Friday after work it was time to head to the beach for a quick 5 miles or so with my friend Claire and her dog Tilly aka ratdog. Its good to see her improving slowly despite not being able to get out much lately. It does help shes about 7 stone soaking wet and many years younger than me – she wants to run a fellrace this summer and to be honest she’s a natural and gonna cruise it – well assuming I can actually get her to run uphill at some point.
So Tilly can keep up …..
Brought a couple of bin bags to clear some plastics too. This is why I need friends, Im not that bright it took her to point out the easiest way of hauling at all back. I never thought of this …
I’ve never actually run with someone else apart from racing and that’s been what half a dozen times. But if someone wants to get fit by running through mist, rain and mud who am I to argue. And you know what I didn’t mind it. It was sort of a run/walk (uphills) but the odd thing is that she appears to have 2 paces – walk and flat out. And by flat out I mean 7 min/mile pace and less which was quite the shock to my usual 8 or 9 min paced legs.
It was essentially fartleks determined by the terrain. To be honest I needed to change a few things anyway as with the hill sprints in the week I don’t think just slamming in high mileages week after week is probably the most effective way to train so some hill & speedwork isn’t going to hurt (until I deck it somewhere)
Well the beach isnt new – though admittedly ephermeral but I have got some new stuff to show off!
Firstly in an attempt to cushion my feet a little more I’m trying out Hokas
Challenger ATR2 or something
I want to see if the extra cushioning helps. I’ve run in them a few times now (and am wearing to work too) and yes the cushioning is pretty amazing. They do lack in grip and stability on technical rocky sections as I found out last night. Unlike my Xtalons theres no connection with what I’m running on and I didn’t have the confidence I usually do on the trickier bits. Maybe that will come with time. However for longer runs where theres less trickery and more grass I think these could well be perfect.
Last night I did 7 miles after work down to Witches Point and back as I was feeling good, the sun shone and … I just wanted too. Bit longer than I planned but hey when the suns shining make hay! I don’t appear to be suffering any after effects today so fingers crossed either i’m on the mend or the Hokas are doing some good.
On the way back I bumped into old and new friends – The calf was curious but the mother not so. I took it easy through the herd, kept an eye on the buggers and got out alive (As one local very nearly didnt a few years ago)
Some amazing homecrafted bracelets! My photo skills dont do justice to how awesome they are – one says Ultra Badass and the other says f**ckit do epic sh*t and I cant decide which i prefer so I wear both! My friends at the pub think theyre great but especially the story behind them. Who knew blogging got ya friends and cool pressies!
Last weekend I headed for St Davids in West Wales to camp with some friends for one of their birthdays. Of course I also intended to run. We were going to spend saturday walking the coastal path so I headed out ahead to run for a while and then wait til they caught up.
It became apparent to me after a mile or so the ankle is pretty much screwed at the moment. I waited for them. I walked the seven or so remaining miles with them. I decided this is no good and it’s actually time to really rest it now. Enough is enough. Plus with some family stuff coming up its time to focus on important stuff, running is just running. Probably a good chance to recharge mentally too.
We saw some great sights though!
The heather was the most amazing colours!Islandy thingsHey look a coastal path ….Seals!More heatherThe bay where I waited for them – Was so hot I even swamMore baysFriends with alcohol are the best friends
Continuing yesterdays theme of made up words that arent and the nature of ephemerality todays run at the beach saw a low tide to explore. Over seven miles I took a poke around at things you can only see a few times a day if the tides are low enough.
On running matters it feels now like 7 or 8 miles is an “easy” run, the usual first few miles of meh I’m not feeling this and then into The Flow (TM Sergei) So I’m guessing I’m slowly progressing even if I have no measurements.
So today I found the following things only seen around low tide
#spottedtherock You can only see these two at low tide. Nothing special about them but I like the feng shui!Seaweed! I keep meaning to bring a knife and big bag down with me to gather some to make some laver bread … but I always forget until I see it#spottedthecave This is gouged into the base of Witches Point so only visible at low tide. I’ll have to have a nose up there one dayAt low tide you get the widest expanses of sand to run onFriendship however is not ephemeral. I met my buddies again who gave each other a nuzzle and nibbleCan you see the stealth heron?
Blue Green Gold Grey, Awyr Maes Tywod Aarreg 