SENIOR MOMENTS.....

L

Oh lordy. Those “senior moments” seem to be coming thick and fast.

Forgot the shorts last night. No problem in that department today. Favourite pair of big baggy Nike shorts packed last night. BUT.

Just away to get changed at lunchtime and I got called back by a colleague “wouldn’t you be better off with your top?” I’d left it to “air” a bit on a hanger and was half way to the shower room without it.

Came back got the top. Got changed. Went out. Got a signal on the old Garmin… and had to come back in again! I’d forgotten the heart rate monitor.

But the worst has got to be, having chaffing and still forgetting my Vas’ !! God alone knows it’s a big enough tub. I think it’s actually marketed as a “Prison Party Pack Size”. So again I’ve had to “make do and mend”…

Ever been a run with your bits all slathered in Body Shop Hemp Hand Cream??

Quite nice J

INTIMATE

Got down to the club last night to discover a lack of a vital piece of kit…..shorts!!

How the hell I forgot to pack shorts is beyond me, but there you go – I did.

Luckily, in the store cupboard at Hallhill there is a box full of “official” club shorts. The box has been there for years. For good reason; they’re crap.

Stylish, cut sides, tight, green, efforts; made from a strange material that’s a mix of polyester and emery paper! But “needs must” and all that – a pair were donned and the run was undertaken.

Any yet again, for a Tuesday, it was run at speed. For a few reasons.. It was “bloody cauld” and the theory was the quicker you went the sooner you’d be back in the warmth. And  the “embarrassment” of being seen in these shorts.

So. The run went well, “really well” if I’m honest, given the strong winds. Felt good while I was out.

Then got back to the changing room to have a shower… “cold weather”, “strange shorts” – I’m sure you can see where this is going!

“Intimate chaffing” doesn’t even begin to describe the injury!! L

Got my proper shorts today, but even so, today’s run might be a bit subdued more a sort of John Wayne-ish shuffle.

STUPID SHEEP

Galashiels this morning for the third leg in the Borders Cross Country series. And once more we were blessed with beautiful blue skys and nice weather. Howling a gale mind - but at least it was blue skys.
However, it had rained the night before and the going was "soft" (for "soft" read downright squelchy and mud up to your dangly bits).
Brilliant!! If I'm going to do cross country at all that's how I want it to be!

Now. This is not a criticism - it's an observation. There were a lot of runners from the host club running the race today. Probably more than were marshaling. Which is a shame, because if the ratio had been a bit different, with more marshaling, perhaps we wouldn't have all taken the wrong route and missed out a sizable chunk of what was an excellent course.
Luckily however, everyone went wrong so the results still stand. But is was a shame I was enjoying it and it did seem to be over all too quickly. A couple of climbs that are pretty energy sapping at the best of times, but when your trying to run up hill into a strong wind it just makes it all the more challenging.
At one point a flock of sheep took fright and darted across the runners, right in front of me! I don't think it's correct "shepherding" terminology and would have probably lost me points if I'd ever been on "one man and his dog" but I did bellow at them to "F**K Off!"
A nice fast descent down the side of a field and then along the bottom to the part where we all went wrong.
Runners are, when alls said and done, rather stupid creatures. If one goes astray its fair to say that the remainder will just follow. Which is my defense. I was just following the runner in front of me and the guy behind me was just following me. But when we got to the part where everyone was clambering over a rather wobbly, crumbly dry stone wall even I thought "hang on, this cant be right". I was and it wasn't...everyone ended up missing about a mile out of the course. I also heard, after the event, that by the time 160 runners went over it there was a little less of the dry stoone wall than there was at the start.
At the end when word got round someone suggested that they "make them all do it again". I was up for that.

A very welcome cup of soup and a roll at the end before the journey home and the fun of trying to scrub all the mud off my legs.

SCANDANAVIAN CRIME - IDEAL FOR THE DARK NIGHTS.

Don't watch much in the way of crime fiction on the telly but I do read a fair bit of it. I know I should watch it and I might invest in the Killing Series 1 on DVD to see what all the fuss is about (though I've probably heard more about the main characters bloody pullover than any actual "crime").
And like just about everyone else at the moment I'm getting into a lot of Scandanavian crime novels.
I enjoy (or am still enjoying to be precise) the Stig Larsson books and I really enjoyed the first book by Jo Nesbo. Camilla Lackberg's "Ice Princess"was an enjoyable read as well.

I've read a lot, though not all, of the Wallander books by  Henning Mankell and have enjoyed those. I did find the first couple a bit "dry" but couldn't make up my mind if it was the way Mankell wrote or if the translator had been a bit too literal. There appeared to be very little in the way of descriptive "flourish" in his books. Rather everything was described quite coldly and clinically.

Anyhoo.. A new series of books has been brought to my attention. The Martin Beck books by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.

A Swedish Detective who like 99.99% of all fictitous detectives has not only murders to deal with but personal "issues".

