A well deserved rest.

Ahhharrrr. A man's gotta chill out sometimes. And so my Inspiration and I went out on the MS 'day out' to Blists Hill Victorian Town. Highlight of the day... was a pint in the Victorian pub, in the sun, sadly not at Victorian prices though!! It was nice after the long run of the day before. I'm struggling with a sore knee at the moment.

of Relays and long, long, long runs (for me)

I shouldn't do these updates on a Sunday morning, I'm sleepy and my brain is like fudge. I'm writing after what has, in terms of running, been a tough week for me. Not the training - well, not solely the training - but more of the motivation for running. I'm desperately in need of a change, the training is getting me nowhere and I'm getting slower and slower and more frustrated over it. Highlight of the week: Tuesday night's 8 miler. Sun, warm, a lovely trip round the Wrekin and the Ercall all performed at a reasonable lick (well as much as I could manage post Hutchinson Way). I wasn't able to do much better at the Shugborough Relays though. The days of me tearing round in 11 minutes seem long gone. I found it difficult to motivate myself, I got it into my head it was just a trot round and that's the way it turned out. When I wanted to put a bit more in, I put down the pedal and...nothing. Let's hope this is a temporary lack of form and not "the end" in sight. Roll on to Saturday and the long-dreaded 20 mile training run. That is 2 x big runs in 6 days. I decided to make it up as I went along, so I meandered out of town and eventually found myself picking up a bit of last week's route before diverting into Telford Town Park (not impressed - fences everywhere - looks really tumbledown) and on to Stafford Park and a long meander before making it to St. Georges. Thankfully it was a big downhill from there as I was already in the red zone. The last 3 miles were done from memory! So that's it now. No more long runs before the marathon, if indeed I do the marathon. It's going to be an extremely hard day. Hopefully I can fit in a race next weekend as a warm up - before that it's Ironbridge 4 miles and I'm just hoping I don't put in another lame performance.

Old enough then?

Blimey. Merlene Ottey is bidding to go to her 8th (EIGHTH) Olympics at the tender age of 52. And not in some sitting down sport either, she is, if you don't know, a sprinter who famously represented Jamaica back in the day and who now represents Slovenia. Well done, girl.

The Hutchinson Way, way, way

The above picture is the route profile for the Hutchinson Way footpath, copied from the LDWA site . The footpath is described as 17-18 miles or rural, urban -type of trail. I've only tried it once before; tales of me failing and sitting, sobbing gently on the base of Lilleshall Monument are dotted around t'internet. I set out this morning, slightly apprehensive but eager not to repeat that sad event. Ok. So the run starts at Wellington pool, but quickly climbs up to the Ercall and then climbs some more into the Limekiln Woods before crossing the golf course and then deeper into Limekiln Woods before coming out at Short Wood. First minor problem here when I was confronted by a barbed-wire fence, thankfully I was tall enough to get over with negligible damage. The next bit took me past the travellers' camp at Lawley before getting on to some tarmac, going via the Rock and eventually pitching up at Telford Centre. It's quite surreal being away from it all in one minute then running past the cinema and office blocks the next. But all was going well. The next bit was via the railway station and up to Priorslee and the Flash (pool), here's where the leaflet/map proved to be a bit rubbish and local knowledge took over. How you can find the route just using the map, heaven knows (more later on this!) Once at the top of Limekiln Bank, it was down the hill and into the Granville Park, along the trails again and across to Lilleshall over the fields. All was going well, maybe I should have quit then. Oh, hang on, that IS where I quit last time! I knew I had to be on the Incline, I knew where I was but I insisted on following the HW map/directions. Bad move. Not clear signage left me climbing another fence, then stile, then struggling across a field of Oilseed Rape (thankfully not in flower) until I got to another grassy field. Easy? no. the grass was knee-high, my feet were soaked. Eventually I got onto the incline and picked up the more familiar path along the old canal, scaring the sheep, feeling good. This path soon became almost impassable too though, being overgrown with brambles, scratching my legs and reducing me to a jog/walk/stumble. Eventually I made it back to the woods and some running relief. The map then directed me on to the A518 and then up Pitchcroft Lane (nasty touch, definitely an unnecessary climb) before crossing more nettles/ long grass and crossing the A518 again. On the other side I could almost taste the finish but the path was completely overgrown and I soon found myself stuck in a long grassy field and then lost. I retraced my steps and decided the best course was to go into Church Aston and pick up the trail there. From then on it was easy, though I was a bit tired I was soon trotting down the High St. I realised the finish was on Stafford St. Car Park so a quick detour via Waitrose was called for! Stats: 18.64 miles, over 3 hours . 3.33 on the clock, but considerable time taken up with detours and some walking/falling over. Had no problem with the distance though. The course is, to be honest, very contrived in the final few miles, poorly signed and poorly maintained. But it's done now...!

Lost

Getting 'lost' when you sort of know where you are is one of the little pleasures of running in company. What I mean is..when you know roughly where you are, and in what direction you should be travelling, but you've never seen that trail, path, hill, hedge, brook before. And so you discuss where you think you are; you agree that you're along the right lines and decide on the next little bit together. Sometimes it works out and you get a little high from your cleverness; quite often you are wrong, so your route needs adjustment or occasionally backtracking. Tonight was one of those nights, a fairly straightforward Stompers run out of the Dale but we got lost somewhere in Lightmoor. Lightmoor for goodness' sake. It's not the Lake District is it? Two decisions, several stiles and some nettles later, and we were running across someone's lawn -ok, it wasn't quite as bad as it seems, as it was a right-of-way but it was a blooming nicely looked-after one! Anyway, we worked out way through the rain back to the sanctuary of t'pub. Lovely stuff :)

Small catchup and it's almost year zero again.

After Granville 4ml (see below) I pulled my left calf. Completely self-inflicted, due to overdoing a stretch. That's the last time I listen to Facebook advice :) Then a few days off with chest infection/inflammation have left me missing 2 x long runs training. So I guess it's how well I get back to it which will decide for me whether the Marathon is on or not. In other news, Ercall Stompers now have their own LiRF (Leader in Running Fitness). I'm not a gun for hire, more of a training plan-cum-hi-viz jacket for hire. I noticed this weekend it was the Welsh Castles Relay. What a great event that is, 20 legs over 2 days. Good for cameraderie/banter and usually either good for sunburn OR a soaking. Or both - Wales can be like that! Also it was the Man v Horse Marathon, in Llanwrtyd Wells. Here's the MvH website. Don't know whether Man beat Horse this year, but I really fancy a crack at it next year. Failing that, there's always the Bog Snorkelling or even the Bog Snorkelling Triathlon!