Well, I made a bit of a silly mistake tonight: Usually I go for a wee run as soon as I finish work, mainly because if I didn’t go then I wouldn’t bother that suits me best. Tonight, it was overcast, and about 22 degrees when I got home. I thought I‘d be smart, and wait a couple of hours before running, in the hope that the temperature dropped a little. Big mistake. The sun actually came out, and was beating down on me for all of my ‘speed’ session, and the temperature had actually increased! 😮
Oh, well.
Today’s stats:
Run: 5K slow speed session.
I did: 1K warm up jog; followed by 6x 300 metre sprints/200 metre recovery walk. I finished up with a 1K so-called ‘cool’ down
Time: 32:56
Trainers: Lunar Racers
Weather: bright and very sunshiny! Again! Woop Woop!
Best running track of the day: Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. It kicked in just when I needed it!
So, as we head towards another weekend, there’s another event on in the fantastic village where I live. It’s the Tarbert Traditional Boat Festival, which kicks off tomorrow night 😀
There are quite a few boats in already, and while I ran along by the pontoons, I could hear fiddle music filling the air, which was lovely!
The village was pretty busy for a Thursday evening, with people eating at tables outside the cafes, and strolling along the harbour, enjoying the view and the weather. It looks like we’re in for another cracking weekend!
Today’s life lesson: Sometimes I say things to try to make things better, and end up doing the opposite. Mental note- think through what I say before I say it!
‘Running is like Salmon.’ So my sister said when she managed to get her breath back at the finish of the inaugural The Color Run UK event in London on Sunday. ‘I really, really want to love it, and I keep on trying it, but I just don’t like it that much!’
Huh! Don’t hold back on your views, there! 😉
I arrived home in the ‘wee small hours’ of this morning, and I was then up early to get ready for work, caught up at work today, and planned to go for a run tonight. I did run tonight- but it was only a wee shortie!
Today’s stats:
Run: 1 mile. I had lead-legs the whole way!
Time: 9:48
Trainers: LunarGlides
Weather: Warm, muggy and cloudy
My running track of the day: God is a DJ- Faithless
The Color Run UK event was fantastic. It was roasting hot, but fortunately our hotel was very close to the start line so we didn’t have to travel too far before the run, or stand around before the race for too long. I’ll post a full race report later this week- but the headline is, it’s brilliant! As a sneak preview, I thought you might like to see a ‘before’ and ‘after’ pic:
Can you tell which is which??
I’ve had a fantastic couple of days with my sis in London. We did plenty of this:
And we did plenty of this:
We also did loads of sight seeing:
And yesterday, to stretch our legs and make the most of the weather, we hired a couple of Boris’ Bikes, and cycled around Hyde Park:
We even squeezed in some shopping in Harvey Nichols and Harrods- including visiting their Christmas shop, of course! 😀
I’m now working my way through the humungous small mountain of laundry that is covered in powdered paint!
Today’s life lesson: Trying to run after 3.5 hours sleep is not such a good plan 😮
So, it’s Saturday, and today @TheWelshWookie is away for a fortnight. We started this morning with a Strawberry and Pineapple protein smoothie, and while he headed out to meet his cadets, I headed out for my run.
Today’s stats:
Run: 9 mile long run: with three weeks until the RnR Dublin half, the taper starts now!
Time: 1:28:39 I’m pretty happy with this 😉
Trainers: LunarRacers
Weather: Warm, but cloudy- the sun burned through the cloud, and broke through just as I finished
First running track of the day: Kanye West – Stronger
The village was quite busy this morning, with lots of visitors around. The harbour itself had loads of boats coming in and heading out:
It’s the Tarbert Raft Race today, and it looks like they’ll have perfect weather for it. There was quite a bit of hustle and bustle, with people preparing for the event:
Is there always something going on in Tarbert I hear you ask? Well, yes- quite often there is! 😀
When I reached the mid-point of my run this morning, a sea plane flew overhead:
It circled right around the village, then headed back out over Loch Fyne. Sorry for the grainy pic, I was trying to run and take a pic at the same time!
Now, I’m going to finish packing, and start the first leg of my journey to London for the Color Run UK tomorrow- squee! I’m so excited!
Today’s life lesson: when you put your lunch in the oven, don’t forget about it. Burnt tortilla pizza is not good.
