Exhaustion

The days are whizzing by again so I need to compress a few days together. Wednesday I was off during the day so as it was AGM night at club, with only a quick run along the prom planned for beforehand, we opted to go for our run during the day. We ran a 12 mile loop starting and finishing at Gullane and taking in the Wildlife Reserve and beaches along to Yellowcraigs, then back along the road to Gullane. Despite it being a  grey, windy day we both enjoyed it and topped it off by popping into Falkos at the end to get 3 cheese tongues and a piece of plum cake to eat in the car. By the time we got home it was dark and we were pretty  knackered and it was an effort to get ourselves back out to club.
Thursday I was back at work early in the morning and then Friday off again.

I've been wanting/needing a new pair of trail shoes for training for the Highland Fling for some time as my newest pair of road & trail shoes are about 2 and a half years old. Since I'm a bit injured it seemed sensible to try to eliminate all possible causes including knackered old shoes - so we called in at Run and Become on the way to the Pentlands for an easyish hill run. Sometimes none of the shoes seem all that exciting but not this time. I was in love simultaneously with Adidas Adizeros, a really nice pair of Mizuno trail shoes that I've forgotten the exact name of (Harriers?) and Brooks Cascadias. I opted for the Cascadias in the end thinking they were the most likely to provide a mixture of protection, cushioning and grip closest to what I'll need over the longer distances.

Then we went a run up t'Pentlands. (But not in Cascadias). I'm surprised and not too pleased how much hill fitness I seem to have lost over the snowy season. My recent sore heel had very little to say about the run, so that was good. Again, we headed home in the dark, feeling knackered and took longer than we should to get everything done. By 'everything' I mean the usual things, washing, cooking, eating, plus I should be studying but am finding it hard to concentrate - easier to surf! and Peter's got to get his tax return in for Monday.

Today was a grey old day again but I wanted to test out the Cascadias, so after a bit of head scratching about where to go we both really just wanted to go to the beach again because its so nice, so this time we went to Gullane again, but aimed to do a 6 miler, round the shore and back into town.

Even though it was cold, grey and drizzling it was  nice on the beach and we admired the colours in the sand and the subtle grey and violet colours in the sea, stones and sky. Finishing a run wouldn't be the same without a quick trip to Falko's (I know, there's a bit of a habit forming here.) We chose a red wine cake - which was quite like iced gingerbread - and an almondy, marzipany thing with chocolate down the sides, and washed it down with some hot blackcurrant juice and some token bananas and oranges...

So once again, we made our way home in the dark and rain, a bit knackered. On the way back into town, just, LITERALLY just as I was saying how good the van has been considering I bought it in a hurry and had to pretty much trust the car salesman when I bought it, having no mechanical nouse of my own, the fecking FECKING fecking FECKING  exhaust fell right off in the street.

Fortunately I got it replaced at Kwik-fit a year ago and it has a three year guarantee. But will it really work? I'll find out tomorrow.