Town mouse or country mouse?

Husbando and I had a bit of a falling out the other day. We often do, but this one was about running, more specifically the route we should follow. I am a creature of habit. I go to the end of my road and, given the choice, turn left 9 times out of 10. This takes me along country lanes and through neighbouring villages. Husbando would turn right, which takes him into our small market town, and normally on a route that takes in the industrial estate. This adds some friction to the 'which way shall we go' debate. He says that my route is 'boring' with nothing to distract him, he likes the buildings and the cross streets. I love my country lanes with ever changing hedgerows, animals to spot, roadkill to identify and lots of glorious views. I can think of few things more boring than running through an urban environment day after day! That said, more often than not husbando gets his way, although I do extract a small amount of pleasure from making him run the route 'in reverse' - apparently the direction I go is the wrong one!

This week's running has got off to a good start. After just missing out on a PB on Saturday I decided to draw a line under that and look forwards. I got up early(ish) on Sunday and had finished an 8.5 mile run by 9.45am - when it was starting to get very warm! I covered the loop part of the Alton 10 road race - lovely countryside and a wee while since I had run that way so lots of things had changed. Speedwise it wasn't a great run, averaging just under 9 min/mile, but I put that down to not having had a proper breakfast first. After a full on day of children's parties, spectating at a pony club event and drinking champagne I went for a 'quick run' with husbando. 2.7miles into the 'urban jungle!' My legs felt very heavy at the start, but that soon wore off and my pace was much better than for my morning run. Today I toyed with the idea of having a rest day, but I think I will have a couple of days where I can't run due to travel commitments, so went out for a nice easy run. I ran 4 miles with an average pace of 8.18 min/mile - very pleased with that as it didn't feel like hard work despite the temperature being about 26 degrees!

I am having 'issues' with my running shoes though. My feet feel fine while I am running, but I have already lost one toenail this year, and both my little toes hurt. I foresee another trip to the running shop in the near future, I just wish running shoes weren't so expensive.