Rainy 13 -- Sat. November 15

Wanting to get some solid miles in, I looked at a route using the Jucket Hill trail -- a loop I've used before, goin up Gulf Hill. Decided to do it the other way round this time, starting past VFW to 202, then up Allen to Juckett and up that hill all the way--at which point the drizzly rain become heavier, even to thunder briefly: I got well soaked for a bit, but it was so mild I didn't really mind--down the other side and left on the Gate 8 roadway up to 202 again, cross over on to Packardville, and along to Gulf; all the way down to 9, straight over to Federal and left to the rail trail (to avoid a bit of a hill), then back out onto Federal and up past Tilton's to 9 and home. I aimed at a negative split, and was consequently getting a bit tired and sore by the end, so I stopped just after 13, conveniently right at the Road House, thus:

Time: 1:39:08
Distance: 13.2 miles
Speed: 7.99 mph / 7:30s

Comment: after last week's experience I decided to eat a bit before going: a piece of bread and Nutella. This seems to have been fine; just to be sure, on stopping I also had a PowerBar gel, and then ran (slowly) the mile or so home after that. No problem. So, I should be okay food/fueling wise, though I'll have to keep experimenting to be sure. The negative split was fine, partly because of the heavy downhill miles at Gulf, miles 8-10 or so. Pace overall was a bit faster than I'd expected; aimed at 7:45s, but I think that was the pace for the first 7, and then I sped up.