Still ambling along

A good if tiring run on Sunday pulled a,long by three men from the jogscotland group, not actually pulled along you understand but encouraged along kindly as they pretended to be tired to match my pace. Still, 1:33 so not too displeased with that. The last section goes on and on with undulating hills that challenge and tire the legs. the dogs faithlessly accompanied whoever was at the front and then went with Matt (training for a marathon) to do an extra bit along the way without even a backwards look. Lucy then sat by his car willing him to take her home with him. Home again to find the deerstalkers packed and ready to go having left a wee present on the step...one deer head complete with eyes ready for Garret to remove them for the High School science teacher.....I get the nicest gifts.

A jogette round Lochgilphead

As far as the dogs are concerned 8.30pm is a very silly time to have a club (Toby) that means a run filled hour for the driver (me) as it means a fruitless couple of hours buffing my knee with their heads in an increasingly desperate effort to remind the hand that feeds that it in fact has not...No food before running is the rule but boy they were ready for it by the time we got back at 10. They are getting to know the highways and byways (along the canal for 1/2 a mile or so)  of the local town and even tolerated a drag along the car park past the car to make the distance up to 4 miles...hmmmm in the words of the teens of Clunarie..."sad". just realised TWO posts in a day...wow I am keen!

A soft spring seems to have arrived in Argyll at last with some warm days and clear cold nights which is very pleasant. I have even managed to start shifting the massive amounts of weeds from the garden into the piggies moths which is a pleasing way to re-cycle. They now come running Povlov style when they hear the squeaky wheel barrow approaching. This brave little primrose is just starting to peek out in my chilly garden, all over Argyll they are evident in warm spots but this is my first very won one and was only visible once the choking taller grass was pulled away. The weekend passed by in a blur of Athletics final in Oban for Freya  and a visit to collect the car from the garage. This cost me more than just the repairs as a trip to the cinema was promised so after giving the cinema all my money and mortgaging the house to buy some popcorn (Bizarrely cheaper to buy two medium drinks and one medium popcorn than two small drinks and a small popcorn which just meant that Freya and I cannot look a piece of popcorn in the face for a very long time...possibly never) we spent a very unchallenging and amusing couple of hours watching "Tangled" with lots of very young children. We sank down in our seats to try to blend in....The horse Maximus made the film and indeed is everything a sidekick should be.Everyone should know a Maximus!

First skiing of the year

A rather late start on Sunday meant afternoon passes only at the Coe which was as usual existing in its own little micro climate of snow. The roads became wintry only a mile or so away from the resort and sliding appeared to be obligatory for the cars attempting to park at the top end of the car park. The visibility faded as the chair lift climbed and was pretty poor as we skied off the chair life, so Scottish skiing normal...great snow if only you could see it! This was just one more challenge to the three musketeers Garret, Toby and Freya,  the rest of us did our best but retired to the cafe after a couple of hours to await news of the others. All was not lost as we managed to watch the ski daters (no really!!) self consciously sip their valentines champagne around a red heart strewn table...great entertainment! The old leg were a bit sluggish yesterday and crawled along a relatively easy 4.5 mile route but I don't think I had skied enough to blame it on that!

Jogscotland leaders refresher course

Time to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. Toby was doing the js leaders course so it was very nice to have company on the drive to Oban and to be doing something together. My course got off to a rocky start as the fitness instructor booked to do a drills session for the am was off sick but being resourceful folk we went out for a run along the front and out towards Ganovan sands which was lovely and great to chat and network with the other group members. They came from Islay, Campbellsport and Dalmally with all very different groups so the experience amongst us was very varied. The afternoon had a really good session with a nutritional specialising in sport and then a Q/A style discussion between us and the course organiser. Toby had a good day too.
PS Have just noticed that the amount of miles I have mapped in total on the below site is 1,449!! I am impressed.....and I don't always record every run..."Honk" what was that??Ahh the sound of someone somewhere blowing their own trumpet...shame on them.

Over the hills and Far away

..well, not too far but far enough on a lousy day. Liz and I headed out on a needs must as this was her only day off and so the weather is not allowed to stop us.  This is a run straight up from Minard which lies right on the shores of Loch Fyne. the forestry soon gives way to farming land and moors of the type I recognise from long walks in the Yorkshire Dales as a child. the weather on the way off was slightly more than drizzly rain but bearable. With jackets and hats soaking (Liz's more than mine as she dropped hers in a puddle when we stopped to leash the dogs through a field of cumbersome cows) we climbed and climbed to a lonely little holiday house in the middle of bleak beauty. Not the day to potter at the turn point we turned into the teeth of the wind to descend...and by that time it had developed big teeth! Joyful dogs had to be released as a nose drag through the puddles beckoned.....a shower and tomato soup at Liz's was about perfect! Back in the normal land of humans the ironing needed to be done to the accompaniment of The Archers and a rather odd R4 afternoon play.

Wet Wednesday

A right old breezy rainy day today....the kitchen is festooned with deerstalkers jackets, gun cases and riding clothes all jostling for a place to dry off...just a little. Perched at the side are some damp trainers  following a surprisingly dry jogscotland session in Lochgilhead, there was a little rain but some rather deep puddles too that claimed the unwary runner quite early on in the session. Some new faces there tonight which is nice to see. folk are beginning to talk about the years races, what to enter, what they have entered and what they are too late to enter already. The Kintyre run was full by the 23rd January so I got in by the skin of my teeth there. Planning to run tomorrow....maybe the forecast is not great for then either!