A Younger "Old Face"

On Wednesday afternoon I nipped out for a half hour run, mainly off road with a lap of a field beyond the sawmill that was runnable due to the arrival of spring drying out the ground. In the evening one hour 15 with the ladies (and one gent) in my JogScotland group. Despite the twilight we managed to get out of the streetlights and managed about 7 miles, visiting Cameron House where a bevvy of young ladies, dressed to the nines, were walking between the hotel and the marina. As we ran past them, Colin and I drooling at the mouth, the ladies in the group managed only a remark about the heels the younger ladies were wearing and how impossible it would be to walk in them. Pleased to see two of the women tackling the hill round past the lodges, but out of the goodness of my heart I kept the main group on the perimeter road, only to get it in the neck from some who had ran the lodge road before and preferred it. You can't win, but it was good to hear. Next week....! Finished by running through Lomond Shores, Balloch and Jamestown.
Club night on Thursday brought a pleasant surprise. Father and son Willie and Peter Henderson appeared at the club for the first time. Willie had ran at Dumbarton a few years ago, and Glen Stewart and I had coached Peter at west Dunbartonshire before a long term "injury" put paid to his junior career. Now 20 he is back running and running well.
"Injury" is in inverted commas due to the self-inflicted nature of it. He came to the club one Thursday and announced he wasn't training as he was going skiing on the Friday, a trip to Austria with his school. He arrived back a week or two later in plaster and crutches (as you do) telling everyone he had fallen on the slopes. However the truth came out when we discovered that on arrival at the resort he had gone to his room and seeing the snow outside his balcony promptly jumped off into the snow and broke his leg!
Anyway the session was 6 x 1.1km reps on the mis-shaped square at the Polaroid estate in Bonhill. Full lap rep with jog recovery on one side before starting again. I only did 5 reps having promised not to over-tire myself with a race on Sunday. I'd suffered from the Thursday session previously, when either racing or long run at the weekend had been affected by the effort. Proof that the older you are the harder it is to recover. Each rep within a few seconds of each other with the last the fastest, and feeling relaxed afterwards. Despite telling the group to ensure they took a full slow jog recovery, the first four just kept running, perhaps a little slower and it seemed more of a steady run for them. So much so that as I finished my 5th rep, Peter was about to lap me! A slow jog back to the club brought the mileage up to about 8 miles. I'll ease off the training for the rest of the week before racing on Sunday.

Club night reps

To the club for Thursday night rep session, this time intervals on the 1.1k Polaroid Estate circuit. This is rectangular and the session is run all four sides with one side jog recovery.That means alternate recovery of short leg and long leg. Plenty involved at various paces and as we started at different times due to different warm up distances and pace we all had someone to chase most of the way round. I must say I wasn't looking forward to it but once started felt I put in a good session of 6 reps after a 2+ mile warmup, albeit not the fastest I've run. As I am intending attending the Glee club organised run from Inverarnan to Tyndrum and back on Saturday I was a bit apprehensive as I think I made that mistake a few weeks ago when I did the Balloch Park session before the WHW group run which was a disaster. However, as JR is coming on Saturday, we are leaving the Drovers at 9 (to give the old fella plenty of time :-)) so I might just manage this one! Give him his due though he'll be back out on Sunday with Mad Jim Drummond at Aberfoyle. I'll be thinking of them! Measured tonight's session at 9.5 miles making 45.5 already this week so Saturday will top that off nicely. That gives me tomorrow off. The ironing awaits.