The good, the bad & the ugly

It was raining when I woke up this morning. It's still raining now. And after yesterday's exertions today is definitely not a Rule #9 day (www.velominati.com/the-rules), and it's too cold for the garage, so a bit of stretching and core work later will have to suffice.

It was no less cold yesterday, and I'd done a Coggan 2x20 minute special on the trainer on Friday, so I decided to run rather than ride. This is where the good, the bad and the ugly start.

The good first:

This was the view about half an hour into my run, looking across towards Macclesfield Forest. At home there wasn't a snowflake in sight, but I only had to climb up a few feet up the first hill to cross the line where Friday night's rain had fallen as snow. It was slightly bizarre really, running through puddles and greenery one moment, and then thick cloud and untouched snowfields just a couple of miles further on. It was very pretty though, and through a combination of the cold and the fact it was a Saturday (rather than a Sunday) the trails were deserted, which suits me just fine.

So that was the good...I was out just under 2.5 hours, covering 15.5 miles and 3,500 feet of ascending. It was hard work though, and on just a couple of gels and some water, I got quite tired. Just a couple of miles from home there were a couple of dogwalkers (with dog obviously) occupying the whole pavement, so I nipped on to the road to go past. Unfortunately my lack of energy had an impact on my co-ordination, and as I tried to leap back on to the pavement I caught my foot on the kerb, and went the proverbial A over T, landing for maximum humiliation at the bottom of a hedge, having done a bit of tarmac surfing on my right leg to arrive there.

The bad, therefore. As well as embarrassing myself (made worse by the middle aged lady dogwalkers genuine sympathy), I ruined my lycra running trousers:

Still, it gives me an excuse for a trip to Decathlon....

And so to the ugly; I didn't feel it until I got home, but under the ripped trousers was a bruised knee and rather ugly hole in the leg:

That stung a bit in the bath. And to think that part of the reason I run is to avoid falling off the bike on icy roads...

Unlike last Sunday's mountain bike ride though, the bad and the ugly didn't spoil the good. It was a cracking run; it probably didn't do anything for my climbing abilities on the bike, but it was a hoot in the hills and the forest slipping and sliding around in the snow. Winter's not all bad it seems.