Cycle of Death and Rebirth

Well not really. Just trying to grab attention! More of a cycle down towards Peebles then over the Meldon Hills, thru' Rommano Bridge, onwards to West Linton and then home via the Deanfoot Road, a nice old road with stunning views of the Pentlands (when you can see that is) and back to Penicuik (which thankfully we'd driven to to start - another 10 miles each way would have finished us off).

Looks good on paper and would have been good except the rain predicted for the afternoon came in the morning and we got very very cold and very wet. We are comparative cycle softies having not done much other than commute with our bikes for a good number of years. By 'we' I mean Peter and I. Amanda probably does more and Scott does a whole lot more on the Fixie - especially as he keeps injuring himself.

The sun came out very briefly as we were setting off up into the Meldons and it really was nice. Lovely rolling hills and wildness and sheep - reminiscent of Yorkshire or maybe parts of the Lakes. After a couple of miles reprieve when we could actually look around and talk to each other the rain came back and it was heads down and work.

The next 13 -15 miles or so were into driving rain and no communication was possible. I lead for a while but then when the others came forward to take a turn at the front I dropped off the back, my little cycling legs quite spent. My chain started refusing to go up to the big cog in the first part of the journey so my cadence seemed to be about twice that of my companions. I welcomed the warmth this generated though. Too late I realised that waterproof shoes would have been better (not open mesh trainers designed to let your feet breathe). My big toes went numb fairly early on, but on the hills over to Rommano Bridge I lost touch with the 2nd and 3rd toes too.

Deep inside I was alright though. I could tell because I had the song from the Simpsons Movie stuck in my brain. "Spider Pig, Spider Pig, does whatever a Spider Pig does..." and then David Bowie "I'm an ALLIGATOR". I sang this to Amanda and she cycled off as quick as she could.

West Linton came at long last and we went to a cafe (I think it was called the Old Toll Inn). I knew right away that I wanted cake and a hot chocolate and a coffee. We made the other table of people in the cafe laugh with our extreme coldness and wetness and need for food, and we made the windows steam up as we all started to dry out. The coffee was really good by the way and the carrot cake was delicious, and I got a good big slice. The cafe people were good natured and friendly. Amanda, Scott and Peter had cabbage and bacon soup too which they said was good. I couldn't get enough sweetness really - like Brundle-Fly in The Fly - I was pouring tubes of sugar into my coffee too and I don't usually take sugar. I missed Amanda's screams as her hands came back on-line as I was away at the toilet...

Then it was an effort of will to go back out and face the last 7 or 8 miles. (I'm not sure about the distances as my odometer on my bike didn't tally with the stated number of miles - it might have been as many as 11 - I set my wheel-size in the odometer pretty much at random so that was no surprise really.)

The rain mercifully held off until we got going again, so at least we got into a rhythm before it started to teem down again - and not just rain but some hail as well. The hail pinged my bike  bell - 'too late for a warning' I thought to myself blearily....but pretty soon I could see the Leadburn Inn in the distance and to the right, and knew it couldn't be long til we came back out onto the A701 and on the downhill sweep back into Penicuik.

Character forming...

It was the East League XC at Broxburn yesterday so I'm going to post about that next, but today's efforts had more impact and I wanted to write about them first...

Surf's Up

To make up for skipping ANOTHER club night last night, and to get some of what light there is, I went out a long run today from North Berwick to Portobello.I went round the coast at Gullane, had a coffee and lion bar stop at Aberlady and then onwards to Portobello where I caught a bus at the Joppa end of the Prom. It was just shy of 22 miles, my legs were aching and the thought of dodging prom folk and then the remaining trudge into Leith was too much for today. Still - it wasn't a bad run at all.

I took my old camera for entertainment but was too stingy to throw out the half used batteries that were already in it which is a shame because yesterday's stormy weather had really whipped the sea up, despite the air being relatively calm. I got some pictures of the waves hammering in to shore before the batteries died. At Aberlady I had to choose between batteries or food so I chose the latter.

Back to work tomorrow. Cross-country Saturday.

Glen Clova half

Our friends Ian and Emma (ex Kinross Road Runners) aka the Trail Monsters were coming over to the UK from Maine briefly for a wedding and thought they might like to do the Glen Clova half – so we signed them and us up for it a month or two ago...and then thought about training.

I've run a miserable bunch of half marathons this year. I ran 1.39 at Alloa in April and at the time thought it wasn't bad considering I'd been doing only long training in preparation for the Highland Fling – had I only known that was to be my best half for ages!

