DID A BIT LSD TODAY

Since turning my back, metaphorocally, on alcohol there are still things I like to do that give me a bit of a "high"...

LSD. I've actually been into LSD for a wee while now and at this time of the year I like to start to up the dosage a bit at the weekend. Not the sort of LSD that Timothy Leary may have advocated though - I'm more into Long Slow Distance.

I've decided, again, that I am not following a structured plan/schedule/what-not prior to the next marathon. I'm going to stick to what seems to have worked for the last couple of years.. Two speed session during the week (club nights), a couple of steady runs during the week on my own and a couple of longer runs at the weekend, including one really long 'un.
For various reasons I missed out on long runs this festive season (weather, injury, etc.) So today saw me start off on my first long run for a bit. Did about 14 miles. Pace was quite slow but I enjoyed it all the same. Went through Spott, Burnhead, Pitcox, along the bridle path at the A1 and then back via Starvation Brae. It felt like the first proper "Sunday run" I've had in a while.
Unlike yesterday, when the run got cut short from about 12 to 8. The bloody wind was really picking up, and on a few stretches I was leaning 45 degrees into the wind, the heart rate was going through the roof and I was getting nowhere. Not nice at all.

Books. Last week I read "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming. Read a few of the Bond books when I was younger, and I've always thought they were better than the films they inspired. To be honest this is more of a short story than a novel and I read it in two sittings.

Timid by todays standard of crime/action thriller but a dam fine ripping yarn.  Got the whole series to look forward to. Added bonus? Nowhere in the novels is the action ruined by a lisping, golf club wielding, beardy, SNP loving twat!

Jazz. Oh lordy, too much to talk about. Way too much lately. I've been getting it quicker than I can listen to it. Got round the other day to "re-listening" to an album by Julian Joseph - "Universal Traveller". What a great album this is. There is a version of the standard "Never Let Me Go" that is breath taking. Every note from the piano sounds like it has been precision engineered. Each note falls into place with such clarity. It's as if icicles are melting and pure drops of water are falling into crystal glasses from a height. This sounds like vintage Bill Evans!

Then, as if I didn't have enough to listen to, I aquired today a recording of the Carla Bley band live in Hamburg in 1984. Only three tracks long but what the hell. Especially when one of those tracks is a version of one of my favourite Monk tunes "Misterioso".

Sunday afternoon. 14 mile run - done. Book - open. Jazz - present and correct. Bung a coffee and bit of cake in my hand and I'm happy as can be (and that's bloody rare).