2 weekends and a Wednesday.

Hello again. Not sure exactly why I haven't been blogging, maybe I've been busy. Other people have been away doing big, huge marvellous things - like Nick W going away and running the WHW by himself over the course of 2 days, or the Manchester Marathoners, or on Saturday the Highland Flingers. Meanwhile I have been cultivating the art of the small. I don't know what that means either. Anyway, 2 weekends ago the sun came out, even though it was mighty chilly. My legs are still a bit dud for running, but as long as there's no hurry I can do a bit. Given how broken my running has been of late it's given me time to think about just exactly what I need it for. In the end I think it's best quality is it's the best way to get off road. A fat bike might be good too but there's no more room in our hall. 

Back to 2 weekends ago. Chilly, sunny, nice. I had gone a bit daft and bought another wetsuit - this time a shorty - it was on sale ffs. Since I'd got it, I wanted to try it out. Peter wasn't for it at all. There was a cutting easterly wind. He went trotting about inland while I took my wetsuit in for its inaugural ducking. I was proud of myself for going in, and I discovered a shorty wetsuit is infinitely easier to get on and off, which is pleasing. But perhaps not unrelatedly I woke up with a cold the next day. I'd only just had one recently, so I was a bit cross with fate. What exactly was its point? Why was it picking on me?

The next day wasn't all that nice and neither of us could be bothered to go running, so I set us a challenge - cycle 3 times round Arthur's Seat and try to do each lap faster. Peter was on for it.

Instead of doing every lap faster, I went as fast I could on the first one and then slowed down. Peter managed every lap faster however. It wasn't a bad way to get out the house and do something.

I can't remember now when we actually went to the Botanics - and frankly who cares? But it might have been about Wednesday. Yes it was because I went out a run on Monday and I was moving the best I had been in some time. That got my hopes up and I thought on Wednesday I might be really fine - but I wasn't great. Humph. So let's look at some flowers and a cute squirrel.

It was a hectic week at work because we moved base from Clermiston to Craigroyston. Stuff happened, as stuff does, so the key had gone missing out of my set of drawers - ooerr Mrs - meaning I couldn't get into my card that gives me access to the computers. That was a hassle. And then the printer didn't work. And I'd moved everyone who I was going to see on Tuesday to Friday so they wouldn't end up waiting ages longer - but it was a bit too much. I spent Friday typing like crazy in between seeing people. I'm usually pretty good at being careful about my posture when I'm working on the computer because I've had my share of sore shoulders and funny necks from spending too long in Cyber-world in a trance and forgetting I've got a body too. Anyway, I forgot, I think. I felt fine on Friday night and was really looking forwards to getting out a wee run and hopefully going a bit better, but on Saturday morning I was standing in a trance in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil when "TWANG" something nasty happened in my neck and shoulder on the right hand side. Noooooooooooo!

I was still able to drive, although I couldn't look over my right shoulder easily - had to swivel from the waist. I was in a dark mood anyway. My legs were alright but not great. Peter was darting around complaining about there being no butterflies and I was stewing on why all my bits keep breaking.

I stopped for a stretch and saw this hideous, black fungus growing out of a fallen section of tree. It was so horrible it kind of cheered me up. I thought I would make a point of taking a photograph of anything horrific or dark for the rest of the run.

And then before I knew it I was noticing nice things.

So in the end we had fun. I discovered a way to tire Peter out which is to get him to leap as high as he can over and over again "for the camera". Similar to throwing a stick, I guess...

And then I had a wee leg bathe which always feels great. Afterwards at least.

I wanted to get out for longer though, and long runs are just not an option, so yesterday I persuaded Peter to come with me on a reverse of the route I did last time on my good bike.

There was a cold north-east wind blowing so we headed inland for the outward journey and went to the new Falkos at Haddington and had big egg and bacon rolls. Then we went up the Hopetoun monument. I'd been up it once before with no light and had to come down the worn spiral staircase on my bum like a child because I was too freaked out by it. I had a bike-light this time so I managed to stay on my feet for the downward journey - but I was....cautious.......

Is that the shadow of my monument or am I just pleased to see you? Ask yourself that.

Then we had a long, fast swoop down to the coast and came back with the wind behind us this time.

Nice, although I need to think of a new route now.

BxSTxxx.

My legs have eased off a bit so I've been taking them out for runs. I keep having to stop and stretch though, which maybe isn't ideal for a marathon. It did occur to me today that I could just take a very patient attitude to the coming marathon and let it take as long as it takes. In fact, if I was feeling evil I could collar someone who was working hard at my easy pace and let them know that I wouldn't normally be in this part of the field but  because of injury I've had to rein it in. Two marathoners have done this to me in the past and it filled me with love and gratitude. Oh no I forgot, it actually made me hate them.

Anyway, I've been interspersing runs with days off in an effort to be sensible, so yesterday I thought I'd go outside on my bicycle and let the wind take me to Archerfields Walled Garden, because I'd never been there before. Peter had been his 35 miler so he was content to come a little tootle on the bike. Well in theory he was but quite soon it became clear that he actually wasn't all that content. He kept saying things about people being slow and then taking it back.

I didn't tell you I've got a cold too. It came on suddenly and unmistakeably on Friday. Happy days. So PB was pecking my head to some extent but I was in a snotty dream world and didn't care too much what he had to say about the whole thing, or about anything. My eyes were weak and bleary and the sun hurt. I was a little bit impressed with how green the sea was at Portobello, but after that I wasn't impressed by anything. Having a cold has added to quite a long run of not getting much sleep and I'm jaded.

Look my foot doesn't move from this picture

to this one

to this one. No wonder I was going slowly. Lazy Moo.

