Wet

I had signed us both up for the Musselburgh 10K, which was today. It was never something I was looking forwards to much. After the 7 hills I thought I'd drop the mileage and do some 10K training....whatever that means. But I didn't. Then at the end of last week Peter came home with a cold and by Monday I had it. Yesterday I started coughing and that was the end of thinking about still doing it as "a training run" or "a social" or under any other guise. Anyway it was peeing with rain. I didn't even want the free ice-cream at the end.

Peter could have done it - but he didn't. Instead he enlisted me and the Berlingo to go across town and pick up some equipment from a job he has been doing round the Balerno side of Edinburgh. Since we were going past there anyway it seemed like it would be churlish not to go for a run in the Pentlands.

It wasn't that easy to get out the car, quite frankly, but there is something amusing about going out in bad weather. The car park was refreshingly free of cars. We set off up the hills into the...blank. Up the top everything was blank. And wet. And slippy. I was wearing some Inov8 ultra something shoes (there's a whole story behind them) - and they weren't that great for grip - or contouring - and then they weren't that comfortable on the nasty rocky road between Hare Hill and Black Hill on the way back.

I think my lungs quite liked the moist air. They are hot and coughy now though. I got a good night's sleep for the first night in ages last night and woke up feeling better - so I'd like some more of the same thanks. Better go and have a shower and all that....

Race Prep.

I half planned to force myself to get up and do the park run this morning just to get some speed in as I missed club on Wednesday night again. Also because, although nasty, its short, so not likely to  hurt me too much before Chris Upson's new race the Run of The Mill Hill race tomorrow.

However, come 7.30 am I didn't feel keen. I could have got up, but Peter wasn't getting up - and I haven't seen much of him in the last week...So at 10.30am I woke up again, feeling altogether better. Post-breakfast the sun was shining and we thought we could take a quick turn in the Pentlands.

First of all we thought we'd do the route of the Red Moss Revolution because we really like it and its relatively low level - but then Hare Hill was going to be soaking wet after the heavy rains last night so we thought we'd run up the Drove Road past Hare Hill and up onto the Kips. We came off East Kip and angled down to The Howe and then along the path to Black Hill. The path was running with water - the rain must have tipped down last night. I never saw or heard it.

After running down the side of Black Hill we extended the route further right a bit and then headed back along the path back to the car at the Red Moss Car Park. A bit more than 9 miles altogether so maybe a bit much the day before a hill race of about the same length but it was really nice out and we were both enjoying it...

We'll see what tomorrow's like. Unprepared would be an understatement for how we are at the moment. Better have a shower...