Has anything surprising stopped you in your tracks during a run before?
I did: 1 mile warm up jog; followed by 7x 30 second sprints/30 second recovery walk. I then walked/jogged home, but I’m not too sure how far that was!
Time: 28:56
Trainers: Lunar Racers
Weather: bright and very sunshiny! Again! Woop Woop!
Best running track of the day: Matinee, Franz Ferdinand. I love this. It reminds me of a former boss I had 🙂
I’d had a meeting in Helensburgh today, so I’d spent about 4 hours cooped up in the car, driving, so it felt great to stretch my legs tonight. I knew it would be hot, after last night, but I think I was better prepared for it tonight! I think it was around the 25 degree mark again. Hot (for here!)
I fancied a change of scenery, so instead of running along the village harbour I headed out to the West Loch, and ran down to that harbour instead.
It made a lovely change, but is quite a short run, on its own. The first mile is downhill, then it flattens out a bit to the harbour itself, and the final mile home is back uphill, which was tough, but what I needed! I felt great, hence the *squee* in the title, even though I was icky and sticky with suncream….again! 😮
I also took a pic of this old sign, which I thought was quite quaint:
Today’s life lesson: carry your camera, or have your iPhone to hand when you’re driving, ready to pull in and take a snap. I saw the paddle steamer The Waverley today, but didn’t get a pic of it 😦
OK- so it was very hot, at about 25 degrees, and very humid which is not something I need to deal with every day! So, my run was very slllloooooow and pretty short as a result. But I did it!
It actually felt great, to get out and stretch my legs, since I hadn’t run since Friday. Except for the sticky suncream. Yuk. Factor 1,000,000 30 since I burn as soon as the sun appears, even if I’m only out for, maybe, 30 seconds 😉
Today’s stats:
Run: 3.5 mile recovery jog
Time: 35:37 slow and steady
Trainers: Free Run +3
Weather: bright and very sunshiny!
Best running track of the day: Hey Boy, Hey Girl, Chemical Brothers:
As it was a short run, I decided to wear my free run +3s. I only wear these for really short runs, as I much prefer my lunars for longer runs.
Here are my fabby coloured free runs:
And here’s a wee pic of my Nike trainers:
As you can see, I quite like a wee splash of colour! I do like to keep my trainers in rotation, to extend their wear and to make sure they’re in decent condition next time I run in them.
Tonight @thewelshwookie and I are toasting Andy Murray’s success having cracked open this beauty:
Today’s life lesson: whenever you take a day off, your workload is always waiting for you, including a couple of surprise challenges! For me today, that’s gone for both work and running!
Which suncream do you use when you run on sunny days?
Woo hoo! It’s Friday! And I’ve kicked off Seafood Festival weekend with an early long run I say early because I had to do two things:
Run before work (I usually run in the evening) so I was up early, and knackered raring to go;
Do my long run a day early. I usually try to get my long run in on a Saturday, but I don’t want to disappear and leave my visitors for over two hours tomorrow! Not very hostess-with-the-mostess!
Today’s stats:
Run: 11 mile long run
Time: 1:55:34 slow and steady
Trainers: Lunarglide+5
Weather: cloudy, with a little spot of rain during the last two miles
First running track of the day:
As I said, my run was early in the morning, which was a bit of a shock to my legs! For the third time, I donned my new, bright pink, compression socks, to give them another try. The jury is still out as to whether I think they are helping- I think they are, but I’m not entirely sure! Do you want to see how fetching they are?
Lovely, huh? Nobody tells you that it takes about 10 minutes to get them on! Or maybe that’s just my chubby legs 😉
It was lovely and cool outside, and the rain had stopped awhile, leaving a bit of humidity in the air (no laughing- we do occasionally get a touch of humidity on the West coast of Scotland!). It was surprisingly lovely to run when the village was still quiet and peaceful.
Here’s a pic I took with the Cafebarge just peeping into the foreground:
And here’s another from the harbour:
Can you see the boat to the left of the picture, with the yellow trim? That’s Singing Sands. She used to be parked along the side of Garvel Road, out of the water. She marked the first mile of my run, most days, and was always a welcome site. Now, I have to rely on Nike+ for my mile marker, but it’s lovely to see her in the water.