We got to AWG amd Peter's brittle facade of geniality started to crack in earnest when he saw the prices. On the menu they appeared to be trying to cover up how expensive everything was by being quirky about their pricing. So soup was 5.5, unless you wanted a cheese scone in which case it was an extra 1.65. A burger was 13.5. At something like 2.65 for a cup of tea Peter wasn't having any of it. But I had a cup. And the cheese scone. He had soup and tried to burn holes in the waiters and waitresses with his eyes.

After this he was proposing we cycle back into the freezing head-wind, but I had a better idea and we went to NB and got the train home. "You're paying for it" he said warmly.

Today I had no idea what to expect from my leggies. I went out with a rucksack and some money and a camera so I had some options. If it was going okay I wanted to go further. If it wasn't I wanted to get home. I thought I'd run up the WOL a ways and then make decisions based on how things were.

I stopped at one mile for a stretch. I stopped here the other day as there's a handy tree stump for the hamstrings and a railing for standing quad stretches. I swear that sign wasn't there two days ago. I hope it's not from someone's gusset.

I wasn't feeling great to start with but the general springiness, birds chirping and tiny things pushing their way out the ground began to get to me and cheer me up.

At 2 miles there was another stump and another sign. Do you think all these signs are a sign? Of course they are.

The WOL at the Dean Village was blocked off as usual but it's easy enough to get through. At the far end though I met a wee woman who was putting up a sign and clearly wanted to tell me off for being there. "Can I ask you what you're doing here?"

"I'm out for a run" I said, sticking to the facts.

"Did you notice that the path is closed?"

"The path has been closed for a long time" I said; more an observation than an answer really.

"It's very dangerous along there. The council doesn't just close the path for fun you know."

I chose not to argue.

When I got to the next stretch of the WOL, that was closed too. I guess the council are not having fun along there too. I gave up on the WOL and went up Ravelston Dykes instead and headed for Corstorphine Hill. After a while I found myself overcome with remorse for the way I was treating the council. I thought about all the things they have done for me just to try and make me happy. They've made all those lovely trams and they've made cycling ever so much more interesting with the new cycle lanes on Leith Walk weaving in and out of traffic. Their liberal licencing policy has made it possible for me to listen to drunks shouting and fighting every night, long into the night, when otherwise my nights would probably just be boring and filled with sleep.

 

Hopefully Jesus will help me to be a better person. Anyway, I haven't been running on any hills because that's what was setting my legs off so I'm happy to say neither going uphill nor downhill was too bad. I went up beside the golf-course and then down to St John's Road and headed for home.

So nearly 10 miles in the bag, which is better. I stopped and stretched a lot and I have no idea if I should really be trying to run a marathon in a couple of weeks or not. I guess I'll wait and see how things go.

Room

It's the most unusual preparation for a marathon I've done yet. I haven't run a step since my weird knee flare-up last Monday night. I've google diagnosed myself with bursitis now, on the strength of this description of the symptoms..."pain straightening and bending your legs". The worst times have been at night in bed. I'm alright on my back with my legs straight for a while but then my back gets sore. Bending my legs once they've set straight is like opening a wound. Lying on my side is a challenge. Some nights my knees will tolerate it, other nights it makes them burn with the unholy fire of Satan. "What the hell are you talking about?" "Don't ask me. I'm a bit short of sleep."

By Friday at work I was a bit short of sleep and let it slip when, gazing out the window for a moment,  I told my colleague and buddy Ann "Oh look they've got one of those light-up Santas on the wall at the Clerry Inn". It seemed a bit puzzling since we were well past Christmas. This made Ann look up and as I looked a second time it morphed into a rather naff faux-bronze, faux-old fashioned lamp. No Santa to be seen anywhere. Oops.

"How are you holding up with the lack of exercise?" I hear you ask, " a seasoned athlete like yourself will be struggling without an outlet". Well as it happens I do have an outlet, but it's a bit...insular.

There's a whole preamble to this but I'll just give you the broad strokes. A bit back I developed a desire for a smart bike-trainer; one where you can hook up to a virtual world and go cycling in Cyber-Space. I can give you reasons why it's a good idea but the ideas didn't come first, just the wanting it. I've always had a thing for technology. The smart-trainer was quite expensive - I'm not telling you how much - and when I got it I discovered that neither my computer's nor my laptop's graphics cards were up to the job of running the software I wanted to use with it. By this time PB was having a hairy fit just at the sheer indulgence of it all - so was I, neither of us grew up particularly wealthy so the voices asking me why I needed an indoor bike-trainer and a virtual world when I had two actual bikes and an actual world grew quite loud and insistent. I stunned them into silence by ordering a quite expensive gaming laptop with a more than adequate graphics card. Take that you miserable voices!!!

It was a financial blood-bath.

But I couldn't have been set up much better for the current crisis. My knees don't mind cycling - well not too much - that's within their range.

So that's what I've been doing. I've cycled 84 indoor miles this past week. It's not a lot by cyclist standards but it is quite a lot of sweating in your bedroom. I need to put down a mat.

So who knows if I will be a runner again by Manchester Marathon time. I certainly hope so. My legs got a lot better towards the end of the week. I had a deep tissue massage booked already and that helped a lot - probably not the actual injuries, but easing up all the tissues surrounding them. Coming out of there I could walk normally on the flat for the first time since Monday. Not downhill though. On Thursday things seemed to continue to improve and I wasn't all that uncomfortable in bed. By Friday I was considering going to do a Parkrun on Saturday and then for some reason my legs gave me merry hell overnight - maybe I'd overdone it at work.

I'm starting to find going outside weird though. The sky is so high, and the air is very fresh, and nobody has their name above their head.