Shortest day. Sunset and moon-rise.

I made a 'positive decision' not to make myself available for work today because, well, I really didn't want to, and it looked like the weather would be fine. The conditions that I set myself were that I made good use of the day; getting up at a decent time and going for a run and finishing off the article about Melanie Klein which I have been reading a word at a time for the last few weeks.

I didn't do to badly on the getting up. I set my alarm for 9am...and was out of bed by 10! Just an hour lying there dozing needed to galvanise myself into action. After a lot of important stuff - (playing Scrabble on-line, extended breakfast) I was out the door by 1.30pm.

Today's plan was to see what the Water of Leith path was like - if passable, run up to the canal, come back via the canal, cross the Meadows to Arthur's Seat and then run round it before coming home.
All the surfaces were pretty reasonable; mostly hardpack snow. This slowed me down and was harder work than a flat hard surface but was pretty good. It made my legs more sore than running on the hills but not as bad as road running. I wore my Inov8 roclites as an experiment. I'm kind of wondering how they would be on the Highland Fling. They were a bit heavy after a while (after they got wet) and my left knee was a bit achy but I don't know if that was the roclites or just the lumpiness of the terrain constantly throwing my feet around.

I got to the Meadows and then Arthur's Seat just as the sun was going down and then a few moments later as I was crossing the road at the far side of the seat I saw that the moon was coming up in spectacular fashion. I'd had a half ambition to get out last night and try and take pictures of the full moon and the snow with my better camera and a tripod, but hunger and cold overcame ambition and I forgot all about it. Now I was cursing my little Coolpix for its limitations. I was pretty cold but spent another 20 mins or so trying to stand absolutely still so I could get some kind of a picture of the moon which showed what I was seeing...

Just under 14 miles today. Shortest day over. In for the night! Its like the Wednesday of the year. We're right in the middle of the week but the weekend is now in sight. (In this extended metaphor, the weekend = the summer!)  Good to get it over with.

Haven't done so well on the Klein paper.

No (Cross) Country for Old Men (or me)

This time we really thought we might be going to the Borders XC but the met-office warnings grew increasingly alarming thoughout Saturday until at night they were 100% sure there would be 10 - 15 cm of snow over night. Still we didn't cancel our plans, just in case, and about 2.30am I got up and looked out the window and there was still no snow...

But this morning the world was in white again and it was still snowing and at last the Borders XC website admitted that the Peebles meet was to be cancelled.

I was relieved. It was a journey I'd rather not set out on but we had a couple of folk we were giving a lift to and would probably have tried to go if it was still on...

So we hastily made up a plan B. Plan B was to go to Arthur's Seat and run around and about, so that's what we did for a bit over 2 hours today. It was pretty grey and harsh at times but there was some quite good running with the new snow improving many of the surfaces. But on some of the bits where the ice had really set in, the snow over the top just laid a trap and we came pretty close to hitting the deck a few times.
We met the indomitable Alex Oliver out there, in shorts and with very pink legs.

It must be nearly a month since I've raced.

Icy cold long run!

Poor Mr Foxy.

Peter's photos below

Today was a work-free day in a busy week and was relatively clear of snow and ice so it seemed a necessity to get out and do a long run with the hope of maybe recovering for the cross-country on Sunday.

We kicked around the notion of getting up at dawn - not as impressive as it sounds as it was only scheduled for 8.40am today but the BBC weather website's prediction that there would be heavy rain at 9am put paid to that. I slept til I woke up at 10.30am when I could no longer ignore the fact that my bladder was going to ACTUALLY burst if I didn't do something about it. Was there rain at 9am? Who knows.

Peter slept a bit longer and then acquiesced with remarkably little argument to my desire to make a clean easy straightforward long run. Run out the door and down the coast to North Berwick as the wind would be more supportive of this than the other way and take whatever route seemed appropriate based on the weather and the light.

Our legs were a bit achy from running club last night although it was a much reduced session due to it being the awards ceremony. The wind was cuttingly cold and we both secretly doubted whether we'd really do it or bail out on a bus along the way. I was flagging quite early on so we determined to make a food and coffee stop in Prestonpans. This was remarkably successful - rocky road cake and coffee at the filling station. The woman behind the counter laughed at us and complained that our money was very cold - but was basically kind and offered to get some seats out so we could eat in the warmth of the shop. Fearing that comfort would 'unman' us we chose instead to eat our provisions outside, rigid with cold and in silence as the wind froze us to the core.

We were both much improved shortly after however and as some off-road and beach routes became available the improvement in surroundings and view also cheered us up. There was quite a stormy choppy sea crashing savagely into shore. We couldn't stop for long so all photos were taken hastily.

At Aberlady 'someone' was beginning to get 'bag-rub' so we stopped at the shop in the centre of town for some emergency Vaseline.
Then at the turn off for the wild-life sanctuary the sun had been down for a while and the light was fading a lot so regretfully we went the more sheltered, more inland, more roady route.

Nothing much more to tell. It got properly dark and we put our head-torches on so we wouldn't trip on roots in the pavement. Minutes after we got to North Berwick station the train arrived off-loading a large batch of commuters in winter coats. We were a little under-dressed and shivered our way home but the train was pretty toasty and the journey was short. We were dreading the last mile down the road to our flat but actually it was fine once we got moving again. Feel quite Gordon Ramsay about the whole thing. 24 miles (23 + 1 from the station). Job done!!!

The Gullane Loop

Where to go to avoid ice and slush? The beach of course. So we devised another afternoon adventure, this time to Gullane. This route was 1st thought of when our friends from Maine were coming over and we were thinking of what we could do to show them a good time. They were injured and over-subscribed with things to do however so we never did it. The plan was to drive to Gullane, run back towards Aberlady then go round through the wild-life reserve (respecting the wild-life of course), down onto the beach, right along to Yellowcraigs and then back via Archerfield, finishing at Falkos the Konditormeisters for some serious cake. A nice multi-terrain route of about 12 miles.

We phoned up Amanda and she'd been climbing in the morning, so was up for some afternoon running. After yesterday's slushathon the surfaces were really good and it was nice to have some honest (sometimes a little too much) dirt under our feet. We picked up the pace and my legs were hurting a bit but the whole thing was so enjoyable it was easy to forget that. The sun came out and it actually felt quite warm running along the beach. The sea had thrown up some driftwood for jumps. We got a bit lost in the dunes and paths at Gullane beach, adding some distance to what we had planned. The sun set but it was a long time til dark because the sky was so clear. We ran along on the sand and the pink and purple rocks in a warm pinky-orange glow. It was delightful.

We made it back to Gullane in the dark, just as the denizens of Gullane had collected in the town square for the ceremonial switching on of the lights as a cartload of children sang "Follow the Star". At the risk of sounding churlish  all this rather monkied with my plans of eating cake washed down with pints of tea. Falkos were open to take food away but as they were sponsoring the putting on of the lights and serving up mulled wine afterwards we couldn't sit in. We bought three cheese tongues which tided us over til we got home. Amanda met up with Lucy so stayed for mulled wine and more festivities but we were shaking with cold by this time (and I couldn't drink ) so we headed back to Edinburgh where we made the second course of lunch - to follow the cheese tongues we had cheesey rolls with bacon and cheese filling. Extraordinary!!! Phenomenal! Quite a lot of cheese...

So, partially because of Marcothon madness coming to town (even though I haven't been running every day) I find I have run my highest mileage week since the week of the Highland Fling, despite the snow.