Back in the Groove

Two runs since my last post, 13+ miles on Sunday and 12 last night.
Sunday's run was one of those forced upon me by laziness, having stayed in bed when I could've gotten my arse down to meet JR's group for some company. However my working wife only gets a long lie on Sunday and it's nice to have a bit of company so I stayed with her. Only to keep her company mind..... ;-)
So it was a solo run a bit later in the day and I headed down to Helensburgh on the main rd then up to the top of Sinclair Street and beyond before turning back. On getting to the Fruin road end I saw a sign for an off road footpath back to Craigendoran and followed that, cutting some distance from the return journey but getting the bonus of some muddy paths. Not a great run though, pacing difficult with the hills taking their toll.
Rest day Monday with a home circuit training session to allow a bit of muscle work and stretching, then down to the club on Tuesday for a steady 12 miles. Had a lot of water to drink as I was showing some signs of dehydration and, despite a visit in the changing area, soon after starting I felt the urge to go again. I ran ahead of the group to get to MacDonalds at Balloch then ran hard until the top of the Cameron Hill on the Luss Road to catch them again. That was the hardest work of the night although I put another effort in up the same hill on the way back. The run was out and back through the Carrick golf course to the Colquhoun gates, following a rough footpath at the end of the timeshare area. It was dark by this time so a bit hard to see as no-one had a headtorch, but reminiscent of the West Highland Way race last year where, when supporting Jim and in the company of quite a few others, we were doing fine by moonlight until Sean walked back from Kingshouse and met us with his torch on, effectively blinding us. The biggest problem with this run is on the cycle path near Loch Lomond Castle where the car headlights blind you and makes it impossible to see the path. Anyway, it was fairly steady back to the club although we added a loop round the Lomond Shores as Mr Garmin was warning us we were short of 12 miles by a simple out and back. At the end of the run, Steph and I ran along Middleton St whilst Ger, Jimmy and Ian went along the Main St, all arriving together. My Garmin told me i had about .05 of a mile to do so ran round to the car park whilst the other stopped just before the centre, but I didn't see them again as I met two of Jim's group in the car park so stopped for a blether. By the time I walked back the others had gone. Sorry! Pretty stiff this morning so I've left my run to this afternoon with JogScotland tonight to build some more miles at an easy pace. Race this Sunday at Alloa so if I get the miles in early this week I can ahave a day off on Saturday to rest up. I've never run Alloa as I normally run the Balloch to Clydebank, so it's something to look forward to.Hopefully it'll give me an idea of my fitness although I'm feeling pretty good and free of previous injury.