More fartleking about.....

      The season of mist is well and truly upon us. This morning our local hills were shrouded in the stuff. It was

Misty morning.....(click to enlarge)

raining too with wind tearing at the trees, temperatures plummeting to single figures and rivers starting to rise. Time to turn on the central heating. Well, almost... "It's what us pensioners have to do to keep warm" I'd joked to a hooded figure I jogged past on Castle Hill last week. I doubt if he heard me for on each of the four times I past him he'd a phone clamped to his ear. His dog had deserted him and headed off in pursuit of rabbits, but he didn't appear to have noticed. And I couldn't help wondering who he could be having such a long conversation with while strolling alone on top of a freezing cold hill when it was barely daylight? Or whether his wife knew? Then again, he may well have been pondering why a bearded old git was prancing around in a pair of shorts in such a place at that unearthly hour......

     

Sunrise on Castle Hill - worth getting up early for....

I was fartleking, that's what, though it was quite unplanned. On Wednesday I'd set off for a steady three mile run before breakfast but became so entranced with the gorgeous sunrise, a hint of frost on the grass and the landscape lighting up as I ran, I'm afraid I got a bit carried away. Reaching a slight slope I started airplaning, picking up speed as I went, and careering along joyously for around 130m. It felt good, so I repeated it on the next circuit, and the next, and the next......  Between times I began accelerating along a 200m stretch I used for repetition runs in days gone by when training more seriously with races in mind. Without ever running eyeballs out I was enjoying the faster spurts in the sharp, frosty air. So much so that my planned three miles got stretched to 5.18. I didn't really want to go home.

      After breakfast I plugged my Garmin into the computer to record the run and was happy to learn that

Michaelmas daisies - autumn colour in the garden....

whilst the slowest 200m burst was a not to be sniffed at 6.50 pace, my fastest 130m run was an astonishing 5.22 pace (not that I always trust my Garmin!). Another point about the run was that at no time had I felt the need to walk - in spite of 420ft of ascent - and I'd finished feeling fresh. I repeated the run on Thursday morning but kept all the faster bits to what I considered a respectable 6.45 - 6.50 pace. And again on Friday morning, though I didn't get to bed until turned midnight after my computer crashed, all the icons disappeared from the desktop and emails disappeared into thin air never to be seen again. I managed to restore the icons but spent a stressed and sleepless night trying to figure out how to restore the errant emails. I never did.

     

On Grassington Moor - winding up for a fast mile....

Once upon a time Sunday's long runs stretched from 18 to 22 miles. Nowadays I seldom reach 10 and 6 has become more the norm. Because of the shorter distances I feel I ought to inject a bit more quality into them - which is why the 4th of 6 miles last weekend became a so-called magic mile. In truth, it wasn't very fast at all. I can still produce speed over short distances but I can't maintain it for very far. The wheels are still OK but the engine is getting a bit knackered! Anyway, whilst my wonderful partner was wandering around Barden Moor on National Park duty I decided to have another go over last weekend's route to try and improve that appalling time. I failed again - or I think I did. What actually happened was, I pressed the wrong button on my Garmin at the end of the fast(er) mile so I'll never know how long it took. I'd like to think it was about 4 minutes but I don't think anyone would believe that!

      All in all I clocked 26 miles last week, running all the way. Well, except to take a few photographs of those amazing sunrises.