With all the excitement surrounding Doug Scott committing to do his presentation at our Cafe on 8th Oct. (see separate blog or our Events page for more details) I could almost be forgiven for failing to bore you with my latest running exploits, sadly you won’t be so lucky.
I followed up the Half Marathon PB with a recovery run last Tuesday afternoon, this was later than needed as by then my sore calves had tightened even more. At first they felt they were going to snap but slowly as I progressed along the Coed-y-Brenin’s Short Sarn Helen route a slight easing was sensed so I decided to extend the run to 10.5 miles, that said it was all at an extremely moderate pace.
Thursday dawned, recovery kicking in a repeat circuit beckoned, things on the up, pace increased so came home 15 minutes faster than two days before, all very positive.
Saturday, no news from the young wippet, aka Sion Harlow, who had been threatening to take me out on a merry dance so I decided to head out at 4:00 pm to recce the penultimate Walk (Lyn Elsi…) which I plan to run during June’s Reach Out for Nepal day. Run at a deliberately slow pace to set the scene for June it began to dawn on me that daylight was getting in short supply. Should I do the final climb onto the flank of Siabod & risk a rocky descent in the dark (obviously no headtorch was being carried as you might expect from a man of my experience). Correct answer was no, actual answer was yes, well what did you expect. Several thousand high foot lifts letter avoided all but one trip & I arrived at the Cafe safe & sound. At 15 miles with 2,300′ of ascent this is simply a great route to walk or run, note to self – take Dorina around it!
Sunday, a lean & mean Rowlands walked through the Cafe door shortly followed by her husband Kean, both happily talked to me about the runs they were going to do in the glorious sunshine & then came back to the Cafe to wallow in their glee at a washer of pots. We were soon joined by the AWOL wippet who despite continued ankle problems after last years Oggie 8 recently recorded a 1:08 Half Marathon putting my 1:28 firmly into context. As they left me to a further hard 3 hours on pots my mind drifted, enough is enough girls I’m out of here, just a quick 5 miler honest.
Away from their shackles it was time to mis-behave as only men can, Tryfan you are calling (well the base of it at least), run Paul run. Returning to the Cafe I even had time according to my reckoning to extend things by looping around Capel. 12 Miles & a great feeling of satisfaction saw me reach the Cafe just after the hoovering was done, planning, sometimes I even impress myself.
It’s all going so well, ‘Dorina, my stamina feels really good at the moment’, did she mutter ‘mine would too if I wasn’t washing your pots’.
Monday – dry & sunny again, is this possible? An hour on the Chain Saw was followed by 3 hours removing the carnage from a steep hillside, that’s alright Paul still O.K. to do that 20 miler at speed you’ve been thinking of ever since Twiggy & Peter sent you an article on ‘how to reduce your Marathon PB to below 3 hours’. I’m beginning to learn some lessons (well one to be precise), take a bag with fluids & two Gels. The two I didn’t learn were adjust plans when you feel tired running down the drive at the start & failing to turn back at the 8 mile mark when you feel the Wheels are coming off.
After 10 miles first Gel, first drink & turned back towards home, this felt a very long way off (by now I was nearer Barmouth than Coed-y-Brenin! Performance was now spiralling downhill despite needing to run up hill, last Gel gone with more than 4 miles to go only the failing daylight (a third lesson forgotten) kept me running as brain said Abort, Abort, Abort, so I didn’t! Reaching home emergency Yoghurt, drink, Shower then choose between cooking for Dorina & Titi (due home in half an hour or so) or do I lie down on the bed. You guessed it, Dorina found me in the bed & then cooked me an excellent meal whilst I spread Magnesium oil on my battered Calves.
Sometimes you can do too much, seems to happen to me too often at the moment, 3 times this year already, will I learn, in truth no I’ve eventually got my Birthday plan in place for next week, a run in the mountains, weather permitting it could be a bit of an epic even by my standards of lunacy. At least I’ve put measures in place to avoid a ‘Surprise’ party, do people actually fall for those?
Still on the bright side I am losing weight hand over fist to keep ahead of that Rowlands (the older one I mean), who uses banned substances aka ‘the lurgy’ to lose his weight. You would think he’d be kind enough to give it to me (at the moment all he gives me is returned lip & comments relating to his 1:18 Half Marathon PB from his once glorious past) so that I could rest my calves wouldn’t you!
