GOOD MOVE - BAD MOVE

Well, wondrous bop records aside, I'm still bereft by the lack of "Tour telly" this year so, as I said I would, I'm trying to channel my grief into my running.

Actually, I'm trying to get a few longer runs under my belt anyway. My weekly mileage has been not too bad as of late (55 mile a week or so), but it's all been wee bits here and there. Very little of any real substance to it.
Saturday saw us away for the day shopping so I thought yesterday I'd try to get a long un' in (18 miles).
I also decided that if I was going to be out for that long, I might as well make some of the run "off road" and try to give the old legs a bit of a rest from the relentless pounding they get on roads. Good move? Well maybe....
Part of the run I ended up doing took me along the mile or so pathway from Brandsmill to Little Pinkerton. A pathway recently "upgraded", fenced and signposted by our local cooncil as part of its "core path strategy" (whatever that is).

Jesus wept. Two things became apparent very quickly. 1) hardly anybody uses this path and 2) the council haven't visited since the day they put the signs up. I know there is a path there, because I've used it before ... I just couldn't see it for all the Hog Weed and bloody great thistles that went up over my head! If this path was used, surely it would remain worn down!

This was about 15 miles into my run, and quite frankly I couldn't be arsed finding an alternative route, so I just slowed to below walking pace and kicked, hacked, battered my way through. All good and well.... till I got home.

My legs, from sock tops to just below my dangly bits and my lower trunk from belt line to the line made by my heart rate monitor were a mass of red blotches and swollen blisters!! I looked like some sort of hideous half man, half kebab meat type mutant! Spent ages in the shower (cool) trying to wash away any remnants of whatever pollen/stoor/sap had caused this. Bloody awful.

Even ended up taking not one but two "one a day" anti-histamines. These did help it has to be said - helped me spend half the day asleep (though to be honest that had always been my plan for Sunday anyway :-) )

Went out for a bit of a run today along by the Black Loch, again "off road" but this time I managed to keep clear of overgrown areas.
Roll on winter..