A better week...

I've managed to get off my backside this week and get about 50 miles under the belt.......mixed enough to be interesting but I still need to consider doing fewer but longer runs. The two longer runs were 13 or so, the second one being the Haddington Half Marathon on Saturday which took place in the hot and sultry conditions we have become accustomed to with this race. I was very pleased with the outcome, though, I thought I would not have a hope in hell of bettering my PB from Loch Leven in May of 1:36, but I surprised myself with a time of 1:33.

This week is quite a busy one, I had hoped to have a 9 mile lunchtime session done today, but forgot to pack that rather important racing apparel - a pair of shorts. So it will have to be tomorrow lunchtime. Then we have the Carfraemill - Gifford 11 mile run (I am told it is not a race) organised by HELP and to which an invitation to Dunbar RC is extended annually. Thursday evening is the final East Lothian summer series followed by a Bar B Q so my options for a proper long run are confined to the coming weekend.

The girls obviously had a good run approaching 20 miles on Saturday despite Theresa falling into some bushes and losing her bottle.......

Big Long Run

Saturday 14th August
Theresa and I did our first really long run (just short of 20 miles). We started at Theresa's house and ran down to the coast at whitesands, round the golf course through Dunbar round another Golf course through John Muir, along the river, up to Smeaton and then to Haddington via East Linton and Hailes castle. Was a fab route, both on and off road (thanks Theresa). We both had a great run and I finished feeling stronger than I have for weeks. Have found the last month really hard and had lost alot of motivation but have had a good week and feel much more positive. Theresa and I have not managed to run together much over the last month due to holidays etc and it is great to get back to running together (what a difference).
We finished the run just in time to see the boys at the 1 mile mark of the Haddington Half and it was great to see them start just as we had finished. Just time for a shower and something to eat before cheering them over the finish line.
Milly has not being doing much running over the summer as the miles are too big for her now. But comes out for some nice short recovery runs which she loves.

A mixed week

Two short mid-week races really hampered my distance miles, it was fun doing the East Lothian Summer Series stint in Musselburgh on Tuesday followed by the next evening's North Berwick Law Race. The latter is a particularly fantastic event, really great atmosphere, lots of crowd support and the route, well, is self explanatory. I remain amazed at the speed and agility that some of the seasoned hill runners take the descent from the Law......

I'll be brutally honest, these two events were really a convenient excuse to avoid having to do any distance - I'm having a little problem with distance running motivation at the moment. I'm enjoying short races just now and my speed is picking up nicely, but this is all too much of a distraction from the task in hand - marathon training. With two months left, I do have the time but there is now no room for further procrastination!

I had made a mental committment to doing a longer run this weekend, I hummed and hawed all day, finding other stuff to do, but by 6.00 I decided enough was enough and just got out there. It was a beautiful, still summers evening, and when I was out running I felt that I sometimes have to pinch myself to remind me how lucky we are - the countryside around here is simply amazing. We live on the eastern flanks of the Lammermuirs, with ready access out of the back of the house to hills, secret tracks, woodland, moorland with superb views across the Borders, then over the Forth, to Fife and beyond. Really made for running and walking, and with little in the way of traffic on the many minor highways and byways that cut into the hills.

My route took me from our house over Doon Hill, down to the Brunt, headed over to Innerwick via Woodhall and then to Thorntonloch. Unfortunately, the last few miles of my route took me via a more industrialised viewpoint, passing Torness and Dunbar cement works. This was necessary, as I had elected not to go deeper into the hills, wanting to keep my distance to around 14 miles. Mercifully it was no more than that as my legs had decided to give up, yet my lungs still had plenty of go in them.

Post WHW training - Brian

My measly and hardly-worth-mentioning contribution to the Dunbar RC West Highland Way was a very dissapointing 6 miles (achilles pain), though I did manage to add about 3 unintended miles whilst out searching for Jane and Theresa who were doing the 12 mile leg prior to handing over the baton to me........needless to say, their slight deviation from the route resulted in the well-documented and now infamous 'Tyndrum tiff' between Ian and Jane.

