my days. I cannot run for two hours (and increasingly more) a day, every day. It is an impact sport and an endurance one for me too, so I am adjusting how I do things. My running distances are only going to increase over time, so now that I have hit ten miles I shall run on alternate days and on the off days I will swim and cycle. These two are both non-impact sports. Cycling is my favourite thing to do in the whole world and now that January is out of the way the nights are growing lighter, the rain is less frequent and it is getting warmer. I will be cycling on the school run home, and in the evenings I will swim. The swimming is important to me as it is probably the highest intensity sport of the three (I am always gasping for breath between drills when I do it) and it prioritises the upper body, something I do not really do too much of right now.

It was inevitable that I would reach this stage at some point. As I push on towards the fifteen mile mark I cannot seriously run every day, nor is it advisable to do so. Rest is as important as exercise and I have already felt the tightness in my leg muscles easing off with the benefit of a day’s rest for them.

Today I cycled home on the school run, taking a detour into town to collect a parcel. It was only a gentle seven miles. Seven miles may sound a lot but it was only thirty minutes or thereabouts and I wasn’t exactly pushing myself (even though, at 14-16 mph My Fitness Pal classifies my exertion as vigorous).

Map

6.95 mi • 27:52 • 4:01 min/mi • 15.0 mph • 189 ft

Source: Rosehill with Burnley Wood Ward Cycling

I am not especially interested in segments, calorie burn (except for daily tracking) and time trialling but its there, courtesy of Garmin, if that is your bag.