CAPSTAN

Oh my, oh my. Today's run was feckin' awful.
Combination of things. First up: I did a very hard run last night at the club. It's been playing on my mind for a few weeks now that during the "summer" I always seem to have a lot of other things on on a Tuesday night that curtails the length of time I can go out for my club run. So. Given that I had hee haw on last night I decided that I wanted to go a wee bit further.

Ended up running with Ian S and Grant. We went through John Muir, over by Geordies Gate and up past Biel and Pitcox. But it was fast. Or fast by my standards and, given that I was setting the pace for the first half or so, I've only myself to blame there. Ended up with the old average heart rate not far off my "red" zone (over it in quite a few cases).

Enjoyed the run, but today my legs felt heavy and empty so the eight miles I did at lunch time started slowly, sort of petered out in the middle, and the least said about the last bit the better.
Second up: The weather. People may be aware that I'm not summers biggest fan. But if your asthmatic and have hay-fever and the weather is hot, humid, damp, clammy and close, with hardly a breath of air? Well to be honest I'd be as well running along with a "Capstan Full Strength" dangling from my lips and a spare one tucked behind my ear. Every weed and bit of grass in East Lothian seems to have gone into overdrive these last two days or so. You can taste the pollen...never mind smell it.
Got home wheezing away like an old steam train.... only to have our neighbours dog Cassey bound up to me. A lung full of dog hair. Splendid...bring it on. The dog was only being playful, but I am sure they know who's allergic and do it maliciously.

On the plus side, once I'd got through the door and sooked away on my inhaler for a bit I discovered that our postie had delivered my latest "find" at Amazon. Stan Tracey - "Sound Check" a double CD, one disc with the Stan Tracey trio and one with him and his wee boy Clark improvising on piano and drums. I'll listen to that once the rust bellows that are my lungs have settled down a bit.