Misty Half Marathon, burning beans bushes and some providential parking.

My Muddy Valentine

I saw a thing in the Guardian about how the selfie is just another sign of how we're all evil now and definitely doomed so I thought I'd speed up the process of doom and get it over with.

Chris Hoy Leg

Peter was off to organise the Water of Leith half today. I had bowed out of helping, not fancying de-stressing on a Saturday by sitting in a car pumping results into a computer.

So I headed down the coast to see what was going on at the beach.

Arriving in Gullane it was raining a little bit and I felt like I'd already been up too long so I popped into Falko's right away for a cinnamon pastry and a coffee.

After that I got the magic eyes. Peter gets them all the time. I had to keep stopping to take photographs of the intense reds of the heinz beenz trees and the singing orange and greens of the lichen on stones and trees.

I know you're thinking coffee doesn't really do this to you - but I hardly drink any these days and it's a better drug than you think....

Down at the beach you could see there had been high winds and high tides. There were clumps of grass hanging off the wooden bridge across the marsh at Aberlady. There were new ponds where there never was before. The coast-line was altered where the sea had chopped a new line around the sand-dunes.

Most markedly though the beach and the sea and the sky were just empty and deserted. The tide was way out and the sand was wet so half the time it looked like water too. It was like running on a big mirror.

I was going to run a tentative ten to test out the funny leg, but the funny leg was fine except once when I put the brakes on too hard and once when I was running on a significant camber. Instead I decided to extend the trip down the coast to Yellowcraigs and then run back to Gullane via Dirleton. As I arrived back at Falko's I was just shy of 13 miles on the Garmin so I ran round the green until I had just over 13.1 miles.

I was in a great mood - my leg was fine and it was a nice run. I stopped off at Tesco's and bought more than I intended. 5 bags of shopping. Then my heart sank as I drove up the road and I saw that the place was crawling with Hibbies. There would be no parking anywhere near the flat for sure and I had 5 bags of shopping and half the stuff needed to go in the freezer. I double-parked out-side the flat thinking I'd run up the stairs with my shopping and then go and park half a mile away in a Hibs free zone and run back. Then I saw a guy who was parked right outside our front door standing next to his car and looking speculatively at me. "Do you want this parking space?" he gestured. "Do ultra-runners shit in the woods?" I gestured back.

He said to give him a couple of minutes, which gave me time to get turned around and in position for a swift bit of parking. It was a tight space but I knew the force was with me and I landed it first time. Even as I parked carloads of slitty-eyed envious hibs fans drove slowly by giving me evils. Or maybe that was just their faces. In case you think my hatred of the hibs is anything to do with football it's not. It's just that they come and park on my street for their filthy matches and then I can't park my car and go home. And then later on they sing.

Anyway, getting given that parking space made me think the world is a good place after all. I was delighted. Better stretch, I guess and shower and all that.

Funny Leg goes to the Lagoons

These top 2 photos were from the other night, nothing to do with anything, just a good sky...

Selfie in Mussy

I suppose you know I'm not going to be able to let the subject of my funny leg drop until it is better. After Friday's run it was really pretty stiff for the rest of the day and not great yesterday. Still, I'm convinced it's not a running injury, it's a yoga injury, because running doesn't hurt it at first, it takes a while to hurt it. I also had this thought that since it didn't hurt until after the first hour of running on Friday, maybe I could restrict myself to running for less than an hour at a time and it'll still get better and I'll be able to run. So that's my rationale. I'm past the anger and denial phase and into doing a spot of bargaining.

Last night we were at out friends Ben and Alison's for a bit of a soiree. We ate before we got there but it didn't stop Peter having a healthy dose of pizza. I resisted but when there was chocolate pudding and ice-cream I had to have some. Not running and eating chocolate pudding is a bit of a frightening road - at the end of that road is a team of builders and paramedics breaking a hole in the outside wall of the flat because they can't get me through the door to go and get my gastric band fitted. I don't mean to catastrophize but...

Anyway, Peter was off to run the 7 reservoirs race in the Pentlands this morning. His preparation was  fastidious. Two teas - normal dinner plus pizza plus chocolate pudding and ice-cream, accompanied by beer and then red wine and a short night's sleep. I don't envy him. I thought I would go and do the 5 miler round the Musselburgh Lagoons as it's nice and flat.

It was a sunny morning and warmer than I imagined it was going to be so soon had to take off my buff and gloves and a top and wrap it round my waist and I still wished I had shorts on rather than tights. I got in one of these foolish races with a woman (I think she might even be a Porty but I'm so out of touch with things there I'm not sure) where you just decide, based on nada, that you should be going faster than the other person  - so instead of enjoying the run round the front with the sunshine and the blue sea I was gasping for breath. However, I beat her round the Lagoons road by a good 10 yards so it was worth it. Then, happily, she went another way, and I was able to get my breath back and my heart-rate back down.

