Kilpatrick Sandwich with not much filling

The week started with a run in the Kilpatrick hills and ended in the Kilpatrick hills.

Monday was my last day of my holidays so I wanted to make the most of it. I looked at the weather forecast and it was to get worse as the day went on so I got up early, checked what time the sunrise was and timed it to arrive at the foot of the hills at half 8. I headed up the long road hill and found I was walking earlier than usual. I still managed bits of running after. I was surprised to get to the top, 1.6 miles in 19.47 which is not far off my PB of 19.25. As I continued, I realised that although there was a flatish bit after, I was still ascending. In fact it doesn't actually stop ascending till the 2.2 mile mark. I had a look at Runnning ahead after for the elevation to find that it was 1000ft which is about 300 meters. I know the elevation isn't always accurate with these programs but I find with hills they tend to be more accurate than in cities. After the 1.6 mile mark I actually felt stronger and was able to run all the way up to the end of the road, round on to the small hill. Then down to the resevoir. As I was descending off the small hill down to the resevoir I landed awkwardly and felt the inside of my knee twist. It was fine to run on but sore if I landed in the same awkward position which didn't happen much for the rest of the run so I didn't think that much of it.

It was icy in places but it was all easily avoidable. I decided then not to go along the side of Greenside Resevoir but to go up Cochno Hill. The grass was a lot longer than I remember and not really any bits I could run until I reached the path at the top. Last time I just turned right along the path and down to the resevoir. This time I decided to go to the top of the hill so turned left. I must have been about 30 metres from the top when I saw three runners just coming over the top of the hill. The first people I had seen on the hills all day.

I was getting ready to say Hi when they came closer I realised one of them was Marco who I'd met at the run at Pollok Park the previous Friday and was out with a couple of his Garscube buddies.  They were heading down and then up the slacks which is where I was going to go after going to the top of Cochno. So I decided to join them and watched Marco flying down Cochno showing us how it was done. They were just going for an easy run so we walked most of the slacks. When we reached the trig point he said if I would like to join them for the rest of their run. But I decided 7 miles that was enough for my first run in the hills in a few months. So I headed south while they headed west. I had a good descent considering the ice and managed to complete the descent in 15.31 so thats my new PB as before it was 16.11.

Afterwards that niggle was getting sorer but I couldn't figure out if it was an injury I could run through or not. I went for a 4 miler in the evening and I could feel it at times so I decided after to lay off running until it was fine. Tuesday and Wednesday I had off and by Thursday it felt like it had gone so I went to the club for a session round the Merries. I decided to join the C group again tonight because it was icy and wanted to be careful with the leg. Good news was that it was fine. To be honest I'm crap with what things are called in the leg apart from calf, hamstring quad so I still don't really know what it was. It did feel more like a joint thing.

I took Friday off too just to be sure. Saturday a nice layer of snow came so I ran down to park run in my mircospikes. Did registration which was challenging with the cold. When I used to do registration I hardly recognised anybody. While I still don't know a lot I am recognising more and more names. One of which this week was Colin Knox whose blog I've been reading for a while. Unfortunately didn't get to chat as it was during the busy time.  I decided after to do the park run as it's a good session at the moment with the 10 hills which I didn't expect to be included in this weeks report!

Today I headed back to the Kilpatricks. As the pavements looked dodgy so it actually looked safer to head for the hills with my microspikes. What a glorius day! Looking at the hills from the bottom most of the snow had gone but as I headed up the road, it was still a thin layer. Today I was slightly slower to the 1.6 mile mark taking 20.22 but ran for longer till I had to walk. Then the run turned awesome. The snow was still there as the sun hadn't got to the other side of the hills. The loch was frozen over and it was just a pleasure to be running in such amazing surroundings. I got to the end of the road where I usually turn right up the small hill. On a non snow day there is a path which goes over this hill but today it was untouched snow. As I pondered what to do I realised that my feet were getting cold just standing there as I was only wearing one pair of socks. So I decided just to turn back down the road which means I still covered 6 miles with a good amount of ascent.

I have been thinking a lot about ascent, training, the fling course and pacing which I plan on posting something about in the future. For now I'm planning another few jaunts on the WHW including a group run which Marco suggested going on at the end of the month. I realise that his training pace is probably my tempo pace but hopefully there will be "slower" people there and even if there isn't - just absorbing as much knowledge and tips as I can before blowing up, will be a training run worth while. I'd rather make the mistakes on the training runs than in the actual race.