Since then i've really not been over the 12 mile mark in training runs, all short and fairly fast stuff, which is good generally but rubbish for marathon training. A foray to Orkney for a holiday saw me suckered into 2 races as part of the 'Stromness Shopping Week' (week-long piss-up), the first was the 'Around the Town' race, 2 miles of fast, steep uphill then descent around the town. The second was the Stromness 10K, which again, was just a bigger version of the 2 miler (ie thru the town, up a big hill then thru the country north of the town and back again. Both lungbusting and eye-poppingly hard.

I managed 3rd and 5th place respectively, let me add that this says rather more about the size of the field than my athletic abilities. Around these two races I managed to get some useful miles accrued running around and between Stenness, Houton and Scorrabrae on the Orkney West Mainland and a nice sharp hill run out towards Ward Hill.

My next run has got to be 14 miles......

WHW

Have done two runs since the WHW, the first felt quite sore but did 6 miles yesterday through woods and was flying along so think the WHW did some good and would definately do it again!!! Though agree with Thersea that need a less undulating route!!! Jane and Ian are now over their "short" domestic!!!

WHW continued....

I'm not sure about Jane's definitions.... a "short" domestic. Hmmmm - don't want to see a long one......

Next time we'll pick more sensible and less undulating sections to run. With a break in between.

The West Highland Way - Jane

Somehow and against my better judgement we got talked into taking part in the Dunbar V HELP West Highland Way Relay Run. Stupidly Theresa and I said we wanted to do a double section as we are marathon training and need along run. If we suggest this again someone please tell us to SHUT UP!
We were running from 6 miles south of Crianlarich to Tyndrum (12 miles). The weather was not raining as forecast but overcast and pleasant. We set off in good spirits following on from Ian Rowland who had done one of the harder sections. We had Milly with us on a long lead who was excited and looking forward to her run.
The first mile was undulating on reasonable terrain. However alarm bells did not start ringing until we realised it had taken us 45 minutes to run 3 miles. At this rate it was going to take 3 hours (not the 2 we had anticipated). The route was spectacular and a wonderful route but so hard. Very undulating and very rough terrain in parts. At six miles we were starting to get very tired and Theresa suggested bailing out. 'No we can do this' I insisted . Again, next time I suggest this tell me to SHUT UP. Brian Carr sped past us at about this in some very short shorts! but they obviously made him go faster so maybe that's what we need.
At 9 miles we were seriously tired, I could not work out how to open a gate - just lift the latch obviously. At 10 miles, Milly was getting agitated and needed to stop, everything was now hurting. Both of us were not sure if we were going to get to Tyndrum and if we had brought the mobile with us like we were told to would have definately bailed out.
At long last, after 3 long hours of running and some walking on the steeper bits we arrived at Tyndrum. The fun then started. At no point in our race prep had we discussed where in Tyndrum we were finishing. We passed two obvious meeting points with no one in sight and the path then appeared to go out and past Tyndrum. We were both very very tired and agreed that we could go no further so went off the route (1st stupid idea) into Tyndrum thinking that the main road was a possible sighting point for the boys. Again nothing. We were both getting a bit panicky and then we saw Ian who waved and then ran off!! Some very rude swear words came out of our mouths at this point. But undeterred we hobbled after Ian who was sprinting away from us. Then he turned and whistled and RAN AWAY AGAIN.!!! so off we went for another half mile and then eventully after 3 and half hours found the meeting point!!! Expecting hugs and "well done Jane" from Ian was a tad upset when the words " you F******** retard - what did you think you were doing going into Tyndrum" came out out of my loving partner's mouth. A short "domestic" followed....
After some food and rest we had a fabulous day. Brian ran a good leg and Ian ran two hard legs. We all really enjoyed the day and thank you to HELP for organising it. A good boozy night followed with some great laughs about the mishaps of the day.

Jane

What a retard!!!

Ian