On a crisp and sunny morning six Hoopsters headed out for a nice 'easy' long run from Queen's Park. Jojo planned a lovely run out to Primrose Hill and tortured us with two reps up to the top, stopping for a quick photo and to take in the view. We then had a trot around Regents Park and back to the Park along the canal.

I was really struggling this morning after a weekend of parkrun, cross country and the addition of a cold (excuses excuses!), but Laura kindly dropped back a little from the group to keep me company and we caught up with the others at traffic lights and such. We finished the 15.5km run in 1hr32 at 5.56km pace.

It's so easy to stay in bed on these winter mornings, especially when you're not training for anything in particular... but I was so glad I did! I got a good old natter, some lovely fresh air and a cup of tea and a hotdog at the farmers market afterwards.

What's not to love about a long run with this mob... especially when you get views like this!

Long runs are every Sunday and leave from outside the café in Queen's Park at 9.30am. The runs will be at the pace of the slowest runner and there are usually different pace groups to try to make sure that all abilities are catered for. Road captain, Gildas Braine, will post future runs on Strava/the Hoopsters Facebook group each week. Any questions, you can find him on the group.