Sunday 28th November - Very cold!

Well, the Hameldon hill challenge came and went, but different than I anticipated!
The temperature was very cold, -2 degrees at 3.00pm when we set off on our run.
The general concensus today was to all set off at the same time and see what sort of time we could set as a marker for fture runs.
As I've already said today the weather was very cold and there was plenty of ice about as we set off up towards the coppice. Having carefully negotiated the initial path, we picked the pace up, Dave and I arriving at the top of the coppice in 5 mins 30 secs, pretty quick. At this time I was struggling with my breathing due to the cold.
The run continued to feel tough with Dave setting and maintaing a good pace.
The run along the bottom of Hameldon was tough. Due to the frozen ground, the normally boggy ground was very rutted and a few times I turned my ankle. Caught up with Dave at the bottom of Hameldon hill. The run to the trig was pretty tough.
At the trig Dave was about 20 seconds in front of me, but this is my favourite part of the run. Caught up with Dave at the style at the bottom of the hill and pushed on pretty hard at this point, managing to open out a big enough gap.
The run home was tough and I was still struggling with my breathing.
The run through the Coppice wasn't as quick as normal due to the ice.
I returned back in a time of 50 mins and 32 seconds - possibly my quickest run around this route!
Funny, because at no point on the run did I feel good, and at times I felt rough.
Dave came in with a time of 52 mins 40 seconds, a good 3 minutes quicker than he has run before. Nick crossed in about 56 minutes having fallen twice!

Watch says - 50 mins 32 secs, Avg HR 151, Max HR 162, Cals 627
Having checked the result times of the 2009 Hameldon race, with this time I would have come 65th out of 170 runners. Pretty pleased with that, and ... I know, feeling good I could have knocked a bit more off the time.
Link here for race results of Hameldon Hill 2009

A 2 hour run is planned for next weekend - probably out to Bull hill and back