Gullane Night Run

The day dawned an uninpiring grey outside. I got up and tinkered about and did some reading that I needed to do and got some things ready for the week. Then played Scrabble on Facebook. Finally Peter got up and started to make noises about "this long run" that we were doing. Oh no. I told him the only long run I could face was the North Berwick 18 miler on the strength of getting pain au chocolat and a coffee at mile 7 at Aberlady. No negotiation allowed.

By the time we got to North Berwick it was after 3pm. Yes that's right after 3pm. It was with heavy heart and legs that I set off. "This is going to be bad" I predicted. Peter took off like a horse bolting from its stable. I think he knew if he was in ear-shot I would either moan or blame him for this. So he ran off a mile down the road and then a mile back to me. Eejit.

The first 7 miles went by okay though. When we got to Aberlady the couple in Londis where we always stop recognised us and apologised because their coffee machine wasn't working. They were so apologetic I felt bad. "We  know you like a coffee" said the woman behind the counter. "I'm sorry."

We went over the road to the posh Ducks at Kilspindie House and I sent Peter in to get coffees while I ate pain au chocolat out of a brown bag, surreptitiously under the outside tables. The coffee was great, but expensive, and Peter said the woman behind the counter gave him a long up and down look as she served him. I hope the folk in Londis get their coffee machine fixed soon. It's pretty crap coffee but they're nice.

Setting off back down the coast is always good. Peter had had about 4 cubes of sugar in his coffee and was burbling on about something. I couldn't keep up to find out what. Shame really. It was a very grey day but it had its charms. It was very still, and where yesterday the sand was all patterned and lumpy, today it was lovely and smooth to run on.

Down the coast beyond Gullane the light began to lower seriously, and by Yellowcraigs it was so dark we really couldn't see any more. Luckily we'd had the sense to take head torches. Peter has a super-bright LED Lenser, I'd taken along an old Petzl one. It would have done but was pitiful next to Mr Shiny's shiny bright light. Pretty soon it was properly dark and we were running along the beach and I was finding, oddly, that I was really enjoying it. Because I couldn't see much the sea sounded louder and more immediate and  it was hard to tell exactly where the edge of the sea was until the waves broke, then the froth on the breaking waves looked like lace.
There were little birds out there peeping in the darkness.

I would have thought that we'd be able to see the lights of NB all the way along this way, but we were obviously round a corner from them, so there were few lights anywhere.

Peter was stopping to take pictures of random objects - a blue plastic canister and a big lobster pot. I started to think that if I could face putting my head in a lobster pot it would make a good creepy photo, and we could photoshop out the rest of my body later. A bit further down the beach I told Peter about this and we started looking out for lobster pots. We never saw as good a one again but we gave it a go anyway. It was strangely relaxing lying on the wet sand in the dark with my head in a lobster pot. No really.

We ran the last mile on the lovely manicured golf course as all the golfers had gone home. We had one near encounter with a very fierce sounding dog who happily turned out to be on a lead.

So today's run turned out to be one of the most fun we've had in a while. The coast is quite good for night running because the sand's light-coloured so it's easier to see if there's anything in your way.
I think another beachy night run is on the cards. Maybe next time it's a full moon.

So here comes the week. Just had dinner. It's 20 past 10. Where does the time go?

Last night's run

Not much in the way of visuals for this one, so I've included a google map. In many ways an uninteresting run but I'm quite proud of it... Realising that I haven't properly started doing any ultra training and with a 35 miler on Feb 22nd and a 53 miler on April 25th I thought I better make a start. From what I've managed to find on the web about ultra training it seems its generally recommended to have two longish days in a row with rest either side. Wednesday night I went to running club and got my heart rate racing with 10 X 3 min hard intervals with 2 minute jogs in between. (It was meant to be 12 but I had to pull out, that's another story.) Anyway, the night's running was 12 miles altogether including the 3 mile each way run to club. Normally I'd avoid running the day after a club session as I'm just too sore but I thought it was about time to get ultra in my attitude. I couldn't run during the day so it had to be at night. I thought it would be a good start if I went and ran 16 miles at a steady pace, taking into account my muscles were already a bit trashed from the night before. I set off under the moonlight armed with my ipod and ran 8 miles down the coast and 8 miles back. It was cold and icy so the pavement was a bit slippy underfoot, but it didn't cause a problem. I thought I'd leave it to "feel" what pace I should go as this is all rather unknown - and found I immediately slipped into a steady 9 min/mile pace.

