Saturday 14th February.
On Saturday I joined the club for time trials. Well when I say the club I really mean the 2 Phils and Liz, plus a new potential club member called Jim. Not exactly a record turn out! It is quite frustrating actually as I look at other people's blogs and I see that they have regular club training nights that help support their training. I know they are often bigger clubs and perhaps they too had the same problems when they first set up structured training in terms of getting a regular turn out, but I think the speed session on a Sat morning are a really good idea and I hope we can keep them going long enough that more of the club regularly turns out.
Anyhoo I set off before everyone and in a scarily short amount of time Phil T came pounding by followed shortly by Phil M. I expected Liz any mo' but it wasn't until I headed back toward the starting point (we do 2 laps) that I heard Liz and Jim behind me and realised that Liz had been her usual welcoming self and had stayed with Jim so that he knew where to go. They finally caught me up coming up the first wee hill after the gates about 2/3rds of the way around the first lap which was surprisingly far round. I was comfortable running with them until the end of the first lap and then I was going to reverse the second lap but Liz and Jim told me to come with them. I didn't want to hold them back but they said not to be silly and I was able to keep up relatively comfortably. The toughest bit was the little hills on the second time round - had to break into a wee walk for a short time before reaching the top. Anyway I ended up running the 5 miles in 54 mins which included 1 minute of walking and 4 mins of v steady warm up running so I was actually quite chuffed. I figure if I can maintain a steady pace, getting back to it properly will be substantially easier. Also I feel like 5 miles is a decent distance and again is a good spring board to get back to it. I remember when I was chuffed at regularly running 5- 6 miles when I first joined the club a few years ago!
I needed a wee snooze in the afternoon, but that was mainly because Al and I were going out for dinner in the evening and I didn't want to fall asleep in my main course! Afternoon snoozes rock!
Sunday 15th February
Yesterday Al made me breaky in bed which was lovely and then I headed off to church. When I arrived in the car park there were no cars and as I was 2 mins early that was very weird. I looked at the clock and it turned out I was an hour and 2 mins early - Al had reset the clock by mistake the previous nights (that's what happens after a few glasses of wine!). Therefore I headed home, made an apple and pear crumble as we had friends coming for a visit and headed back out to Mass! There was a nice surprise in the car park - my dad's car which is unmissable as it has the first type of ski box ever invented on the roof. Dad had just got back from France so I hadn't seen him for about a month or so and it was lovely to see him and to be able to show him my scan pics.
Our friends (Morna and Richard) arrived at lunch time and so after some food and a chin wag we headed out for a lovely 5-6 mile walk up in Comrie. We were really lucky as the weather had been pretty grotty in the morning but by the time we headed out it was chilly but dry with even some patches of blue sky so we got some lovely views. It was fab to be up to Comrie again as I can't run there at the mo' as it is too hilly and the footing is a bit dodgy in places and in January when I was still walking to get back into the running there was still all the lethal snow so I couldn't go to Comrie on my own.
It was funny at one point on the walk as I had forgotten you need to clamber over a fence (no stile) and I learnt that I am definitely less agile. Good to remember as if I have to stop running then I will still head out hiking, but must remember to avoid that part of the route! Al would kill me if I had to phone him to rescue me from a abreast of a fence! Hee hee - what an image! Despite being less agile I definitely fitter though because I was able to walk up the hills comfortably - a little out of breath, but able to chat compared to month 2/3 where I had to put do a few steps and rest! A great feeling.
We had a lovely drink in The Royal Hotel afterwards and then came home to enjoy a roast and crumble. M and R headed back to Glasgow about 10pm and I headed straight to bed. What a great day!
I slept like a log last night after my busy day and woke up at 9am. Monday club run is at 9.15, so needless to say I didn't go this morning, but I had purposefully not to set the alarm as I knew I was tired. I didn't miss it when I got up as it was pretty wet. Also I realised last week that I have been building up my mileage / exercise times etc for quite a few weeks now and maybe it would be a good idea to have a recovery week.
One I've decided on my plan I'll post that. Right, I must get to work.
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