We arrived back here yesterday afternoon. Good night in Rocks with Akim providing the music.
This morning the village was enveloped in cloud and it was raining, but after sitting on the plane and trains all day yesterday I desperately need some exercise. I had a nice run around the village, with bemused tourists looking at me thinking I must be nuts. Selfie under the cable car.
Monday means running a long way, and the fact that it’s a bank holiday doesn’t change a thing. The programme tells me I need to do 9 kilometres today, so I eat half a banana and hit the street. Shifnal is quite small, so to make a 9k route I need to do multiple laps of the town.
I reached 9k after about 72 minutes and still felt good, so I kept running and managed to get to 10 kilometres.
Very pleased with that – it’s a big milestone for me.
Up early this morning and we’re off to the Town Park in Telford for our 5km run around the park. It’s a beautiful day.
Adrian turned up. He’s done a few of these.
We had a good run. Val and I both recorded personal bests.
Very pleased with that pace – my fastest 5k ever.
It’s time for the ‘short’ midweek run. These started out as 2.5km, but they get a bit longer each week, so now the short run isn’t really that short any more. Still, at 4km it means I have a nice target to aim for – if I’m reasonably quick I should be able to do it in under half an hour. There are lots of roadworks, streets to cross and bits of building work on the pavements, so some of it was a bit awkward, but it went pretty well.
Every week I have to run a little further, so today it’s 8 kilometres. It’s warm and humid and I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to it. In the end it went well. Pace was ok, heart rate good.
After yesterday’s walking marathon it’s back to the routine of my running programme today, and the last run of the week is 5 kilometres. I always find that running is easier the day after a long walk, so today’s run wasn’t difficult. Next week will be a different matter.
Yesterday’s run was the usual mid-week shorty, just 3.5k. I almost messed it up by going too fast at the beginning, but in the end it was ok.
The Monarch’s Way is a long distance footpath that roughly follows the escape route of King Charles II after his defeat at the battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Brighton. Today we’ll pick up the route in Shifnal and follow it in the direction of Boscobel House, where the King famously hid in an oak tree. It’s a nice day for a walk.
The whole of the 615 mile walk is marked, though I wouldn’t want to try it without a good map.
We pass some lovely properties along the way. This one is alongside the M54.
Stopped for lunch at the Bell at Tong. Good food and service despite its awful TripAdvisor reviews. Eventually we reach a fingerpost which tells us it’s time to go south towards Cosford. This aircraft touched down, did a lap of the airfield and took off again.
From Cosford it’s just 5 minutes on the train back to Shifnal. A good day out. Distances are in km.
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