Finish Strong

Just got this from a pal.
Motivational?

Slower.....

Jog Scotland group on Wednesday was expanded by three newcomers to my group, Jim, with whom I had run previously, and husband and wife Colin and July. Small world; I had coached their daughter, Emma, at West Dunbartonshire A.C. 5.5. miles in total and a wee word of warning to my regulars that if we had the three new joggers for the next session in two weeks time, we would be following the programme! That would mean running 1 and a 1/2 hours by the tenth week. Normally, we take them to that level and then run about 50 mins to 1hr15 depending on the weather, moods, Champions League,family comittments etc on a week to week basis. The feeling being that if they have run for the hour and a half, they can get faster by working that wee bit harder over short distances. Their main target is 10k, but those who aspire for further can do so by doing longer runs away from the club night, supported by JR or myself. Seems to work!
Following the run I had another discussion with JR that centred on...... running slower! We had a disagreement on how I should be doing this. I don't mind running slower, but I like to make progress on every run and he advocated turning back to run with slower runers when I get ahead. My wee brain can't cope with that, all it wants to do is keep going. However I also realise that I have to do the long runs at a WHW race pace, so off I went on Thursday afternoon for a run/walk over the hills/moors that lie between Cardross, Helensburgh and Balloch. Only a rough idea of where I would get to, an OS map to keep me right, and rucksack with Camelbak and snacks and warm clothing...... all needed!
After a false start, feeling uncomfortable in the Salomons which were rubbing the achilles, and returning home to swap for my road shoes, I started along the shore line at Cardross before coming back on the A814 for about 3/4 of a mile then a lap of Ardmore point, which was a quagmire in places, feet already soaking. Then up the Red Road towards Blackthird Farm before turning onto the forestry road and climbing through the forest to the farmland above the tree line leading towards Ben Bouie. However again it was a marsh and feet freezing I opted for a path down through the woods at Goukhill eventualy after some rough running and taking dead ends on the forest roads I came out down at Arden near Duck Bay. A jaunt along the old road towards Balloch before turning up the Stonymollan, back to Cardross, very dirty trails and road, before finishing by returning along the shore to finish. A total of 4.15 on the clock and Garmin and G Maps measure it at 19 miles although I was aware of various occasions where it wasn't getting a good GPS signal, and it's hard to track the exact route on G Maps so I may have gone a bit further.
One other task carried out today, with regret but also with a bonus. I mentioned that I had given up my golf club membership due to lack of use. Yesterday I emptied my locker and brought my clubs home. On the bright side, the course is right opposite my house, and is lovely running. As a member however, I have been restricted on the amount of running I could do on it as I was ruled by club by-laws that restricted access to the course for golfing purposes only. That meant I had to sneak on in the dawn or dusk when no-one could see me! Or my traditional Christmas morning run about the course, before the die hard members appeared. Now I can run without restriction under the access laws! Whoopee!!

Club 8 miles (With the New Daddy)

Sitting around waiting on the latecomers at the club when I became aware of a presence beside me and turned to find Marco waiting patiently to ask if he could join us. A pleasure sir! Sitting right beside me, of course, was Brian, husband of Deb's midwife Lesley and a Flinger with a desire to run the WHW if he gets in. So a quick introduction before we ventured out and everyone else got a chance to congratulate him.
Condolences,and a cuddle, though for Marion who lost her father last week.
Setting off at an easy pace that soon picked up a wee bit as Pat and Marco headed the pack with Steph and I just behind. Quite a group going all the way to Arden roundabout whilst some, I presume, turned off at Cameron House. Out to the roundabout in about 35 minutes. A short break for a call of nature, before Steph set off at a fair lick. At Duck Bay, Marco went after him pulling Pat away and leaving me weel behind. I got back with a slightly shorter return trip by missing the Park St, Middleton St finish and finished with Steph, who went the other way, and he clocked the run at 66 minutes, back in 31.
Good conversation on way out with Marco chuffed with the new addition and with Debs part in it, rating it almost as hard as his dog bite experience when he was bitten in the bum by a poodle when doing reps in Kelvingrove Park. At least that is his story for an injury incurred in one of Glasgow's more notorious haunts (for love bites on the bum if you catch my drift)! At least Deb's photos are nicer.
Anyway, a good fast run for a club night and. although I faded from the front, I was pleased with the effort.

