Still out there

Once again I realise im running far far more than im blogging.  In fact I’m back to running a fair deal again, its a 50 mile week again without counting the dog walks too. But the important thing isnt the mileage its the time spent outside with Murph. I was considering funning a fell race yesterday and was about to then realised that I would prefer to go for a long run with Murph rather than leave him home and race.  And it was the right decision.  It was better to be in a forest with him than up a mountain without him.  Priorities change I guess although I am pondering the future too – I mean where does all this training go?  To be honest it’ll probably be next year before I run any races and that will probably be Preseli up first but then what?  The thought of a 50 miler intrigues me as its the next logical step but I know how blown out I am on 32. Who knows!  Less introspection more photos they cry!

Gotta love the clods

And the sunsets

Happy dog is happy

This …. is progress.  Thats a field full of sheep – thats one dog with strong hunting instincts behaving perfectly. training is paying off

Give me a treat I have just run several miles

A dog in a forest is better than no dog up a mountain

 

Gotta keep your eyes open

Running on the beach as usual, the skies are blue and the scene is tranquil and it’s nice just to cruise around a bit enjoying a bit of late afternoon sun. The scene is as below.

 

Then I looked out to sea and saw it incoming at pace! It looked spactacular but i wasn’t hanging around to find out!

Run! That thing contains much water!

 

Mile by Mile

Finally a run longer than 10 miles.  As I’m learning to ensure my body can take the increasing load I’m trying really hard to listen to it. Finally it seemed to be telling me go for a bit longer – So I did the 13 miles to Ogmore by Sea and back along the beach and cliffs.  It was good to be out for a few hours and the better news is that it didn’t feel particulary difficult and there was little in the way of an aftermath. So all I need to do is keep listening to the body and I’ll be fine!  Oh and in other news I’ve been vegetarian for a few months – I dont know why but I kept forgetting to mention it. So far so good and enjoying it. To be fair I didn’t each much meat anyway so it’s not a big change an I’m learning how to change diet and stay fuelled =)

The miles pass by pretty quickly when you’re running here

Love finding a rainbow

Southerndown beach from above

Had fun traversing these odd pools in the sand

Arghhhh tech!

No its ok im not injured – I survived half term but Im miles behind in my blogging and then google decides to kill my online photos for last friday – I know they are there because it taunted me with a single stylised image

So I ran thurs and fri but these are the photos I have left!

Friday was actually a slightly longer run at 10 miles. I feel things are coming back together nicely but I’m determined not to push too hard too fast again and end up injured

So nice try google but I will prevail!

Looking purty on thursday

Clouds on thurs

And from friday – At least the one image google returned to me (I will find them I swear) was a good one – I met a new friend – the hermit crab

Couldnt resist

It was tuesday not today so nice and slow and no harm done cos I just had to get out when the sun shone. See you after the weekend!

You can see why I was out

Blue skies in all directions

Some epic clouds for SRG

I’ll taper tomorrow

When the suns shining make hay! And tapering is overrated anyway. And when you see the photos you may agree!  Only seven miles along the back and back along the cliffs purely for the joy of being outside in the sun and alive =)

Tides out, lets play

More cliff snot!

Looking back at the playground from Witches

Witches Point from the first Cwm

Shadows on the sea

Next up – Cornwall!

Moody and magnificent

No not me but the beach last night had a weord glow all of its own. I got to witness it while trundling seven miles at around 10.30 pace which is unheard of for me on a beach run.

 

Snot Rocket!

So I did indeed come down with a cold. It’s an everpresent danger of working in multiple primary schools with hundreds of snot ridden, coughing little monsters.  This explains my lethargy last weekend I think. So for 3 days I laid off pretty much everything but work. I figured I might as well go in and cough all over the little bastards as revenge.

Then yesterday I felt an improvement plus it was springlike and sunny when i got home from work. I know I’ve already declared the start of spring around 15 times already this year but ladies and gentlemen I swear THIS IS IT.  It was warm enough to go out in shorts and tshirt for a cliff run!

Off I ran and everything felt great including whatever bit of me creates snot as it was determined to join in the party! The legs were awesome after 3 days rest (reminder – rest is good) and I carved out 5 miles along technical track and cliffs (Ok I finished with a bit of road because I wanted to pop into see my parents who (Yes mum you gave me your cold not vica versa))  at 10 min mile pace which is unheard of for me considering the number of stiles and walls I cross.

View from the cliffs

Path back towards the coast

Thats spring weather for ya

Started tonights run in bright sunshine

But wait .. what is this ominarse looking cloud

Hey look at the bottom of the ominarse cloud, its got little rain showers out at sea

Hey look its getting closer!

At this point the light went super weird and the rain started piling down. Which wasn’t too bad as it was kind of warm anyway. The beach looked really cool but it was impossible to caputure the feeling on a camera but I tried

Best I could do!

Since I’ve grown my hair out again this is the view I get when it rains and the hair sticks to my face. Note the visibility enhancing parting.

As I was running back the sun came out so I knew it was ….. rainbow time!

4 weeks of weather all rolled into 4 miles

To think I almost didn’t

Got home from work and it was cold, blowing hard and looked like rain. I was sooooooo close to staying in the warm and having soem food, maybe do some stretching, take it easy. But I knew deep down I wanted to go out and would love it once I did. It’s the first step. So off I went into the wind for a quick 4 mile run.

The bridge building continues apace, now they’re chucking rocks in because its better to break an ankle on an unsteady rock than get your precious shoes and clothes muddy…. sigh

Anyway there was just about enough sand to run the mile stretch before the tide swept me away

Note narrow strip of sand – GO!

I found I can now cruise even into the wind at around 9 min miles on the sand. On the way back I was doing 8 no problems.  I’m only doing short stints like that as I don’t want to blow up anything in my legs so don’t worry I’m being careful and listening to my body!

Some cool clouds for SRG

The view back from the fields on the way home