Long Steady Run.

   Todays steady  long run for me was a 16 mile circular route that I used to do when I was in need of some extra uphill power for any hilly races that I had coming up. This time round my plan was just to get round nice and steady and not go crazy on the long uphill sections, firstly because it was supposed to be a steady long run and secondly because I couldn't go crazy uphill even if I wanted to. The actual distance from what I remember is 15.2 miles but it's  that blinking hard I round it up to 16 miles. GPS monitors don't have this facility of making runs much longer than they actually are.
  The route passes through Hawnby and continues towards Osmotherly and just before dropping down into Osmotherly at Square corner I take a left turn to get back up on the moor towards Kepwick. The road section between Hawnby and Square corner is seriously hard work no matter what the weather. I can't say that I have a favourite time of year for running this route but it is enjoyable in a sadistic sort of way. The last big climb from Square corner back onto the moor never lets me down in sapping every last ounce of strength from my legs but after that its plain sailing across the moor back to the finish. I have on many occassion thought about extending the route by three miles so it includes Sneck Yate which is a mile long and bleeding steep, every time I have finished this route I'm so glad I never bothered with the crazy notion of the extended version.
    On the long run front I have still got plenty of routes that need conquering  that I used to do when marathon training. One of them is an hilly 22 miler that has the above mentioned Sneck Yate to get up and I will be looking forward to doing that the next time I have time to squeeze a long run in between races.