If the first book in the series, "Roseanna", is anything to go by I think they'll be pretty good. Written in 1965 it's probably a bit "slow" for some peoples tastes. Certainly there's nothing in the way of car chases, shoot outs and they don't have "24 hours to save the president/world/whatever".

Rather; what there is, right at the beginning, is the discovery of a body in strange circumstances. There then follows a long description of the painstaking routine that has to be undertaken to identify the victim, establish motive and then track down a killer.

That maybe sounds a bit boring but it's the way this routine is described and the effect it has on the main characters that make it both plausile and enjoyable. If you like UK crime fiction I'd say that this is between Morse and Rebus (but probably gravitating closer to Morse).
Only another nine books in the series to look forward to. It'll be interesting to see how some of the minor characters develop as well.

Good thing about Scandanavian crime books is that I've a pretty large collection of Scandanavian jazz to listen to while I read it.
My next book I'm reading is set in Tzarist Russia. God alone knows what I'll listen to with that - Oscar Peterson in Moscow??

SHOCK - MR HAY SHARES "HAPPY" MOMENT.

Yet another beautiful day - even through here in the DGP.

So a brisk 6.8 miles up by the sparkling, azure, crystal waters of the majestic Clyde were in order. Wonderful. I could have happily just stayed out all afternoon.

Late November and the trees are still full of leaves - all shades of red, brown and yellow. So much better than green!

Not a cloud in the sky, no wind to talk of and, while it's not "scorching", still enough heat in the sun to warm your bones.

Quite a few other runners were out, as well as cyclists and rowers. I think everyone is just taking as much advantage as possible of this nice spell - and who can blame them? This weather's got to break at some point, might as well make the most of it.

Got the Gala leg of the Border's XC on Sunday - what's the betting is piddling down for that?

NOT REALLY THE WEATHER FOR CROSS COUNTRY....

I am loving this weather.
I'm a fan of the Autumn - best season of the year by far. And this year it just seems to be going on and on and on.
Can't help feel though that when winter finally does decide to show up it really comes along with a vengeance.
I did a 13 mile route yesterday that I haven't done since late May/early June. And I swear that yesterdays run was nicer. Other than the shadows being a bit longer, for early afternoon, you would never have known it was mid November.

Didn't get a  run in during daylight hours today because I was helping out at our clubs leg of the Borders XC, and even that was more akin to a summer's race than a traditional  cross country. Where's the ice and the hail and the biting cold wind that strips the skin off your flesh that we should be getting by this time of year? Cross country races should be characterised by groups of miserable looking runners all huddled together and wrapped up in layers of gortex and fleece trying to keep warm as much as possible before the off. Today everyone seemed to be in vests and shorts right from the start.
At one point today I looked down onto White Sands beach to be greeted by the sight of dozens of runners paddling in the sea after the race! Now, I'm not saying that a few dozen runners daft enough to go paddling in the Forth is a sign of global warming - but it's still not right, is it?
We should have got an ice cream van down for the day. Could have made a packet.

The route had a couple of changes this year. Some I knew about - some I didn't. We took the runners out along the beach a bit further this year (just for fun). That I knew about (the slippery rocks I didn't).

But I'd been busy telling runners that it was all pretty flat. So it came as a surprise when some of them came back talking about the "hills". Turns out Ian just added a few wee hills into the course to add a bit variety to the mix. Seems to have worked a treat.

Went my own wee run at 5pm and even then it was cool - but not cold. Shorts and tee-shirt weather.
Got a feeling it wont be like this for much longer though.

EXERCISE

Today is going to be my first rest day in two weeks (running wise). More than happy.
Decided after last weeks relatively low mileage week to try and up it a wee bit this week; so Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday saw me out twice a day.
Probably too much. Last nights interval session was bliddy tough going. I was absolutely knackered when I got home.

The last couple of weeks have seen me with a bit of a swollen foot. Just at the front of the ankle. You know the pain you sometimes get if you have shoes too tight over the top of the foot? That's the one.

Bit of swelling and redness just below the cuff of my running socks at the front and, possibly more tellingly, a sort of "squeaky-rusty-hinge" sensation when the foot was moved.
A quick impromptu examination from Dunbars resident GP confirmed what I'd suspected from a bit of Google assisted self diagnosis - tendonitis (or "Anterior Tibial Tendonitis" to give it it's Sunday name).
So, loads of Brufen and lashings of Ibruphen gel for me last week and this. I have also been doing some mobility exercises, which involve me sitting at my desk with the left foot pointing out and using the ankle to manipulate the pointy foot to write the alphabet in the air! This, for whatever reason, appears to work. However, it does get a bit boring so I've adapted it to include "pointy foot" sky-writing of profane messages about civil servants! It's a bit sort of Tourette Syndrome meets St. Vitus's Dance.  Draws some funny looks but it seems to have done the trick.

Going to try and do a bit LSD tomorrow then try and get a short run in on Sunday at some point. Might head off into the hills tomorrow - bit of solitude.