Midweek: seeking shade on the south bank

After an awesome weekend away in the Yorkshire Dales (albeit with no running), it was back to work today... and back to trying to regain the running rhythm. Over the weekend, summer arrived with a vengeance, temperatures hitting 30°C in Yorkshire. Newcastle today was a bit cooler, but I still ended up running in an energy-sapping 24°C and midday sun. 🥵

Brimham Rocks in the Yorkshire Dales, this last weekend

Mercifully — though it wasn't really the goal at the outset — I ended up running in a fair bit of shade. My route took me across the High Level Bridge (shaded) and then immediately right, looking for a way down to quayside level through the trees that I normally see on my left when running upriver. As I'd suspected, there was such a path (shaded), but it was a pretty steep descent and I was down to river level in no time.

From there, I tried to stay in the green and found a gently sloping path back in. A few more such stretches (shaded) and I found myself arriving at the decision point from my Dunston run a few weeks back. Always nice to connect the dots. This time, I knowingly continued to the Staithes before emerging into the punishing sun for the first time proper. Even a breeze blowing up the Tyne could do little to cool me down. At the first opportunity, I nipped back towards the trees, attempting to retrace my earlier route back to the High Level Bridge. Of course, my brain wasn't functioning by this point, so I failed. 😂

Instead, I ended up ascending increasingly steep paths till I emerged on the A184 Askew Road, not far from the Redheugh Bridge. That is, waaaaay too early. At least I knew there was an underpass I could use to get me pretty directly back to the High Level a bit further along. (Again, it's nice to join the dots.) I was, however, in full glare of the sun now when I'd intended to be running through dappled shade. 🤦‍♂️

Checking the shadows to pick the darker side of the High Level, I finished the run by the Black Gate shortly after hitting the 5K mark. It was only a few hundred metres back to the office, but I was sweating enough as it was and just walked it. The 5K was done and so was I. Time was a smidge under 28 minutes, which I'd normally call poor (for me), but it was damned hot and there was a decent bit of uphill today. It's making me realise that I need to temper my ambitions for the Great North 10K that's looming on the horizon; if the weather's hot, I'll be happy with anything under an hour, never mind the 55 minutes or so I did on my first 10K. 🤔

Next day in the office is Thursday. I'll be happy if I manage to get another run in before then, but it feels unlikely. And the heat is expected to stay all week, so if I do, it should probably be immediately after dropping the kids off at school rather than at midday. But... you know... best laid plans and all that.