And so it went! Peter was rather scornful saying it was a boring boring run and he was off to do something else which made running off into the darkness a bit more daunting but on the other hand it probably made it easier to slip into a steady pace.

Job done in 2hrs 25 mins, 16.14 miles, pace 9.01 min/miles. Its good to have made a start and to not have to run today also. I'm starting a run of nightshifts tonight and long running and nightshifts don't mix very well as your feet swell up! I don't think you get the recovery you need if you don't sleep.

I thought I'd do a bit of a review of the year (2008) as everyone else has, but I can't be bothered going into much depth.

I realised belatedly that I missed the 2000 mile mark in 2008 by 15 miles! But hey its arbitrary, what does it mean?

I ran 23 races which is 2 less than the year before and 5 less than 2006. Going soft? Its just I have a course on a Saturday once a month and I missed a few races I would otherwise really have liked to do because of that.

3 new pbs, discounting new races when obviously you're going to get a pb.

Most proud of; Marathon; 3:28:38. At last! Have been trying to get under 3hrs 30 mins for years. 2007 I missed it by 2 mins.

Half Marathon; I should be proud of cos it was into a headwind (as was the marathon). I can do better though; 1:38:18.

And rather laughably 5k; 22m25secs - a pb by 5 seconds and still slower than half my 10k pbs in fact not just slower than half my pbs but slower than half the time of the hilly 10k I ran earlier in the year on no speed training. How can that be? It must be the 1st mile that kills me off.

Most intriguing races? Lairig Ghru left me wanting to go back and do it better. Its a possibility this year but it clashes with a long Scottish Hill Runners Race so we'll see.

7 Hills of Edinburgh - I know I can do better at this race. Maybe this year.

Black Run, Glentress.

We looked at the weather forecast for yesterday and saw it was to be cold, sunny and still, so thought we should go further afield for a run and planned to go down to the mountainbike trails at Glentress. Yesterday dawned sunny and still as predicted but we were still asleep and only surfaced about 11.30am.

I thought it was too late to go all the way down to the borders before running and that we should go somewhere nearer but Peter clearly had his heart set on the original plan so I relented and we went. We took head torches as it was pretty clear we'd be finishing off the 16ish mile run on steep and bumpy forest trails after dark.

It was a delightful day and although cold we warmed up nicely as we set off up and up and up. There was lovely diffuse light in the trees, red pine needles coated the paths and bright green mosses lined the way. We reached the hut, a mile from the top, and 7 miles into the run just as the sun was going down so Peter got some good sunset shots. Above the hut we were pretty much above the treeline and the path was frozen and the heather was frosted over. We thought we might have a really difficult time descending if it was all like this but as soon as we got back into the trees (which was now very dark) it was warmer and there was very little ice.

The navigation was easy most of the way as the trails are well sign posted - until we emerged out of the woods, now in total darkness, onto a main track and there was no clue as to which way to go. First of all we went the way I wanted to go which took us eventually to a sudden complete end of the road. At least it was decisive! We then went the opposite way with some trepidation which eventually took us back to the trail network and signs telling us how to get back to the carpark.

Peter was delighted by the many stars we could now see above us but I was more concerned with watching my feet. Didn't fancy taking a tumble into the night.

We arrived back at the car at 6pm. It was frosted over so we sat in it for a while with the heaters on eating apples and bananas and thawing out. We both felt we'd had a good adventure.

My new Garmin 405 coped fairly well and only struggled under the thickest foliage. Totals were 16.77 miles of running in 3 hrs 30mins.