Training for a marathon later this year! We tried to find a nice walking and cycling trail through the countryside near Oxford. It didn’t quite go as planned but I still got the miles in!
this is the beginning of apparently Tom’s becoming a YouTuber yay lost my jacks we’re one mile in i had a good pace going took a break because my navigator was behind me but she’s back now here she is here’s where it pays to have a navigator excellent thank you Jackie now we head to the countryside filming and biking and trying to get Thomas in the frame it’s really hard look how good he’s doing i’m not used to filming sideways either just some absolutely beautiful trails through here copscotch break and there we go all right we are two miles in feeling pretty good took the second mile a bit too fast i’m trying to take it easy we’re off to a good start uphills are brutal with any semblance of heat taking this opportunity to walk and hydrate that’s 3 miles so we’re not quite getting as much countryside as we expected instead enjoy this parking lot 4 miles in it’s starting to get some nice countryside views key is also starting to make itself known got a little bit of shade now i’m very grateful for another hill it’s pretty big bright side i’m having an easier time than my navigator we are coming up on the 5 mile mark we’re also coming up on the top of this hill so this is going to be a good time for snack break here’s what we’re having goo in a tube cheers we crested the hill time to declare victory on the walk and resume the run and there’s your view the English countryside that makes the hill worth it sweet six miles in got a lot of shade under these bushes and I got an uphill stretch makes us the perfect time take a little walking break hill’s over and we’re back on the run food’s starting to hit me and that feels pretty good so this is the problem with the English countryside their roads are narrow so I’m uh quite exposed here yeah oh well 7 miles in spirits are pretty high right now i can tell the back half of this is going to be a slog but right now I’m at a high point moodwise that’s good i’m really happy that the sun went behind a cloud so I’m enjoying that and the view for as long as they both last somebody is really sad and I kind of know the solution i don’t know what to do about that sorry look at that it is so strange being addicted to running but times like this feels really good though all right we’re 8 miles in keeping the momentum going we’re supposed to go this way but it’s closed so we have to We have to go that way okay i’ll follow and we’ll figure it out all right well we’re at 9 miles uh was supposed to be 15 but with the diversion and now the diversion from the diversion because the diversion road was too high traffic who knows how long it’s actually going to be right well here’s our diversion that we found um not exactly bike friendly can you help me yep here we go and down we go all right we’re back at it we’re probably breaking some rules but it’s better than breaking our faces on a 50 mph road so we’re just going to deal with it so I’m at a cattle gate which I’m have to help Jackie here to bike through while I wait for that it’s goo time it’s goo time all right misadventure on the detour is over and now I can just run there’s a downhill it’s a little easier for Jackie but I feel just like I’m resting right now woohoo all right that is 10 back on track feeling good i got another one of these dodgy roads i think that’s a creek or something not a sidewalk through there not that it matters just have to run faster waiting for Thomas it uh a little industrial part of Oxford not very pretty to be honest hoping we’re almost done this is uh not turned out the way that I expected it to at all i’d also like to point out that this bike is a three-speed bike and that is not very good for the hills that we’ve been going up so it’s been a rough time and I’ve had to walk it on more than one occasion how come this company didn’t have to change their name 11 miles it’s getting hard i got this woo there he is woo i love how easy to spot you are in this hat we’ve made it to sidewalks yay all right we’re at 12 every time the sun goes down behind the clouds I hit another gear so I’m doing a little better now mile 13 i’m tired i had to do a lot of walking that last mile we only got two to go all right well I decided to dedicate these last two miles to just the love of running and we’re going this way not because it’s hard not because I need to train not to push myself just because it’s fun all right let’s go get it there we go i did it 15 miles there’s a pub up here that definitely going to hit up with water too um so it didn’t quite go just as easy as I had hoped but um feel like this definitely made me stronger both physically and mentally i had instances where I hit a little wall found another gear rededicating the purpose of what I’m running gave me a little extra motivation to uh running to knock it out and uh all these people here for some sort of rowing race kind of gave a little finish line atmosphere at the end so that was cool all right till next time