Midweek: a motivationally challenged 6.5k

Blah, Chinatown, blah, science buildings, blah, Fenham, blah, Nuns Moor, blah, BBC, blah, Leazes Park, blah, back to work.

Yep, that really is my write-up; at least, in draft form.

The arch at the entrance to Stowell Street aka Chinatown

 

I wasn't expecting to run today. I didn't really have anywhere to go in mind (yet again). And as I left the office, the grey skies and cool temperatures did little to lift my mood or provide motivation. I definitely couldn't be bothered to put in a hard run, so I figured I'd just wander a bit at a slower pace, but get more distance under my belt. Even as I started, I wasn't sure where that would take me, but on heading past Monument, I suddenly fancied checking out Stowell Street, passing all the Chinese and Korean restaurants I've not been in for years, and seeing whether Hanahana is still going. (Turns out it is.)

Continuing to totally make it up, I then doubled back and ran alongside the city walls (part of which are on the right in the photo above) before doubling back again to head toward The Helix and the other fancy new office buildings at Science Central. Meandering around that, I came across something I had no idea existed: the National Green Infrastructure Facility.

Still, as fascinating as that was, I wasn't going to stop to read the information boards. Instead, I headed uphill in what felt like a roughly-parallel-to-Barrack-Road direction. I figured that at some point I'd hit the road that leads up into Fenham past Nun's Moor Park. Turns out my sense of direction was suboptimal. Had it not been quite so overcast, I might've been able to tell by the direction of the shadows, but as it was, there were no shadows. The longer I kept running without hitting Nun's Moor Park, the more I got concerned about how far away from work I was getting. Eventually, I caved and turned right in a desperate attempt to find something I recognised. 😰

Good job I did, as a few hundred metres later, I eventually hit Studley Terrace. A quick jog across the grass and out by the BBC's pink palace, then down towards Richardson Road, cutting corners where I could. In fact, I never actually made it to Richardson Road, instead, cutting back across yet another moor (name unknown) to the top end of Leazes Park. From there, it was down the opening stretch of the Leazes Park parkrun, past the basketball courts and a direct route back to the office. All told, it was 6.6km in 36 minutes. My slowest kilometre had been a 6:02 when climbing (pretty steeply at times) toward Fenham. The fastest was a 5:10 immediately after that one. 5K was reached in just under 28 minutes and the overall average pace was 5:30/km. That sounds kinda slow, but 5:30/km for a "longer" run is probably about right. If I can do that on my 10K run in July, I'll be happy.

Before then, however, I'll want to get another run in before the weekend. There'll be no parkrun this time, as we're off to the Yorkshire Dales. And the likelihood of getting a Sunday morning run in seems slight.