The good thing was my leg wasn't really bothered by any of this. It felt the same as it did when I started. It's quite swollen and puffy but it's alright.

I googled yoga knee injuries last night just to see if there was any wisdom out there for me. I don't think I saw what is wrong with my leg - it's not really the knee but the wee muscle on the left hand side above and to the side of my knee, however, there was plenty frightening stuff out there about yoga injuries. They particularly recommend that you don't try and force yourself into the lotus position because if your hips are tight and won't flex you're apt to tear the meniscus in your knee. I could do without that. At the Ashtanga yoga I've been going to up until recently, I was the last person in the class whose legs resisted all attempts to go anywhere near a lotus position, and I might keep it that way. I was also the last man standing to not be able to touch their toes. Other people were just showing off, honestly, wrapping their arms around the back of their legs and touching their heads onto their shins. What kind of a sport is that? But I liked the Iyengar yoga, and I never got hurt there. It's finished until January now but I'll go back then.

Very nice to run 5 miles and I feel a whole lot better. Tomorrow I might have to vary it with a swim. We'll see how the leg is.

Darn Leg

Well, my funny leg felt alright when I rolled out of bed this morning, and the weather said sunny today and not so much tomorrow, so I made Peter bed-tea and we set off for Gullane to try a 10 miler. I figured there was no way I should try for a long run tomorrow, so better to test it out today. There are a few opportunities for bailing out early if need be.

It started off with just the mildest feeling of stiffness. By 3 miles it was more pronounced but in no way bad. At 6 miles we were on Gullane beach and that would have been the time to call it a day probably, but I didn't want to. It was cold and there was a stiff wind blowing but it was bright too and everything looked great and all the cobwebs were long since blown off.

We ran through the Jimmy Saville woods, probably the first time since the Jimmy Saville scandals. There was no sign of Jimmy or his friends. Hopping over tree roots tipped my funny leg over into proper discomfort. About 8.5 miles in I finally stopped and walked, and then walked and jogged the rest of the way.

Well shouting at it hasn't worked. I have no idea what's up with it really. It seems funny it isn't sore right out of the box but only once I've run a few miles on it. Do I really have to start swimming or something again?

Back in Gullane we ran into Scott and Amanda who'd been out running too, and a lady stopped us and said she knew us because she read our blogs!!!
We were fiercely hungry so had the first cheese tongues we've had in ages.

God Skies, a dead mouse, some passing geese and a sore leg.

Yesterday's dawn sky was bright with large angel wings. My funny leg felt better but I thought I'd go out a cautious run - just once round the seat and then if it was fine I could always add an extra loop in.
I took my camera as the sky looked so nice, although soon after dawn it greyed over.
As I stepped out the front door the first thing I saw was a tiny dead mouse. It looked like it had been caught in a trap and then tossed carelessly out of a window onto the pavement below.
I could have seen it as a sign;

As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods,
They kill us for their sport.

King Lear Act 4, scene 1, 32–37 

At first my leg seemed to be working fine. It was a bit stiff, so  up at Arthur's seat I stopped to take a picture of a passing flock of geese and then had a quad stretch with a small tree for support. After this things went literally uphill but metaphorically downhill. All the way up the road round the seat the muscle just above my knee got tighter and tighter and all the way downhill and home it was stiff as a board and I had to just keep my pace as even as possible to minimise the discomfort. I am sick about it. I want to go a long run at the weekend. I have had a few bits of friendly advice to just take it easy, blah, blah, blah, blah, so I'll say it now. I WANT TO GO A LONG RUN AT THE WEEKEND. I DON'T WANT TO GO CHRISTMAS SHOPPING OR TO TESCOS OR TO THE STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON MEETING I STUPIDLY SAID I'D GO TO THIS AFTERNOON. THE ONLY REDEEMING FEATURE OF THIS HORRIBLE TIME OF YEAR IS THE ODD SUNNY DAY WHEN YOU CAN GET OUTSIDE FOR A FEW HOURS AND BREATHE A LITTLE. THE REST OF IT IS PISH.
That is all.

Quad Injury

It was an unexpectedly nice morning and since I cut my run short on Saturday and only did a wee slow one yesterday, I thought I'd go out a brisker run up the Water of Leith and back along the canal.

It was frosty and cold but the sun was out. I felt duty  bound to carry a camera, so stopped for some shots along the way.

Early on the muscle above and on the inside of my right knee was kind of tight but no problem, but by the time I got to the King's Theatre at 9+ miles that muscle felt like it was cramping and the muscles connected to it were starting to hurt. What the hell? I stopped and stretched my quads and my hip flexors and got going again...no improvement...in fact it kept getting worse. At the Arthur's Seat end of the Meadows it was too stiff and sore and strange so I walked for a while. Going downhill was much much worse so I had to walk from Arthur's Seat all the way home, which was cold and boring. Please let it go back where it came from...