7.52AM on a dim sunday morning in October it was complete. 2000 miles in a calender year for the Murph and I. The murphometer is full.
292 days. 2000 miles. 1 packet of cheese biscuits to celebrate. And then we ran on. What else was there to do?
Along the way we saw some stunning sunrises
We chased a lot of birds
We ran a lot on the beach under beautiful clouds
We ran through the fields under beautiful clouds
We climbed up to look at more clouds
We posed in the sun
We ran at sunset
We found some cool fungii
And when we hit 2000 we shared a packet of cheese biscuits – does life get any better?
When I say shared I mean Murph ate nearly all of them. He deserves it. I’m so proud of him, he’s come a long way in so many different ways, we both have.
Yes yes its been a month since I wrote anything. It’s because we all live in this huge vacuum right now and let’s face it writing about running isn;’t that important …. or is it? There should be more time to write now than ever. We are certainly out and about enough. But there still doesn’t seem to be enough time for everything. The amount of time you have to do things is relative to what you actually do – ie There’s not enough time to do eveything so just do the bits you like. I’m rambling now.
The thing is I like writing these – I’m enjoying it now, stretching the old cerebral muscles a bit too never hurt anyone. So why don’t I? Hmmm
Anyway Murph and I have been out and about ignoring the lockdown in a safe manner – we are stealth. Now the evenings have drawn out we take our duty to wander in the fields unseen very seriously. This has led to a surge in the progress of the Murphometer – I bet you all forgot about that didn’t ya. So with 5 months down we have reached 941 miles – the target of 2000 by the end of the year is looking most reachable – yay for corvid I couldn’t have done it without you! (this is of course tongue in cheek – I do not condone pandemically inclined viruses)
Up from 500 at start of April!
Running has tailed off while I fix a few injuries – in reverse to everyone else I prefer downtime in the summer when it’s not fair to run a dog in the heat. As you can tell from the murphometer though we’re still walking several miles a day though and I’ve started on some weights, flexibility and core strength work plus even a foray back into yoga. Whether all this lasts past lockdown who knows but we can try.
So what did we get up to then …. bring on the photos
I got to play in the surf with my friend!
I got a bone at the beach! Much surprise!
We chilled in the buttercups
Always the best views
Stood on my favorite roller a bit so i could keep an eye out for furries
Dad even took me to work with him – I’m not impressed with offices but everyone said how handsome I am
This is Frank – He’s a duck in case you can’t tell – he lives in my garden now (it’s technically not my garden but … well it is really)
This is my “Shhhh I’m focused” look
New fence I’m not allowed to touch – Dad says it’s definitely working as he tested it to see if it would hurt me – he said a bad word
A little bit of that. Where does the time go? I swear it was only a week since I last posted and its more like 2 or 3. In between we’ve been covering some miles – walking and running. I was being so careful this time to not rush back and just continue the injury cycle – and then i go and roll my ankle in a field anyway. But one of the joys of owning a dog is that you don’t get to really rest up – you always get to do active recovery. So whatever the weather or how the body feels I make sure Murph gets his exercise. Injuries are frustrating but I’ve learned a lot about coping with them. Mainly by signing up for more races. Well i couldn’t not sign up ofr the Preseli Ultrabeast – I had to reluctantly pass on it last year as I was just a little too injured with the 50 miler I had planned but this year I’m aiming to start a race uninjured (some hope)
Morning struts and a camouflaged dog
Like two ships passing in the … err afternoon
Just glad to be out – When i look back at the photos I cant even remember the day or whether we were running or walking.
The path back from the beach at dusk
These are our favourite fields – In winter they are muddy and kinda meh but we’ve made our own path around teh edges so we can keep going – In spring and summer they are the best place ever for zoomies
We headed off into the wilds – well it was a few miles from home but we know places where no-one else goes and we can get some hill training done without interruptions
Plus our secret riverbank is somewhere to get some play done
X marks the dog – I aint moving my butt until you promise to take me with you – wherever it is
Every time I feel like im getting into a groove something like flu kicks in. This week has been mainly a writeoff, to be fair the flu didnt properly kick in until later in the week but last weekend saturdays run was around 10 miles and I felt amazing. Then on sunday everything was broke. Just felt bleuuurgh from the off. So you know what, I walked a lot of it, we did 6 miles or so but half run half walk and normally I cant get away from that “cheating” feeling when I walk but I figure its better to be out there doing something than nothing at all. I know Murph would prefer it!
So with 3 months to the first ultra and with a few fell races in between I feel like I cant get a solid training block started … and then i realise I havent really stopped and the fitness is there anyway so whats the worry.
