Managed 7 miles on sat and 12 on sunday because it was just a pleasure to be out and about – well moreso on sunday as it wasnt pissing down like saturday. To be honest I dont really care about the weather its just a joy to see Murph zoom about and be happy. And im happy to be out knocking the legs around a bit, they certainly felt it for the last few days so back to just walking for the week I think. See i can be careful!
Haven’t been running in a few weeks due to injury. Seem to have torn a glute or something, well no seem about it I have torn a glute due to ….. circumstances.
I present some photos of circumstances. Luckily circumstances means that I am still walking around 8-10 miles a day without much pain so hey ho its all good everything needed a rest anyway.
Its been quite the week of weather, we’ve had the lot. been out for a few runs in it and many more walks. One of the best things about owning a dog is that it forces you out no matter how you feel you have to go (I’ve had the lurgi all week). And if we dont go and do the miles every day Murph turns into a raving lunatic. Run-wise I just got back from an 8 miler in the pissing down rain and it was great. Everything feels spot on – well apart from the usual foot problems which I have decided simply just to ignore. It doesnt matter if I run or not things hurt simply because of the walking mileage too.  I literally cant rest cos of the dog so hey ho its suck it up and keep moving time.
I believe in karma. Or essentially what goes around comes around. It works both ways, bad and good karma. Learned the hard way and seen it happen thankfully to others who deserved it (Yes I have a mean streak a mile wide)
So yesterday I had to go out mid morning and decided to fit in a quick 4 mile or so run to the Barrow mound on the cliffs as the tide was in. When I got there it was beautiful and sunny.
So I headed back and passed coming the other way a group of kids doing their Duke of Edinburgh type stuff, all with their packs on etc I met one group at a stile and the first two kids just ignored me stood there dripping with sweat and breathing hard and then a girl at the back said “wait everyone let the person through” (Im not sure that they knew what gender I was due to the long hair) and so I hopped over and thanked them and ran on.
A mile or so later I got to the beach and found one of them had dropped their sleeping mat. So what do you do? I was in a rush as I had an appointment to keep, I had already run 3 or 4 miles hard pace and they were headed in the opposite direction and all uphill. You know what – the tipping point of making me grab it and run as hard as I could to catch them (they move fast these damn kids) over 2 miles or so at 6-7 minute uphill pace (good training hey) was that the girl had called out to let me through and they did.
So I caught them eventually utterly fucked and they were I think amazed that I had done that for one of them – all I could gasp was “Its a bastard sleeping out without a mat” and trotted off – thankfully downhill and home. Ok so I was a little late. So what – And thats karma. Just the little things can come back to you. And maybe those kids saw a small gesture from a stranger and might just try it themselves.
No not hell but the beach, major advantage of coastal running on days like this is the abundant salt. Not so good the rest of the year when it wrecks your shoes apparently.
It was extremely cold and the windchill was a killer but worth it to get out to see some cool stuff….
The plan continues – run longer, take a day or two off to rest ankle then run longer. Each time the ankle takes longer to hurt more, it was fine til around 12 this time. Everything feels stronger. Might be the yoga (yep I’m still doing it although the breathing side of it mystifies me. I wanna breathe when I need oxygen dammit I cant wait for my arms to be over there ——> ) might be the general stretching, might be the work on the bike (and parents exercise bike – cheers for that even though I broke it immediately) might be the wobble board. Might be a lot of things but I’m feeling more optimistic about things holding together.
While checking out my ankles – yeah we all do it I’m sure. I’ve noticed that my right leg is considerably bigger than my left, I did spot it a while back but its definitely more pronounced, Im gonna look like a leggy version of popeye at this rate. I guess its from the right leg doing all the hard work – all the pushing up onto rocks and taking the impact when dropping off them. In fact any time I need to drive up anything the right leg does all the work as I protect the left foot and ankle. Cant be helped so Ill just look weird in shorts I guess!
Anyway enough waffling about my wonky body, bring on the photos!
A quick 7 miler to Witches and back racing tide and darkness. And around the 3 mile mark it suddenly went gloomy as hell and then the mizzly rain turned to full on hailstones
Within another mile though I literally hit the edge of the storm like a wall which I had been heading into and through and now going my way! I stayed on the edge all the way back.
So even when things seem pretty dark and shitty there’s always the sun … You just have to keep going til you find it.
13 miles yesterday down to Ogmore and back. When the sun shines and I’m going this way I always think of Soak. I think I’ve mentioned before that when I’m cold, tired and hurting on a run I always imagine that sunshine is brought courtsey of Soaks as a gift. I had sunshine yesterday.
As ever I stopped where we used to play fetch the pebble for endless hours
Sometimes it’s just running and sometimes it’s something else.
All these days run into one amorphous mess so I think this was thursday or friday, does it really matter? It was a run and judging by the photos and where I was it was around the 11 mile mark. So in running order …..
Ran the cliffs again xmas morning and it was a beautiful one and all for just me!
First I delivered some xmas carrots to the guys – They look so happy together here but note the flattened ears on the left? They had just squabbled over the carrots so I withdrew all carrot priveliges until they played nicely
I had nothing for the seagulls but they were amusing themselves by surfing. There were hundreds catching the waves and I swear they were doing it for fun only taking off if a wave actually broke on them
The rest of the run was spectacular as the sun came out to give me some nice shots
Blue Green Gold Grey, Awyr Maes Tywod Aarreg 