This has indeed been a week of variations. Changes everywhere. I had done two runs this week in dense fog and during the prelude to first light which means that it was actually still dark when I started out. There are the most amazing differences dependent of the weather, when you are deep into the woodlands. I have been trying to get to a good view point for the sunrise when I can and so this means starting out in the next thing to darkness. Twice this week there has been fog that was so thick Steve didn’t bother with any photos because you couldn’t see much anyway. It was like something from a spooky horror movie complete with owls hooting and even in the first light it was so gloomy. I loved it. It really made me smile to hear two different kinds of owls, the first was a classic tremulous ‘Whoooo… Wwwhhhooooo’, and then a couple of miles away another one with a sharper louder, not quite screechy hoot. Wonderful.
I walk the first quarter mile since I cannot see a blinking thing to tell the truth and the narrow lane where my start point is quite uneven has a few ruts, and further up, even a couple of sleeping policemen for the half-asleep early running to trip-over. So I take it easy to start off and wait until the spot where I know the path evens out and is safe. However, whilst I have been running to mostly on my own, Steve had insisted that I take my phone in a slip belt around my waist just in case of a disaster. When we run together, he wears to slip belt and takes all the photos. If my run is to be mainly flat-ish then he has been riding his mountain bike near me.
When I am doing one of my regular 8-mile runs, that are much more hilly, and in places very muddy and Steve simply goes for a walk as his own therapy exercise, since his injury is still not in working order for running, and anyway he will have to start back sensibly. He takes a different route with a short cut so that he can see me and my run partner and take photos or videos, close to our turn point which is 1.8 miles as the crow flies from our car.
Our 8-miler consists of most of our 10km route, but we turn after four miles and return over the highest section, so it is good and hard enough a work out for us both. My friend is 14 years younger than me and we are totally different runners, she is a fairy light toe runner and her arms are often out at the side like dainty wings. She carries a small soft back bag so that she can pick up discarded trash, or pretty feathers, horse shoes, a mouse skull on one occasion that I remember, and also to puts her trainers in the bag when she removes them to run barefoot on the grassy bits winter and summer or holds them in her hands.
I am a heavier runner altogether with a heel strike and a bad supinating action. I change my trainers twice a year or more or rotate my trainers. I need stability; I am unstable in more than one way I am told! I am a plodder and do a lot of counting to keep myself going, especially of the uphill bits, I will walk through very muddy bits. I count foot strikes of my right leg, sometimes in sets of sixty as rough minutes, or else on long runs in sets of hundreds trying to keep the rhythm, it helps if I listen to music mentally too, which is something that I have always done. Sounds a bit hypnotic and well, yes, it is I suppose, but it works for me. I realise that at my age it would be pretty stupid to invite stumbles the last thing I need is to fall over and hurt myself. The older you get; the longer injuries take to heal.
Like everybody some runs are better than others, today was marvellous and I felt happy and sound but on Thursday I had a real rubbish run after a very bad night’s sleep and turned around after a mile and a half and walked back because I was feeling a bit light headed, only slightly but It really isn’t much good flogging a dead horse. You need to know the difference in how you feel and listen to your body.
Wildlife count today: I saw three little deer, who looked as though they had lost their mummy. They were stopping and starting and looking around before bouncing off. Then I saw what must have been the same three a little further on going in a totally different direction. Hope they found her.
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