After the Highland Fling I was a bit injured so was disappointed but philosophical about running the Stornoway half in 1.44, then more disappointed to run the Benbecula half in 1.44 the following week and then about a month later really disappointed to run the Harris half also in 1.44. Was I never going to run faster than 1.44 for a half ever, ever again?

At club I was enjoying Gordon's hilly off-road sessions so I forgot about roads for a while and had a late season improvement in form, taking some Vet prizes in hill races. So right about the time we signed up for Glen Clova we were involved in running the Pentland Skyline and the Run of the Mill Hill race and still not giving much thought to the roads. I tried to go out and do some speed training on my own with mixed success. Its never easy without other people. A mixture of work things and hatred of running in the dark was getting in the way of me training with the club on a Wednesday evening after we'd moved back to the Bowling Club.

So come last week I had no idea how I could possibly do in a half marathon. I could be looking at anything from 1.38 to 1.50. The only tactics I could think of were to

• not go out too fast
• do my best
• not give myself a hard time - if it was going slow, I could always
• treat it as a training run!

The last tactic is my favourite. Most of the worst races you have would usually be a pretty decent training run...

On Saturday, Emma wasn't going to run as she's coming back from a knee injury and a hill run during the week had brought the pain back. Peter was suffering with an injury in his shin, Ian had a cold and I was – well I was well-rested but untested!

The weather in Edinburgh was pretty wild; windy and wet. The Berlingo was getting buffeted as we drove over the Bridge and up the road to Kirriemuir and beyond. We got to Glen Clova in plenty of time and the sky was – if not completely clear, then nearly clear – it was only raining a wee bit and the smoke coming out of the chimney of a nearby cottage was drifting aimlessly up into the sky – almost no wind!

I held back for the first mile but still got a sore stomach in the 2^nd and 3^rd mile and was trying not to get my head in a pickle about it. I don't know what it was – it might have been dread – but it resolved itself after mile 4 and the first water station. The course was much hillier than I remembered it being but this was suiting me – in terms of catching up others if not in terms of fast splits. Every uphill I would catch and overtake people. For a while I felt really good and started even having thoughts of pbs! Sadly this was not to last. Around mile 7, after we'd turned around to head back to the Clova Hotel, reality kicked in – not in a dramatic way but just in realising that increasingly my splits were taking longer and longer. I was in a loosely packed group of men and we exchanged places on the up and downhills without much competition. There wasn't enough wind to merit trying to draught behind others so we were running along side each other. I had a couple of stabs at lifting the pace again but each time I did this it worked for a while but then left me feeling more drained, so I settled for a more even pace for the last few miles hoping to pick it up when the end was in sight. The last few miles seemed to take quite a while and I had time to study the beautiful views of snow topped hills and the sad sight of rather a lot of squashed hedgehogs on the road. They were about the size of my feet length-wise and I found myself thinking that you could make them into slippers or some kind of shoe for grip on the ice. And they'd have cute faces!

At last – after more “undulation” we rounded a corner and the end was truly in sight! I picked up the pace, according to my Garmin, from a sedate 8 min pace to 6.30 pace for the last wee bit and overtook a couple of guys who did not respond. I got over the line in just over 1.42. Well at least I've improved on 1.44 so I'm okay with that. And it was probably a really good training run...

One of the features of the Glen Clova half – apart from its beautiful scenery (if the weather gives you a break) and the very natural circular 13 mile loop of a course (no Edinburgh half marathon-type doglegs and running round traffic cones) is that you get stovies afterwards, so Peter and Ian and I re-grouped and got our stovies and got warm again in the Glen Clova Hotel. Peter had run a bit slower than usual having to be careful of his injured shin – but still ran a decent 1.24 and was hopefully not too much more injured for running. Ian had run 1.35, not his fastest by far – but not bad for having a cold. All of us were quite pleased but not ecstatic with our performances – and having established that there was no chance that we'd luck any prizes we set off for the long drive home.

There was a stunning sunset on the way home so Peter was leaning out the van window a fair bit and snapping away.

I think that's the 4^th time I've run the Glen Clova half and in recent years I've let the thought of the long drive and early sunset put me off wanting to do it, - but having revisited it I feel much more enthusiastic about it. Maybe we should get in early and book one of the hotel's bunkhouses and have a Portobello weekend up there. Then I'd be able to have a pint after the race...

Birthday Run - Mb2NB

(random scary stuff at the Pans)

There was much less messing about this morning. Woke up feeling good and the sun was shining so we decided pretty quickly that we'd go a long run. We decided to hop on the train to Musselburgh to miss out the first bit out of Edinburgh which is all pavement and not much fun - so got day return tickets to North Berwick which are only a little more than a single.

