Peter and Paul

Across the road from our flat is a church. It has a clock. It chimes on the hour. It is not very loud, but if you are awake and there is no traffic you can tell the time be how many chimes there are (I always seem to end up living near something that chimes).

The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul

I woke up before my alarm went off this morning. A few minutes later I heard the chimes. I counted them. It stopped at 5. Five am.... really? The thought of getting up extra early crossed my mind, but then I realised that I was entwined trapped underneath a sleeping 15 month old baby.

When the alarm finally went off I was already wide-eyed, so I did all the usual stuff and left the house.

There was a post-rain wetness on the ground and the wind came in gusts.

I headed out along my usual 8k route. It didn't feel too windy. That meant that the wind must be behind me and that I would pay the price during the latter stages of the run.

I had dressed in a short-sleeve t-shirt as a base layer and put my light fleece top on top. As it was windy I also took my brand new wind breaking jacket out for its debut run. After a kilometre or so I realised that I probably didn't need to have the base layer on as it wasn't really that cold. I fiddled with my zips and figured out a combo that maintained a nice temperature.

As I predicted, later in the run I came face to face with a head wind. It was hard work, but I didn't mind because it gave a nice variation to my training and, thankfully, wasn't too cold.

Finally I arrived back on the High Street and then back at the flat at 6:55am.

For the record the hamstring was fine.

8.2km in 41:58 (5:07 per km pace).


7t.