A cold and frosty morning required the incentive of breakfast to get me out on today’s run, which turned into a seven miler with Ginge.

We abandoned the planned route in favour of a run of unknown length that took us through the fields that we had splashed through last weekend.

Today they were a bit crunchier under foot (with the exception of several incidents where my heavy footedness took me through the ice accompanied by shrieks of “FREEZING MUD!!!”).

The fields run alongside the M6, which gave the odd sensation of running along the hard shoulder (which I often think would be a brilliant thing to be able to do – although clearly illegal and stupid, so don’t go getting ideas).

I got into a bit of a staring contest with these woolly lovelies. They won.

My legs took a bit of time to find some kind of stride (but continued to complain bitterly) and weren’t happy to be reminded of the gentle but long and gruelling incline that I normally run the opposite way.

We did see this al fresco ice bath, but I decided that it was neither the time nor the place to start experimenting with that kind of recovery programme…

All in all it was a fairly steady plod, although when I consulted Miles I was impressed to see that the final half mile was run a minute/mile faster than the rest – it’s amazing the effect that the promise of a sausage barmcake can have on my legs!