Two more training sessions put away

 

Two pretty little deer, what a treat.

 Yesterday the weather in Littlehampton was, on a scale of 1 to 10, (with 1 being good and 10 being bad), about 8 ½. It rained most of the day and was cold too. The day before that, Friday, when I did a 5km run in Arundel Park it was at least 2 since it was a most beautiful day, apart from in being November and England. The day before that tipped rain and the day before that it was fine when I ran then too. 

Today, on the one good and one bad pattern of the moment it was a 2 again. Absolutely fabulouswith sunshine wall to wall again but cold still. I swear that I do not have a private deal going with the almighty but maybe I am in favour just a little bit and for just a little while.

Last night, well, late Saturday afternoon anyway, during the alternate rainy day, very few people turned up for our club swim session at 5pm and I can’t say I blamed them for curling up in front of the telly. My husband is head coach of Arun Trinity Triathlon Club, so I was there. He is still ailing quite badly but got himself out of the comfy chair by the fire prepared to face the elements to help club members with their winter preparation for the 2017 season, so looking at it that way it was pretty sad that so few came to swim.

It appeared at the start, that I was the only one in my lane, so having set off the swimmers in lane 1 on their schedule, Steve thought it would be a good idea for me to do a 1900 mtr swim since I have entered the Ironman 70.3 at Elsinore in Denmark next summer. He said to just to try to keep a steady pace all through. I had got going on that, when the friend who also runs with us on Sunday turned up late and I thought he might set her off with me but instead he worked on her stroke in a set. That worked for both of us. I really enjoyed my swim and Steve was happy with my time.

This morning, he did not look well but still drove me the couple of miles to the start point on our usual Sunday 10km route through the woods and over the downs. He bought a FlipBelt back from his trip to Hawaii that allows me to carry my phone comfortably, I wear it below my waist and around my hips where it stays nicely in place. He insisted on the phone, since this route goes well out of touch. He also set me off with my watch with a second hand, so that if a walked at all, it was to be only for thirty seconds. On my other wrist was his tracker. He walked me to the usual start point and set me off. He would then wait to see my friend off five minutes later since she is a little faster.

When you cover a regular route at the same time, you do of course see other who have a similar regular habit. There is a man who walks two Labradors earlier than my start so I see him returning and pass the time of day. He has a splendid voice and ought to be an actor…. Maybe he is. Then he goes home nearby and goes for a ride on his horse but on a different route so that I see him again on his way out and on my way back to my finish point. The there is another man, that we all see deep in the woods and we call him, The Spirit of the woods, since we so often see him far from anywhere walking on his own. We see him at almost the same spot every time and our story is that he is a spirit and only appears at that spot, doomed forever to walk over and over again in one place.

This morning I also saw three guys on mountain bikes ride across Monarchs Way that I run two miles on before turning off, and then they rode on, on a path to the south. There were a few people out riding too.

 When I was running along the ridge path above Barpham, the Kite’s that nest near there were making a lot more noise than usual, in fact you don’t hear their mournful cry very much at all but today there was something up, I don’t know what but I guessed it was crows. Crows are such a bunch of oik’s aren’t they? Kites are it seems a fairly lazy lot and usually back off any contretemps with the bovva-boy crows. However they are big enough to take care of themselves if push comes to shove. They prefer a more peaceful life and go for easy pickings rather than fight for a meal, as is evident by the obvious reduction in spotting numbers of Lapwings, since they do lay their eggs in the farmland grass and have paid the price for that habit it seems. 

As you can see my attention does wander a bit because of my love of nature but I was brought back to planet earth when my friend passed me a bit before I got to the highest points of this route. Once she passed me, running barefoot as usual, I tried to keep her in sight and once on the slight downhill all the way back I did just that but did not catch her until she stopped at the bottom of the Gallops to put her trainers back on before going back on a hard path.

 

Steve was waiting to switch the tracker off as I got back but he was not looking great, very pale indeed, and after we had gone for a cuppa with Birgit we went home and I, as Mrs Bossy Boots put him to bed before going out to do the shopping. He did not stir for three hours poor baby. 

I might be going to the theatre on my own this evening…. we will see.