Clock change weekend

Yesterday was the Cumbernauld XC relays and the second last of the club championship races. But I am becoming increasingly protective of my weekends, and the thought of spending a precious Saturday freezing in a field in Cumbernauld was too much for me. I opted out. Instead I went for what seemed a 'long' run, up the Water of Leith and back down the canal, which can be 12 or 14 miles depending how you play it. It was kind of nice and autumnal but I was tired and my legs were sore and I cut the corner through town from the King's theatre, wading through the students on Forrest Road and dodging tourists on the bridges, bringing it down to a nice round 11.6 miles. Then I had a big lunch and a sleep on the couch. Before I even had a shower. You always know you've had a good sleep when you wake up and discover you've been drooling...

Today I'd had a lovely long sleep due to the clocks going back. We headed out of town to the coast. Of course we did. It felt cold and it was an effort to get out the van when we got to Gullane. I've created a new regime for myself where I do burpees every day. They're so hard I started with 3 a day and I've just upped it to 9 (after several weeks of build up)  - so to get ourselves in the mood to get going we did 9 burpees in the car park. Then we got going. To start with it was a bit grim and grey but when we got down to Aberlady bay we were starting to enjoy it. There were lots of nice little details which Peter probably caught with his camera. Tiny red and orange mosses. Clever shell colours. A rusty cannister. A coke bottle full of what looked like milk. A lightbulb. Sea treasure...you know?

Peter was set on going for a swim, whereas I have mentally hung up my suit for the year. I had brought it but had been sure from the first encounter with that cold West wind that I wouldn't be going in a swim. P felt he just had to though, so I went for a paddle. The thermometer says the sea was only a couple of degrees colder than the air temperature but it was really painful on my feet. I don't really know why. I got used to it but some cheeky waves came along and wet my shorts, which was a pity as we still had to go to Tescos and I didn't have a change of clothes.

So it's the first evening of GMT and the window is all black. Here comes the winter.