Technically I shouldnt go out and run today but y’know…. techincally we’re all dead one day so im gonna seize this one
We’re still out there. And we’re just enjoying being out and training. By training I just mean running when we feel like it – which for Murph would be every day if he could but for his old man it means when I know the body can take it. No matter because we can always walk anyway!
It really is such a joy to be out with a dog again, I think I’d forgotten how much pleasure you can get just by making an animal so happy. Gotta admit Soaks is probably up there watching and thinking Thank God he never made me run like that, she was definitely a walking dog. But Murphy was born to run (to be fair its his genetics) and watching him bounce around and be a general lunatic with a huge grin on his face is a simple way of making any hurt I’m feeling disappear. It’s so easy to melt a mile away in his company.
We’ve seen some pretty cool sunsets recently too
Giant dog!
This is actually early morning not dusk
First snowdrops!
Looking handsome
Last nights clouds – Looking a bit ominous with snow forecast
I checked my mileage and it was 110 miles for the 2 weeks of xmas – oops no wonder things are a little achey so showing sense and in the spirit of trying to make it though 2019 without a major injury (touch wood etc) I took a week off running and just walked Murph instead. Admittedly we do around 6 miles a day at the lest but its not high impact and he has to have his walks or he goes mental
Im still about, I just cant run much, or at least I could but I know its not going to do me much good in the longer run. The arse still hurts .. glutes are, legs whatever. I know when its not right and there are days I can hardly feel it, Its healing just taking its damn time. I did run/walk on saturday or rather walk/run and it was good to get going again but I cant really drive off it so Id rather wait until Im confident in it.
Perhaps its taking its time to heal as I’m walking on it so much. Murph needs long walks and Im happy to oblige so I’ve donned a headtorch and he has a flashy new collar with LEDs and we’re not letting the darkness beat us. I’m reckoning we’re doing around 40 miles of walking a week still which I guess is keeping me at some sort of level of fitness. Its frustrating but there you gp – that it seems is running half the time. Either injured or in the process of injuring myself. Still if youre gonna have a layoff this is the time of year to do it. I feel bad that I dont keep up with wordpress and you lot while Im injured … I turn off from running altogether, its easier when I dont think about it so sorry about that!
So the bit you all come here for instead of me whinging about injury – The photos – in no particular order
Theres always the sun
And sunsets
Plus chasing hares in forests
Theres the moon
And a new collar so we dont get totally lost
More moonlight
Chilling at dusk
Enjoying the reflections and reflecting
Nowhere else I’d rather be
Hole digging champ 2018
One of the rarest sights in nature – Commander crab teaching crab cadets how to do a pincer movement
Yesterday as a run at the beach in the morning before the sun kicked in and then a walk to the beach at the end of the day. Murphs appetite for the outdoors is insatiable and its almost impossible to knacker the little sod. Im not complaining, being back running properly is a joy and seeing him tearing around is even more of a joy.
Pausing for once to take things in – seconds later he was gone chasing seagulls again
He loves running … and also loves running shoes, im forever picking them up from various places. To be fair he doesnt wreck them just likes carrying them around it seems
Walkies with Tilly – This is not a rescue attempt as he’s a big shit and wont go too deep (though he has swum once under protest)
Cant beat sunsets
Well you can beat them if you have dogs in the photo too
Summer holidays are here and off to a flyer. A run at the beachin the morning before the heat really kicked in. Then at sunset we went bioluminescent plankton spotting (sadly none was to be seen) but had a fun night hike with the dogs and their luminous collars. They loved it of course. The moon was so bright that we didn’t even need head torches on the rocks. The creepy woods though was a different matter. I’ll let the photos do the talking
Yeah I can see you
Sunset run
Waiting for the sun to set and the moon to rise
Strollin
Posin
Leaping with a buddy
Moonlight at Witches Point
Moonlight and glow collars
Oh yeah Claire brought her fire poi – I had a go, I didn’t set fire to myself – this is a result!
Closeup – You want to see sheer happiness? That my friends is sheer happiness
I’m running but completely failing to post about it! Perhaps it’s because I’m not really measuring what I’m doing but in the last week or so we’ve done a few 7 milers to witches including today and a few shorter ones.
Everything’s feeling remarkably good considering what I did to it a few weeks ago, even the ankle isn’t protesting too much. I’ll continue in this new relaxed manner while I work out what murph can and can’t do. Well actually he’s a flying machine but I’m just erring on the cautious side especially in the heat. And now some photos!
Derp dog at Witches
Murph and Tilly at sunset
More murph n tilly
Happy to be out on the run
Extra dog – this is Jake, He doesn’t get to join in as much as he’s 18 but we took him out one cool morning and he joined in the stream fun
Blue Green Gold Grey, Awyr Maes Tywod Aarreg 