Oh, that hurt......

I did my longest training run today, 23 miles, and I'm suffering. Here's the map player if you want to see me waddling around... just press 'Play' on the left side of the page. As a bit of an aside, you'll notice I climbed more than 3,600 feet during the course of the run - who said Northamptonshire is flat?!

My feet are killing me, my arches really ached and I've got a black toenail starting on my right foot. I'm not sure if I didn't tighten my laces enough or if the shoes are damaged from last week's soaking but they've never been this uncomfortable before.

I was going to do this run yesterday but it was snowing heavily when I rose and the forecast said the wind would get stronger and snow continue during the morning, whereas today's forecast was for it to be overcast but dry and with reasonable winds, hey, back to bed then!

It's going to take me about 4 1/2 hours to complete this run and if I start too late it's the day gone, so the alarm went off at 06:30...... and it was snowing........ and the forecast has been updated to say it will do so for most of the morning but I can't put it off again so I put a pair of tracksuit bottoms on as well as two shirts, cap, coat and gloves. I've only run in trackies once before and didn't enjoy it, they're a bit on the heavy side and rub as I run but it really does look cold out there.

I did 14 miles and came home to collect Birg for the final 9, my feet were already hurting and I was struggling. It was all I could do to complete the run and in fact, after mile 20, I had to walk briefly on about 4-5 occasions, the problem was that I didn't feel any better when I did, it wasn't lack of energy it was discomfort that I was seeking respite from.

First thing when I got home was a hot bath, then when I was feeling a bit better, Birg went shopping and came back with a box of Radox........ time to soak my feet........ bliss.

At least I've done 23 miles and am now tapering down over the next three weeks. I'm pleased I didn't just do 20 miles as I'm now confident I can do an extra 3 miles on the day whereas if I had only done 20, I'd have had to pull an extra 6 miles out of the bag....... which I'm sure would have been a big ask.