Lanzarote

Its been a good week with 55 miles clocked up. Most of these were in the sunny climes of Lanzarote; Club La Santa to be more accurate where we had got a good deal. Speedy Joe, Ant and the dark destroyer joined us. Five in an apartment with thin walls. An exercise in discretion.
A 4 hour flight to and from the resort for those with sporting inclinations was the only down side. I'm not a good flyer. Halfway through the holiday we discovered the trail north which took us off the familiar black sand and gravel onto burnished tan sands that extended  6 miles to the north to Caleta de Famara, all of it runnable.
We ate pasta or risotto on most nights. We were tucked up by 9:30pm. This had the distinct disadvantage of being rudely awoken by the shouting hoo-haas that echoed around the corridors of the hard surfaced complex. No matter, the sun was up every day and we did a bit of tennis and a bit of running most days with some yoga and aerial relaxation thrown in for good measure. We even got a morning out mountain biking. All of it was included in the facilities and they were very good. I booked myself in for a deep tissue massage with 'fingers' and he had me biting the towel as I peered down to the feet if the table through the peekaboo hole. Excruciating. I hope it was worth it and my performance next Saturday at Johnstone will be worth the pain.
We returned on Thursday to Blighty. The plane had two attempts at landing in the 50 mile an hour gusts and I can tell you I sat bolt upright trying to be brave, but mostly failing even as my bum got squeakier and squeakier and my palms damper and damper. There was a burst of applause when we landed, but were then subjected to 2 hours on the aircraft marooned on the tarmac in a wind too strong to allow the doors to be opened.
I've been doing a 7 mile route through the woods during the last few days. It used to be a sleepy wood strewn leafy path, but over the last 10 years it has become more and more frequently used and the romance of padding through an obscure trail has been partly lost.  Everything being well this week, I'm looking forward to wearing my new spikes and pulling on the Hawks vest for the first time in a long time.
I made very good progress through Gorky Park over the week and its been the best book I've read for some time. 550 pages for £2.50 from the charity shop. Now that's good value.