Strange Times

Its been a funny old week. Funny, just without the humour. Another 50 miles of training shoe-horned into my allocated 7 hours a week.  I’ve averaged around 7:10 min/mile for the week and I’m in good shape. The weather is also on the up.  Several reasons to be grateful.

Last Sunday, we attempted to start our weeks ‘training’ camp in a cottage in a nowhere location about a mile outside Aberfoyle. I was really looking forward to a week running in the hills. However, we had barely unloaded the car when the owner put in a surprise appearance and advised us, apologetically, that the place was closed and we might consider re-packing the car and going home. She promised a refund. Having driven the 3 hours north via Glasgow, I sat on the rear bumper and surveyed the remote forest, the birds chirping, the squirrels jumping in the late afternoon sunshine. It was enough to make you weep. We returned home via a chip shop in Dalkeith.  I was thankful that at least we had had a meal out! Maybe the last for a good wee while. The inaugural Dunbar Multi-terrain half has, of course, been cancelled together with the Gartmorn 6 and the Hartlepool 5m at the end of March.

We’ve been given leave to take an hours exercise a day. So this week I have tried a new route up Whorral Bank and then along the bypass cutting up by Fairmoor and then down to Mitford before returning home. It’s exactly 8 miles door-to-door. After getting the hill out of the way at mile 2, it’s a flattish run where you can disengage your brain and take in the air. It’s true, there have been some new joggers out and the pavement has been peppered with older couples taking the air rather than the shops, so I’ve mostly been running on the road, taking the courtesy to give everyone plenty of space. With everything cancelled or closed, the scope of what I can report on the blog is, not surprisingly, severely curtailed.   I had to give myself a little illumination, so I pre-entered the Lairaig Ghru, the race I decided was this years target. That was before it all went tits-up.

However, outwith my hours run, possibly the highlight of my day, I am reverting to trying to keep myself warm and rested. I have checked out how I might boost my immune system. Over-training is a no-no. It seems, also, that my hot baths, the small sanctuary where I read, are out. Ironically, there has been more than enough time to read. After completing William Boyds enjoyable ‘The New Confessions’, I have been making excellent progress with Dan Browns ‘The Da Vinci Code’. I am also ramping up the fruit and multi-vits.  I have been avoiding the shops. You can live on surprisingly little. I have been eating more since the lockdown started than I was beforehand. I have also run out of beer tonight. I probably shouldn’t be drinking any alcohol anyway; no marks on the ‘immunity charts’ and no marks on the ‘serious athlete chart’.  However, I have been getting plenty of kip, so if and when the lurgy comes knocking I’ll hopefully be ready for the contest, the only one that looks like it hasn’t yet been cancelled.