So the evenings are drawing in and the mornings are proper dark for the duration of my training runs... which means... no more embarrassing runs around the villages in full kit while getting strange looks from normal people.
Yes, as the event draws closer, my attention has swayed to specific training runs with full kit. That's boots, full trousers, layered top, full pack (about 6kg) and my poles (walking sticks, not eastern Europeans).
I have found a few mostly off road circular routes around the villages, crossing fields and traversing woodland, all on public footpaths I add. Some of them have been challenging in the dark, finding my way across a field with not much of a path - but then that's exactly the sort of training i need.
Anyway - these runs are now incorporated into my running, at least one per week. It makes a huge difference running in this stuff, the pace is slower and the posture is completely different, so new muscles come into play.
But the good thing is it is all dark, so not many people are about to see my antics - only the odd runner as i get back into civilisation, and they must think "coo he must be training for something extreme carrying all that kit" and i think to myself, with a small but excitable grin - yep.