I've had a pain in the muscle on the inside of my right shin for the last couple of runs I've done so I decided to defy the fashionistas and dare to ware my lower legs Skins. It was cold but I don't like wearing tights and I think keeping the area warm probably helped as much as anything else - anyway, I had no problems at all. Apart from Peter's teasing me about looking weird and then saying "No, no you look fine" in a not very believable way.

The sun was warm but the air was cool and as we got to about Aberlady the temperature was dropping and the light was going. We went round the nature reserve and then started to realise our chances of catching the 4.20 train back to Edinburgh from North Berwick were getting thinner. We made a heroic attempt, raising the pace into and through Gullane and along into NB, running the 4 or 5 quickest miles of the day but it was too big an ask. We missed the hourly train by 6 or 7  minutes so decided that plan B. would be to find a pub and keep warm until the next train. This worked out very well and the time flew by and pretty soon we were making our way home. Despite starting at Musselburgh we still ran over 21 miles which is the longest run by some way that either of us has done in a while, but it didn't feel too bad. (Probably helped by long hill runs.)
Great day out. Looking forwards to more long training for the Fling!

Confessions of an infra-runner

the banks of the Water of Leith are pretty wet and muddy

(mouse's eye view)

This morning dawned sunny and bright. The much longed-for weekend had arrived and the running world was my oyster - the only hitch being I felt tired and lack-lustre - the toxic consequence no doubt of too much work! We got up but shillied and shallied and could not settle on a specific run. I had it in mind that I wanted to run 17 miles to bring the weekly mileage up a bit from the low 20s. Ideally off-road, ideally somewhere new. Noon found me in my pyjamas, lying on the sofa in front of the fire,  reading a book on existential therapy and death anxiety and we were no further forward. Peter growled, I growled back. He said he was going out running anyway - got changed and disappeared into the computer room where he's mixing a new mega-mix of - well I'll call it super-ambient music. A new genre! Which reminds me, someone at work yesterday told me he was only into beatless music - when I asked him how that went he delivered a long whistling moan and stalked off...

At about 2pm, after some inner struggle and down-sizing big ideas to small bite-sized chunks of reality I thought maybe I could be arsed to go my tiddliest run - and so it was that we went a short hard blast round Leith in what was now a light, cold rain. It was approximately the route I first took Peter out running before he  started running properly and burned him off on the home straight...Those were the days...there was no burning Peter off today but I felt better for getting out. 

Now I'm confused about what to do tomorrow. Had planned to go a long run today and then do the Lasswade XC tomorrow but maybe now I need a longer run tomorrow? Lets worry about that tomorrow. Today is the last day of my 43rd year and I'm slightly disappointed because if I was a year older I'd be going up an age category with all the benefits that can bring...

Coffee and Chocolate in Ikea Carpark

The beautiful weather dictated that we must run today, but we were pretty tired and had to pick up some oil for work surfaces at IKEA en route. I had the genius idea that if I got myself some kind of caffeine and sugar fix from the food market that I'd feel a lot better about the run to come. While Peter hurdled the Ikea furniture and storage units, somersaulted the Sunday shoppers and darted in and out between the shopping trolleys, I went to the Bistro at the exit and found a big bar of hazelnut chocolate amongst the smelly fish paste and meatballs, and got us two coffees and retreated to the car.

It worked well. I was still slow as hell on the run but I was in a much better mood. We ran a variation of the Red Moss race again but this time taking in West and East Kip and Scald Law as well. As you do, at the foot of West Kip we decided that we had to run every step - which was tough, and made me work. After that, obviously, we also had to run East Kip because its much easier - and after that it seemed evident that we'd have to run all of Scald Law. This hurt like hell but opened the lungs up and woke up my hill running muscles and made us feel we'd worked.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and still and cool. Peter had left his camera battery at home charging and so cursed every time he saw something nice.

Another hilly 9+ miles. I am quite glad that I'm too busy to run tomorrow because I am knackered.

To the Manor Born

Back to the Dalmeny estate today but this time armed with Amanda and a camera. We parked a bit further along than Thursday, at Cramond proper, so we could avoid the long endless windy front.

As it turned out Amanda hadn't even been up the side of the Almond for years so that made it better. Its always nice taking someone somewhere nice that they don't really know.

We showed Amanda "Eagle Crag" also apparently known as Hunter's Crag not realising that as a climber she would be straight up it without thinking twice. Peter then had to climb it too. I stuck to terra firma.

We had house envy all the way along the coast. What a lovely place that would be to live. I think Amanda and I both felt that we really should be living in Dalmeny House, but even one of the cottages down at the shore would have done us. Oh well. Last day before the clock's change so we made good use of it. Nice run out in the Autumness again. Just short of 13 miles. Another day races past...