Back from holidays...

It was a fabulous holiday, saw lots of places & people, met up with lots of old (longtime) friends and made some new ones, ran a fair bit, went whitewater rafting, was privileged to attend the best wedding I've ever been to - apart from when John & I got married of course :-)

We had 2 wonderful, hot, sunny weeks in Canada, split between Toronto, Ottawa, Toronto and I really did not want to come home...

Back to reality - rain, low temperatures and jet-lag with a bump! Arrived home on Wednesday morning and didn't run until Saturday when I volunteered to be Tail-runner at Falkirk Parkrun. I had a great time, a nice gentle 5km taken slowly which my legs needed, and chatting with Karen along the way and managed to get her a full minute off her PB so I felt good! I had planned a longish run for Sunday, went to bed Saturday evening just after 10 and slept until the alarm went off at 7 on Sunday morning. When I got up and visited loo, I could hear the gales blowing outside and decided to go back to bed, we eventually surfaced at 9.30!! We NEVER lie-in but I guess the jet-lag was catching up! Anyway, weather was foul and I couldn't get motivated to go for a run, I caught up with a mountain of ironing, baked some banana bread, tidied up a bit and then started back at pilates last night - an hour of stretching should sound like gentle exercise but NO! It's a good workout :-) (ok secretly we enjoy it and it does make you feel good)
I went to the gym at lunchtime today to do a few Kms and I had a great wee 5k run, it was really good, everything felt smooth and relaxed and I didn't have any of the leg pains which I've been plagued with since I did the Clyde Stride. Hopefully that's me recovered and can get a couple of long runs in in the next 2 weeks as we're off to Berlin on 22 Sept.

Well done John!

Up at 3am yesterday morning to head off to Tyndrum for the start of the Devil O' The Highlands. This was John's first ultra as unfortunately he'd been injured in April and was unable to take part in the Highland Fling - this was when we marshalled at Rowardennan (see earlier post for info) and I suppose if I'm honest, it was this day that inspired me to enter the Clyde Stride.
It's a different type of person who runs the longer distances, and a much smaller number but all really nice folk :-)
We had a nice clear run up the road, not much traffic in the middle of the night! Arrived in plenty of time for registration at The Green Welly, a big bowl of porridge for John and some not so healthy rolls and sausage for Dave and I. Dave is a friend and work colleague who is also an Ironman twice over who had agreed to be John's support runner, this race has to be supported as there are no aid stations along the way and you have to be able to carry your own nutrition & fluids so it's vital to have someone who can feed you at checkpoints etc, but you also need someone who can come out and run back in with you if you get lost along the way - there are long stages of inaccessible mountains and moors to cover. Pacers aren't allowed if you're in contention for one of the prizes, but you are allowed company if you fancy it for sections of the course although you must always carry your own backpack.
The weather forecast had been for rain but I was sure it was going to be sunny and warm having watched the satellite forecast earlier in the week, and I was right, it was a beautiful day if a bit hot for the competitors!

This is one of the most spectacular parts of Scotland and very popular with tourists who walk the West Highland Way and yesterday it was in it's full glory.
John did brilliantly, he finished the 43 miles in 9hrs 20m - unofficial time - from my watch, and was still mobile and coherent at the end - for those of you who know him, this is quite significant ;-)



Well Done you are now officially an Ultra-Nutter! xx

2 steps forward, 3 steps back...

Just a little grumble :-(
Went out for my run on Sunday morning as planned, legs were a bit stiff and bottom of left calf round achilles was really grumbly, but hoped that it would ease itself out. It didn't!! I grouched and stressed for 9.7k and came home still with stiff achey legs...

I'm hoping that they are just more tired from my exertions in July than I think they ought to be, in my head the Lakeland Trails marathon and Clyde Stride are consigned to history, I really enjoyed both events, but they're done and so it's time to move forward. Unfortunately my body isn't keeping up with my head! Hey ho...

I'd like to say I'm a patient person by nature, and in some ways I am, but not at the moment! I've been really suffering with pains in my leg in bed and this has been disturbing my sleep so that hasn't helped my mood, but this morning I did 10 mins on the foam roller and stretching my hamstrings and calves with the resistance band and it has felt better during the day. I'm off now to do another wee session and hopefully by tomorrow will be able to get back out for a relatively pain-free run.