Training: meandering to 7.5K

Swan House, Battlefield, Northern Print, The Cluny, Byker Link, Spillers, Free Trade Inn, Hotel du Vin, St Ann's Church, Millennium Bridge, The Glasshouse, High Level Bridge, Lit & Phil, and back to Grey Street. Plenty of ups and downs today, some steeper than others. And overall, a smidge over 7.5K. No stops for photos though, so here's one of the Glasshouse on a suitably dull day, borrowed from geograph.co.uk:

The Glasshouse (formerly The Sage) on a gloomy day

After a weekend in which I chose to abort my parkrun attempt — as in, I just didn't go as the wife wasn't well — I really didn't feel motivated for a quick or challenging run again. Instead, I set off at a leisurely pace and with only a vague direction in mind. It felt like an eternity before Google registered the first kilometre, so I resolved to just make it a decent length and forget about the pace. Or rather, rein myself in any time I felt the urge to increase the pace.

As is often the case on these directionless runs, I find myself pondering my next turn quite a lot, weighing up speed vs. hills, greenery vs. directness, and so on. Today, most such decisions related to whether I could face the climb out of a valley if I chose to head down into it. First test was Ouseburn: do I cross it via the Byker Bridge or do I go down into it and back up the other side? With enough time to think, I went for the latter, not wanting to shirk the challenge. By the time I got to St Peter's Basin, the next choice was all along the [flat] quayside, or do I climb up to the Free Trade? Feeling like a wimp for considering the former, I chose the gentle climb.

From there, I crossed the Ouseburn on City Road and climbed past Hotel du Vin until I got to the bottom of Crawhall Road, where I ducked down to the quayside. The remainder of the route was settling in my mind at this point, as I tried to calculate the deviations required to get to 7.5km by the time I got back to the office. Basically, it involved crossing the river and heading up onto the Tyne Bridge via the Glasshouse. In the end, as Google hadn't registered the 6th kilometre as soon as I'd expected, I extended to the High Level Bridge and then again past the Lit & Phil once on the Newcastle side.

Even halfway through today's run, the surprising warmth of the day was getting to me. I probably averaged about a 5:45/km pace, but boy was I sweating. At least the kilometres had ended up passing faster than the first felt it had; it was, again, good to be out and just not worrying too much about how long I was taking. The knees felt a little hammered at times, and I do sometimes wonder how long I'll be able to continue running without ruining myself for retirement, but they always seem to recover enough for the next run. Let's hope that continues.