Hitting the trail again.....

We'd good weather for Saturday's run....(Click to enlarge)

      After a fifteen day lay-off I managed to hit the trail again last Saturday but was far from firing on all cylinders. I'd opted for a short 4 mile run with my wonderful partner, keeping low level so as not to put undue strain on offending muscles. Apart from a slight pull in my Rt calf, which subsided before I got home, all went well and we'd a delightful run as far as Woodhouse farm and back along the riverbank where a kingfisher flashed by in the sunshine. I stretched and used the 'Stick' on calves, hamstrings and quads: the animal was happy. Until Sunday morning. As day dawned, just about every muscle in my body felt to be overflowing with lactic acid. You've heard the expression 'stiff as a board', I was a living example of it.

      I had to get out of bed because I needed the loo, but quite a lot of 'ouch's' were uttered as I shuffled

....so all smiles

along the landing and finally made it. For a short time, the ouches changed to aaahhhs. Then I'd to negotiate the stairs because it's my job to make breakfast, but it was a slow process that incurred quite a few more 'oohs and ouches' as I forced my rickety bones downwards with very little help from gravity. (My wonderful partner attends to the stove, riddling it, feeding it and emptying the ashes, because I've some difficulty bending down at that early hour!). Then I'd to get back upstairs to change into Sunday clothes ready for the morning service, a Methodist Covenant service at which I'd been asked to read the lesson, so I couldn't very well get out of it. Thankfully, by the time I'd walked the 300m along to the Chapel I was beginning to loosen up and my 'banana back' had almost straightened. If there was any consolation, my voice was in fine fettle.....

Flying along the riverbank, trying to keep warm, on Monday

      Lots of sunshine was forecast for Monday so I opted to stay in the Dales and do a longer run - 6 miles, again avoiding hills as much as I could. Huh, I waited well into the afternoon but the promised sunshine never arrived. It was overcast with an arctic blast that brought the wind-chill factor to around freezing point as I set off along the village street to run the Appletreewick circuit. Oh, I thought, I'll just have to run faster, but it wasn't that easy against the force of the wind. Even in gloves my hands were frozen and I was beginning to experience that 'block of ice' feeling in the chest with all the cold air being breathed in. Strangely, my bare legs felt quite warm! It was a huge relief to step back into a warm kitchen for my warm-down stretches. To be honest it wasn't such an enjoyable run at all, but I was glad I'd done it. How can you appreciate all the good days if you don't have mediocre ones to compare them with? The late Mal Duff had another way of putting it - "Good days are earned by all the crap ones".  Yeah, I know what you mean Mal.....