A Bad Day on the West Highland Way

Up early for breakfast then a drive to Balmaha where about 16 WHW runners organised by John Kynaston gathered for a run to Inversnaid and back. Due to a bereavement, John had to miss the run and Ian Beattie took over the organisation. A number of runners made alternative arrangements and I was the only Millie to go with this group. And, although I hate to admit my mistakes, I should have gone with the other Millies, as the WHW group set off far too fast for my ability and after only a couple of miles I was struggling. Absolutely nothing in my legs, possibly due to lack of recovery from midweek training. Admission time; JR had repeatedly told me that I would suffer from going with this group, but I wanted a bit of their fun and decided that I would go regardless of his advice. By the time I got to Rowardennan I was mentally goosed. Decided to turn back as did another couple, one of who had sprained his ankle. On the return journey I met Joe, who had ran from Drymen and turned back at Rowardennan, reaching Balmaha 5 minutes or so after me and accepting a lift back to Drymen during which we had a good blether. Then Jo, Jimmy, Ian and Geraldine from Milburn followed by the group led by Harvey the dog, with Mr and Mrs Pacepusher and friends being paced by their canine master who got a bit of a fright when a fool screamed "Harvey" on seeing him for the first time.
Getting back to Balmaha was delayed even further by taking a wrong turning on top of the hill at Balmaha. I went left instead of right and found myself slithering down a slope towards the main road. A difficult climb back up to avoid skiting out of control before finishing at the car park. Cold, wet, miserable and looking forward to a hot bath. I am very disappointed in my long runs lately, none of which have gone to plan. Time to get back to some serious planning and club companionship rather than doing my own thing and getting more and more disillusioned with progress. That's if they'll have me!

Working Hard But Treading Water....or MUD

After Tuesday's Blind Man's Bluff I went along to Jog Scotland looking for about 5 miles of easy running, and got in about 4.5 with a slower group than I'm used to. Linda, who takes the group below mine, wasn't feeling too good, so had the night off and as only one of my own group turned up I was asked to take Linda's. That was no problem and JR decided to add in an extra run after his 5.30pm group finished their run, bringing with him Christine who has entered the Fling and is building up her mileage. That meant the ladies ran a bit longer than they were used to, but at about the same pace so they gained and I,too,got some recovery mileage.
And I needed it as on Thursday I went along to the club, knowing we were up for 6 half mile hill reps with a jog back down to recover. A good turn out with Stevie, Adrian and Steph putting in some fast reps with their strong hill climbing background, Garry, adding youth and probably inexperience to run very fast(!!), Brian, a Flinger attending his first session, Geraldine, Richard,Ali and, in addition, a good group from JR's training squad doing their own thing at various distances within our session. The main drag from the main Balloch Park Gates to the top of the hill near the turn off for the north gate was a busy wee street. Street lighting for about 600yards then darkness, hiding the end of the run until you started meeting the leaders coming back down.A real struggle to keep going for all 6 reps, with recovery being stretched and lunch threatening a re-appearance towards the end. Legs like jelly and regretting the heroics on the first couple of reps as the young ones (and bar JR, Chris and Linda everyone is a young one to me) kept a heady pace on what everyone agreed was a good hard session. All on the main drive though, keeping the mud for Friday morning and a 9am meet with JR,Brian,Linda, Sandra from the night before as well as Catherine,her mad Dalmation "Jasper" and Lauren. An easy run said our JR. But what he meant was "you'll be running the Whinney Hill race route for next weekend, but you can go as slow as you like" Slow? Walk more like. A wee bit of jogging, rescuing of shoes from mud, swamp and kicking of branches. Five and a bit miles maybe of very hard going. On my least favourite of all the club runs. Grrrr!
Still, back to the club's HQ at the leisure centre where for a couple of quid into the kitty, JR manages to extend his OAP status to copious amounts of tea, toast, beans, jam and all served by The WHW race's oldest ever finisher! And Cowper put in an appearance to be embarrassed by the knowledge that those club-mates he had blown away the night before were back out at 9am the following day!
Now! Feet up with a rest day tomorrow and a run on the Way on Sunday.

