A Midweek Ramble

Tonight's plan is a steady hour and a half or so. Helen is keen on getting some miles in and so am I, and it's a relief when everyone else heads out for the speed session - it's not that company is unwelcome, just good that there's no-one else to dictate the pace! The pace turns out to be the best one of all, the one that conversation dictates.

I love this kind of running - easy enough to chat but fast enough to be more than a jog. Miles and time fly past, and so they did tonight. So did one vital turning, but it simply added time, and it's hard to feel guilty about that when you need time on your feet. Pace is irrelevant anyway - there are fallen tree-trunks to climb. stiles to cross, and then as the evening darkens under cloudy skies there are dimly lit paths through the woods to negotiate.

Helen shows me where some of the more interesting hill sessions are run in Petty Pool Woods. I ran my first hill rep session 26 years ago and they still fill me with a mixture of joy and dread. At the end of the day, I like hard hills, especially in races, because they give me a chance to pass people - but they still hurt! Good hill legs will be vital for Snowdonia, but I don't need to work on them tonight - plenty of time for that come Saturday!

Anyway, back to those darkening skies and darker woods. The path is wet and churned with the passage of bikes and it's difficult to run on - then I find a slippery tree-root and I'm on my arse. Luckily I do manage to land on something soft (my backside) and it doesn't seem like I've done any damage.

It's pretty dark by the time we get back to Knight's Grange, and everyone else has long finished and left. It's been a good evening though, and one I wouldn't have done on my own, so a late supper is no hardship. I'm planning another nothing day tomorrow, then the track session on Thursday. When I get home, there's an email from Craig, who I met at the Welsh Castles Relay when he ran the same leg as me from Dolgellau to Dinas. He's been asked to come to Cheshire to work for a couple of days and asks if I'm free for a run on Thursday. He's staying in a place called Winsford and wonders if I live anywhere near there!