An Old Friend

Tonight because I was short of time I decided to do an old road run that I used to do when I first started running. Its about 6 - 7 miles long and I use to be able to run it in around 40mins.
Looking back in my running log, tonight was the first road run I've done since March, and it told.
What made it more difficult was the fact that is was a glorious night with the fell tops all in good sight, but I convinced myself that this run would be more beneficial to me with it been smooth and relatively flat (compared to the fells) and would be kinder to my groin/hip.
For me running on the roads is so much harder then running on the fells, as on the fells you can take a recovery without losing too much time, but on the road there is no hiding place, its all about 'times' and its an hard effort from start to finish.
So, getting back to tonight's run. It was horrible. The old route has fallen out with me and gave me real turning over. Where as once it encouraged to run faster, tonight it made life very hard for me, made me look a chump. I suppose that's what you get if you neglect an old friend.
I ran this hard too, with the idea it would be my benchmark for the summer, but 44minutes dead shouldn't take much beating.
Tomorrow im back on the fells but next week I plan to visit my old friend once a week until we are mates again.....it might take some time!!