We had big plans for Saturday. We'd both signed up for the Goatfell Hill Race. Peter was going to do the Black Rock 5 on Friday night and then have a quick turn around and be fit to fight again the next day. I was working until just before 7pm on Friday. My car (oh no, not more of your car trouble...) has developed a rumble which I think from Googling is my wheel bearings. Sigh. It didn't seem wise to drive to Ardrossan on Saturday morning but getting up for the train meant something like a 5am start....and the weather was looking a bit bleak....
Both of us came to the conclusion it wasn't that great an idea. We've been busy the last 2 weekends so it seemed like a good option to have an agenda-free weekend and relax.
So yesterday we rolled out the door about 1pm. That's not great for my running. I'm better if I run earlier - and before I have an egg sandwich. However, you can't control every detail in life...or you can but it's exhausting. We went as we were. We went to do the run we intended to do last weekend, - start at Longniddry and run to North Berwick and get the train back to LN.
I had some intermittent intestinal bother with the egg but generally we were in good fettle and much laughter followed us. It was a brisk west wind and there was one particularly fierce shower. By that time we were out on the Aberlady nature reserve and we went to ground in the little scrubby forest just before the duck pond.
I took my new phone, which I can't work, to take pictures with. It bothered me all run by letting out little "pings". When I looked there were no texts, no messages, no phone-calls, no nothing. I don't know what its game is. It was only yesterday I figured out how to answer a call on it.
By near Gullane we were both hungry and Peter had all the money so I'm afraid I may have indulged in some rather childish wheedling and pleading to get us up into Gullane to buy a bun. I suggested we share a raisin brioche, but Peter quite rightly dismissed this as being ludicrous and we had one each, sitting on the bench across from Falkos in the sunshine and sheltered from the wind. It was a moment of pure happiness and peace. We could both have easily eaten another one each but didn't. Instead we set off on stiff legs along the road. Peter wanted to go back on the beach but I'd had enough of running on lumpy ground and being battered by the wind. I found it hard to get moving again at all.
Coming close to North Berwick I looked at my watch and realised that there was a chance of catching a train very soon but the timing would be tight. This is a terrible pressure, especially on tired legs. I cranked it up as much as I could, which was only to 8.30 pace or so...but it proved enough and we caught the train with maybe 2 minutes in hand.
Today we've had a "recovery" run which was a deal brisker than the run yesterday. I wanted to get some Tulsi tea from Holland and Barrett. I's a long story but I think it's too much cortisol which makes me slow down and my muscles ache. I'm a bit of a stress monkey and tend to see the problems ahead. I realised just today that when thinking about our holiday in the near future to Portugal all I thought about were the likely snags rather than my original vision, which was of running on cliff-tops in the sunshine and swimming in the 19 degree sea. Too much focus on the hurdles in life drains you. So I've been googling to see how I can calm my system and one of the things that came up was Tulsi tea. New age fad. It may be. But it provided focus for our run today.
So we went out the start of a normal recovery run for me, but then we ran up Dundas Street - a good sized hill - and then we went to Princes Street and had to dodge between all the people trailing about with their umbrellas up. I hadn't been 100% sure as we approached Princes Street whether H&B was to the left or to the right of where we were, but I thought it was to the left, so we went left. Peter expressed his misgivings more and more insistently the further along we got but I was pretty sure that it was quite near the Easterly extremity of Princes St. I particularly enjoyed him opining "Well left was definitely the wrong way to go!" as we arrived exactly at the door of the shop....
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