Balloch Horseshoe In The Dark

Club night and five of us set off on the Balloch Horseshoe for a steady ten mile run. It's a hilly circuit on country roads after the first couple of miles. Wee Pat decided he would join us for the first two miles then headed off on an easy 5 mler. Easy 5 is about a steady 10 I thought and Andy and I stayed with him, dropping Steph, Jimmy and Geraldine before we reached Balloch. The pace felt good, and when we hit the Gartocharn Rd, the headlamps went on. Mine not as strong as I would like but combined with Andy's was sufficient to keep us on the right road and allowing us to miss the worst of the puddles and potholes. As I said, it's a tough run at the best of times but as you are heading north and east you are running into complete blackout, bar the odd farm house lights. The problem then is that you know you are on a hill, you just don't know how far the hill is going to go on! Also, the lack of landmarks means it's hard to gauge where on the route you are so it just seems to go on and on and on. And the farmyard smells! Took me back to my courting days when I walked my farmers daughter girlfriend (now wife) home on romantic starlit nights. On the plus side, it's fairly traffic free, I think about half a dozen cars passed us on the horseshoe road, and the surface is pretty good when in the country. As we started the long downhill stretch back to civilisation (? the vale!) the road started to cut up and had lots more potholes due to the lorries that use that stretch of the road to access a landfill site. That meant the quads started to complain as the legs tried to pick out the safest route, Andy, who seemed to be having a wee bit of tight IT band, struggled the last couple of miles so I finished on my own in 92 mins. Very pleased with that.
Still not sure what I'm doing at the weekend as I am a bit worried that the near 30 miles with no opt out on the lochside is a bit beyond me at the moment. 30 miles anywhere else I'd be happy with, but I've missed a bit of training over the past few weeks. I'll decide nearer the time, but may opt for a run at Arrochar before going to Drovers for a blether and transport the WHWers back to Drymen. Still, I'm pretty happy with progress to this point, and may opt to visit the lochside during the weeks ahead to cover the route in smaller sections to familiarise myself.

Warmest Weekend

I missed a weekend's training due to the lower back pain I was suffering on Thursday. I went to Linda for a massage on the Friday and felt she had released most of the muscular tension. However, whilst I could have run on Saturday, I had to wait in until my brother-in-law arrived or my wife came back from her morning visiting. However, neither happened till late afternoon and then I had to do the tidy up following the putting up of the flat screen telly. That included re- wiring the sound system, as she who must be obeyed wanted the sky+ and home cinema in a cabinet, with limited access for my mitts to get in about the wiring. Result was the back seized up again precluding any running on Sunday morning. So I gave it some serious heat treatment and stretching, hot water bottle being the favoured method. It seemed to work and when I got up this morning, things were much better. More heat this morning and a bit of massage using a Woolies thingy my wife bought me yonks ago and that I put to the back of a cupboard, where I found it this morning. Seemed to have done the trick so I set off for a wee run just as the snow was falling. Two miles out, the first fairly steady, the second up hill, before turning and pushing it a bit harder on the way back. 18 mins out 16.15 back. One of those runs that is uncomfortable as every wee niggle is looked on as a potential muscle ripper, but the upside is that I felt I was running freely enough to be able to go on a longer run tomorrow....
Now I need to think what caused it, was it being on my feet so long in cold wet weather on Sunday? My two runs on Wednesday with an hour between them, again in cold wet and snowy weather. Or is it sitting on my A*** at this laptop slouching? Or is my mattress about to go out the door? When I work it out things can only get better.