… in central London. Not easy, not easy at all. Still, I’m trying to do the best I can with what is at my disposal. The absence of hills of any great height or length – you would have thought there could be at least one Munro, even a rubbish one, in London – means I am forced to do hill repetitions, basically running up and down the same strip of sloping tarmac again and again. Riveting stuff.
My hill, located on the edge of Streatham Common, rises from about 50 metres above sea level to 75 metres, so that’s a 25-metre ascent. My goodness, that figure seems even more paltry when written down. I don’t know how long it is, but it takes about 90 seconds to run (on a good rep). To run the equivalent height of Ben Nevis, I would need to do 54 repetitions. I managed 10 (with difficulty) tonight, so that’s 250 metres, which would get me to a point a short way above where the pony track meets the path from the youth hostel in Glen Nevis. I bet those Lochaber boys are quaking in their Inov8s.
