Tuesday 17 March 2009

She's left me

but only temporarily. She's off on the island helping MaYa with the 'phews. All still surviving last I heard. Anyone who knows her send her stuff, emails, anything, she desperately needs the entertainment.

So whilst she's been away I've watched far too much TV (ranging from 'stylista' Blarney you'd love it; to 'How London was Built' which no-one but a numpty like me could find love for) and even some films, but you know, bad films, Oceans 13 - anyone? And we're only 2 days in.

I'm still working on my big project. But that remains under wraps until I've got it sorted in my mind.

Also loads of actual real live work on at the moment which is good timing. Got 4 different sets of designs sent off over the w/end. It's almost like a real work ethic and everything. But in all honesty I'm at that delightfully manic time in the month when I question where the line is between bi-polar disorder and menstrual cycle.

Even managed to get the long run done. As those who know my tweets will be all too aware - I didn't want to go, my get up and go had turned all Elvis on me. But hell, once you put the kit on (and some nice new kit courtesy of TKMaxx too) it always feels like a fait accompli.

So - the stats:
12 miles - 2.04.46 - avg 10.24

9.30 - flat / 9.49 - flat with incline at end / 9.59 - all up
10.57- all up / 10.37 - up, then down for last .3 / 9.27 - flat or slight down
10.45 - all up / 11.20 - gentle solid rise / 10.00 - gentle down
9.58 - down or flat / 10.52 - flat / 11.28 - flat, just me being crap

When checking the elevation there was 110m of climbing - this to someone who doesn't like hills is a bit crap. Some of it was really hard. (We'll ignore that there was 109m of descending.)

Observations:
Red squirrel at mile 3.5 really brightened up the biggest climbing section.
Fields of half eaten bagies smell foul.
I get bored by straight roads, so bored I turned back on a dead straight 2 mile stretch and ended up doing one of those poxy - run 0.3 of a mile, turn back, run 0.3 again. I'm an idiot.

After a hot shower and a little time thinking I might die I decided to cycle to the pub for dinner - at the ungodly early hour of 6pm. The food was excellent - anything I didn't cook would have tasted like joy.

It was v hard work cycling on the way back esp as I only took puffa gillet so was freezing like an idiot. It was the real sign of a cycling novice - go outside, decide it's not cold, forget at 16mph it will suddenly feel chilly.

The way home was at dusk, so a bit hairy but I walked through village and only cycled on our dead end road. And avoided any dark patches on the road that might be potholes. I've checked a few places, does anyone (UK) know where to get good cycle lights that might actually light your way rather than just flash drivers to let them know you exist?

Bats flittered around my head as I cycled home, that really rocked, I love bats and have only ever seen them at a distance, or known that those things flying at night weren't birds. (TheO taught me that, I'd never really considered it before she said.)


Today - in some fit of madness - I took the dogs for a 54 min walk (who knows why the exact minutes matter) 27 min of which was up hill. Think it might have done the job and worked out any latent soreness though. I'm not praying to go down stairs backwards like last week. Also lovely lunch in Birnam - I'm wondering how many tuna baked potatoes I can eat whilst TheO's away. She left on Friday and the count stands at 2. (We'll also ignore the cake/chocolate count.)

xx

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

SAM,

I just wanted to drop a line and say that as a lady lover and runner from the US, it's nice to see a blog from someone else in a similar lifestyle. It shouldn't be a biggie, but we're rather underrepresented (or closeted, take yer pick) where I live, and I'm always glad to feel a little less solitary in blogland. Happy running!

Ruth said...

Dude, Al can bore you stupid about bike lamps any time you have a few hours to spare.