Short and Sharp week

At 22.4 miles, this has been my lowest mileage week in some time. But what it lacked in quantity it certainly made up in quality. I have done many weeks this year where 6 miles would be the minimum length run I would do. This week not one run even reached the 6 mile mark.

So on Monday I was feeling pretty tired still after working the Sunday. So as well as having Sunday off, I had Monday off too from running. But I did do a small circuit session which felt good. I'm thinking over the winter I am going to try and do a circuit session once a week.

On Tuesday I headed for Langside hill. After a mile warm up I was gearing myself up for my first rep when I saw a group of runners just about to do the hill too. One of the runners shouted my name and it turns out it was David from Bella harriers. We had a chat and it turns out we ran exactly the same time at the National Cross Country relays the previous week.  He did invite me to join them but they were heading back to their club at that point and I was set on doing this hill session. Nice thought though. So after the first rep, I was by myself trying to power up this short sharp hill. I managed ten reps before heading back.

On Wednesday I did a 4.5 mile loop. Just as I was turning the first corner, a car flew round through a big puddle, soaking me up to my waist. Most people would be ranting and raving. I actually found it really refreshing and had a big grin on my face. Then Thursday with the club we were back beside the roads beside Roukenglen park for 5 times 1km reps. I started with the B group and kept with them for the first 1/4 of the rep as it was a gradual up hill. The rest of the kilometer is down then flat so they were all pulling away. At the finish I was a good 20 seconds off the pace and thought that I couldn't really go that much faster as I did it in 3.55. So I dropped down to the C group. I did the second rep and myself and Andrew were out ahead doing it in 3.51. Third rep Andrew took off and I was behind in 3.47. 4th rep I was beginning to feel it so decided to hang back and go for it in the last rep. So I did the 4th in 4.05. Then the last rep I managed 3.38! I really did nail it. When I asked Jim from the B group what they were averaging, he said 3.37. Hindsight as they say is a wonderful thing. In this case even though I was 20 seconds off, I was thinking after its probably best to stick with the B's than be out ahead in the Cs.  This night was the first outing for my sister in law who was trying out the club for the first time. She seemed to enjoy it, and was already scoping out the other sessions they do! So good news.

Then Friday Alex was feeling a lot better. So we did our 2 mile loop round Gogarburn. This week it had been raining a lot and we were kicking up loads more mud than usual so it was great fun.

Another Saturday working. I was tempted to do the Pentlands again but I wanted to save myself for Sunday's adventure. I met up with Jill and Gary from the club and we drove down to Muirkirk to run up the Cairn Table hill. The idea of this was to get a good training run for in for Tinto for Gary and me, while Jill came along for the fun. And fun it was!  Gary and Jill are well better runners than me. So Gary took off while I kept with Jill till about half way up.  It was extremely boggy, although quite a bit of it was runable especially in the first mile. Then it starts to have steep bits which then turned into quite a rocky section before the top. It was just over 2 miles to the top which Gary did in 25 minutes, Jill 27 minutes and I was 30 minutes. I forgot how tough running uphill was. My calfs were burning and heavy breathing after the first mile. Then even the power walking was sore. So it is all good practice. We had a wee jog about the top looking at the amazing 360 views. It was such a nice day, no wind, cloudless sky, so you could see for miles.  Then we jogged down to where the path splits and ran the long way back down. It was again really boggy but great fun. Gary absolutely hammered it and is looking in great shape for Tinto. As I say it is just constant bog and I nearly fell 4 times but somehow managed to stay up right. When we reached the path we kept it steady and were running through all the puddles to wash our shoes and soaking Jill who was trying to avoid all the puddles. ha!

So a fun Sunday outing and looking forward to Tinto in a couple of weeks time.