Today’s life lesson: it’s always a good idea to make sure your Nike Sportswatch is charged before a long run: had to use my iPhone instead!
We have the Seafood Festival this weekend: what do you have planned?
This picture, from The Perth Kilt Run’s Facebook page, are of two tartan-clad mascots meeting for the first time :
The handsome mascot dressed in red is the brilliantly named Hairy MacKilty, he is the mascot for www.perthkiltrun.co.uk/ I’ve signed up for this 5k race and can’t wait to join many others in breaking the world record for the number of kilted runners! This event is open to all, with a day full of fun and entertainment planned- including music from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers!
The mascot on the left is the über-cute Baxterbear. He is an adventurous bear indeed, whose mission is to provide positive support to various good causes. He started off his adventures as a WWII reconnaissance co-pilot, and he continues to provide support to people who need it today. You can read more about his many adventures at worldofbaxterbear.com
Baxterbear was on-hand with Hairy MacKilty to support ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, who are one of the main fundraising partners of the Perth Kilt Run.
Today, I met the DreamTeam for a spot of lunch, where we promised that we would not talk about work for a whole hour. We didn’t even last five minutes! Anyway, we had a lovely lunch at The George Hotel in Inveraray. It was busy, and as ever, the food was great. We all had dessert, as their selection is fantastic. Knowing that I would be heading out for a run after work, I still decided to have a Hazelnut Pavlova served with blackberry & cream ice cream. It was amazing! Want to see?
I knew that I’d need to head out for my hill run this evening, but being absolutely stuffed a little full after lunch, I was able to have a quick flick through my BodyFit magazine, which arrived in the post today:
When I felt that I couldn’t put it off any longer I could actually begin to run, I headed out for a hill session. Now, this is something I’ve been putting off for quite some time! I’m the first to admit that I like to run on the flat, and any incline is difficult for me. Anyway, having signed up for the TT10K in August, I thought I’d better try out a couple of the hills that I know are en-route.
I headed out along the harbour as usual, and along to Garvel road end, which is the start of the TT10K. I ran along Garvel Road, and turned onto the main road to face the first, and the smallest, of the hills I was tackling today:
Doesn’t look to bad, eh? It was actually ok, I wasn’t heaving and gulping in air when I got to the top. Immediately after this one, though, I crossed the road, and turned the corner onto the high road, to face the second hill. Don’t be deceived by the next picture- this is only the start of it, and the rest of the hill is over the brow of the one in the picture below:
Yeah, right, I hear you say. It can’t be that high? Well, just to show you how high it is, I took a pic of the harbour where I started, from the viewpoint at the top of the hill:
Pretty high, right? And gorgeous, of course. So lucky to live here.
Anyway, I managed the second hill OK too. I continued my jog back down the high road, and back along the front of the harbour, making my way to the hill that would take me up to Tarbert Castle and the Castle loop, which is a trail part of the run. This is the monster biggest of the three hills, and it snakes and winds its way up to the Castle. Here’s the first part:
Well, by this point, my large lunch was beginning to take its toll and my legs were a bit heavy, so I lumbered powered up as best as I could. I admit that I had to stop and walk for about a minute, then I continued to run to the top of the road and onto the trail.
I had planned to finish here, but as I am totally crazy it was such a lovely evening, I thought I’d just take on the Castle Loop too. 😮
This was tough going- much more hilly to run than I remembered from walking it in the past, but I’m glad I stumbled, walked and jogged my way around it. I stopped at a bench because I was knackered to take a picture, but it doesn’t really show much, I’m afraid, though it is really pretty:
I then headed home, to watch Andy Murray win! Woo Hoo!
Today’s stats:
Run: 3.5 mile hill run
Time: 40:25 (lots of walking!)
Trainers: Lunarfly GTX
Weather: sunny- yay!
Fave running track of the day: Gotta Get Thru This, Daniel Bedingfield. This track came on as soon as I reached the hill up to the castle!
Today’s life lesson: Don’t expect to have lunch with work folks, and avoid talking about work.
Also, don’t have a big dessert and expect to run as if you haven’t!
Have you ever regretted doing anything before going for a run?
A taste + rate / debate of gluten free dining in Glasgow Scotland. By newlyweds team The Murphy’s. Want the latest on her fashion updates too ? Join writer/ blogger @cityslickerinthestix.com
TartanJogger 