Sunday, January 07, 2007
still out of sync
Well I guess my first new years resolution has to be
to remember to write in this diary. I cant believe
Ive forgotten again
..must be something to do with
getting older. I need some of Vals memory mints!
Anyway the last time I wrote anything was last year,
Christmas Eve. So Ive got a few to update you all on
then
Clearly on Christmas Day I did the traditional thing
of getting up, opening presents, eating far too much,
spending time with the family, watching telly, staying
up late. No thoughts of running then. But on boxing
day something strange came over me and I decided to
run in the Ayr Turkey Trot. A 5k and 10k down in Ayr,
and for some reason I opted for the 10k. The route is
pretty flat out along the sea front, along by the
river and up round a housing scheme before heading
back along the river and then the sea front. I made
the mistake of thinking it would be nice and mild by
the sea front, and according to the temperature gauge
in the car it was a fairly decent temperature.
However, that is not what my ears were telling me as I
stood out to watch the 5k race they nearly froze
off. I started the run with the thought of just
having a nice easy run, but had to catch those folk in
front that I thought I should be faster than
.it
wasnt my fastest 10k of the year (ok it was the
second slowest) but Im glad I did it. Splits that I
recorded were 5.31, 5.36, 5.39, 5.19, 5.47, 5.25,
5.26, 5.41, 5.37, 5.02. Official time was 55.13.
Actually serves to show how consistent my times have
been this year pretty much all 10ks around the 55
min mark, with the exception of my pb run in September
of 52.52.
On the Saturday 30th I headed out with Sheila M, Val
and Sheila K. We ran from Belhaven through John Muir
Country Park around East Links farm park and through
the first farm, back through John Muir Country Park
along the beach for the majority of the way, but as
the tide was in we cut back over to the dump road and
back along to Belhaven.
Due to my lack of running through the week I also had
to head out on Sunday 31st. I ran from home round the
bottom of Doon Hill, up behind Spott Farm, down
Starvation Brae and into Spott. From their I ran to
the second ford and round to Pitcox (running up all
the hills). From Pitcox I headed down to the A1 and
to the Belhaven fish farm where I got a handy lift
from Brians mum and dad back home. Then we ate in
keeping with the season we ate far too much, which
proved to be a bit of a crazy thing given that I had a
mile and a half sprint to run that night. Brian
seemed to think a sprint would be a good idea after 4
glasses of wine so we both headed off to run the
Black Bun run. Anyone who remembers the weather
that night will understand how crazy the 17 of us who
turned up must have been to run in the wild weather.
I quite like Emmas view though that this run is our
annual punishment for all the bad we do in the year
its quite fitting. Anyway of full stomach I set off,
quite sure if I pushed it too hard my lovely lunch
would be revisiting somewhere in West Barnes so tried
not to go too hard. I finished in my slowest ever
time of the three years that Ive run this, but with
weather conditions and trying not to puke I guess I
did ok.
Anyway now we are into the new year, the first club
session was on the 4th of January. I thought Ian was
giving us a nice session but no, we ran the handicap.
Fantastic I hadnt spent all day worrying which
meant my adrenalin wouldnt have been quite at the
right levels for a fantastic performance. (well
thats my excuse). I ran (after a fashion) and it
felt hard but actually produced my slowest ever time.
And I got a stitch. After reviewing recent
performance at the handicap I note that my late
2006/early 2007 times are all slower than late
2005/early 2006. Wonder whats going on there then?
Frank won well done.
On Saturday I headed out on my own for a longer trot.
I had to drop the car down to the garage in Dunbar so
ran from there to Spott roundabout and on up to Spott.
I ran up Daniels Brae (because Sheila Ms done it 3
times in the past fortnight I thought Id better
bloody check if I could still make it to the top too
and I did). Then I headed onto Pitcox, along towards
Stenton and then down to Biel mill. I thought I was
running quite well, trying to stay relaxed and enjoy
the run when a guy passed me at Biel mill running at
least twice the speed I was going. Only slightly off
putting
..
Then I crossed over the A1 and ran through John Muir
Country Park to Belhaven where Brian was waiting to
pick me up. I passed Hannah in the park all gadgeted
up with the GPS on, off out on her long run.
And because everything is still not quite in sync
after the holiday period, I headed out again today but
it felt much more of an effort than yesterdays run. I
ran from the house down to Dunbar, round the harbour
and the cliff top trail where I bumped into Jim and
Val. I stopped to walk with them and have a wee chat
and then headed round the golf course again to meet
Brian at Belhaven. This time he was joining me for a
wee trot round John Muir, which by this point I would
have been happy to do without. We ran round and
through a bit but Brians calf was niggling so we
stopped short and walked back something to do with
no runs for 4 months and then running a mile and half
sprint with no warm up, no cool down and after 4
glasses of wine maybe? Anyway heres hoping a return
to form happens for both of us soon
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