About 5 Weeks To Go

sunrise from the top of Ribbesford over looking Stourport

And we're off again. So the week following the WOW I felt pretty darn good which was nice. Didn't run much, maybe 40 miles, but I did get back to my body weight routine which felt good after a few extra days off from it. This week I'm hoping to get in 60 plus miles running and then ramp it up for the following two more weeks and finally give myself about 3 weeks to taper.

Ideally I'd  like to get in two 30 milers but I think I'd be happy with one. I just need to be mindful of injury. I'm tired. I feel it in every workout and I feel that I'm on that cusp of too much which is bad. As long as I don't push over I should be good. My Achilles is still oddly sore. I've been working on my calves and also my feet which seems to be helping. It's not sore to the touch which is good but as I've said every time I mention it, it's there. A very mild pain at the back of my heel that goes away after I either stretch my calf or run for a bit. What I really should do is get a massage, a nasty painful, no fun, rub down on my legs to loosen them up but I think I'll save the money and try and do it myself. I've got a couple mobility moves that are great for my calves. Just need to do them which as of the past few days I've been on top of. Not sure if they are helping but I can tell my soleus is tight and may be the problem.

Bird In Hand pub

It's getting darker later now in the mornings which will make my uber early mornings tougher to handle. I love them, Wednesday I was up at 415, but it's bordering on headlamp time. Also I normally cut through a park which when it's dark out I hate. Two nights ago the ghetto bird, aka police helicopter, was flying over town due to yet another mugging/sexual assault in a park. Love this place, just waiting for that day to come when I bump into a gang of sweat pants wearing, tattooed, drunks leftover from a night of boozing. I shouldn't stereotype, but hey, that's the profile of the white trash here, aka "chav" or council housed and violent.

Bullock Lane Bridge

Anyway, I've changed my diet quite a bit for some time now. I've been eating a high fat diet which has been interesting. I figured I'd give it a go since I'm tracking what i eat in order to be sure I'm eating enough. So mainly focusing on high quality fats from grass fed real butter, eggs, coconut oil and milk, nuts, meat, fish, avocado; so no crap. Then of course a ton of fresh vegetables, some fruit but I've been trying to get my carb intake down to 150 grams. It's been going well. I no longer get "the hanger" from sugar crashes and my energy levels are way more consistent. I'm eating about 3200 calories a day which seems to be optimal for me. I'm not too strict and my carb intake is usually around 200 - 250 grams a day. It gets bumped up from 150 grams mainly due to fruit and I also have quinoa for breakfast post run to replenish my glycogen stores since I don't eat before I run.  I'll eat crap sometimes too; cookies, ice cream, pizza, beer, etc. I don't eat much of that stuff anyway so it's not a treat or anything, just something different. 

So why? Here's the basic thoughts. Well if you feed your body fat it changes gears to burn fat more efficiently versus relying on carbs. Fat is a far better fuel than carbs, it's slow burning, we have a ton of it in our body, even skinny people do, and many argue that it's what we are suppose to be eating. Way back before agriculture it's what we survived on. We hunted and gathered. Sometimes the hunting was bad so we survived on our fat stores until we bagged more animals to eat but until then we ate what we could find. More and more studies are coming out proving this all to be true, cholesterol and saturated fat aren't the enemy, it's the processed foods, sugars and carbs that are bad. But what about heart disease, etc? Take a look at current populations such as the Inuits, they subsist on fat. They have extremely low statistics for any heart related illnesses as do other similar populations. Anyway, I'm not going to get into more "proof",  just google it and there is a ton of info out there, more everyday. Remember, the government came up with the "food pyramid", do you trust them?

I think the biggest benefit is I no longer have "the hanger", hunger induced anger. Despite missing saying "uh oh, I feel the hanger" I sure don't miss those crashes! Don't get me wrong, I have my doubts, and am curious to get a blood test after I've been doing this for a while to see what my cholesterol etc is looking like. But for now I'm most likely the leanest I've ever been. Stronger too. The wife says I'm "hench", whatever that means! I look forward to eating this way without the high mileage running, just strength work, and see what happens. I'm not preaching, just experimenting with myself, using evidence I've found supporting this way to eat. This isn't a diet, they don't work, they are temporary. To each their own.

Anyway, some random photos from some random runs. It has been kind of grey lately and I haven't had my camera with but did get some decent shots. 

What I Learned During WOW

So the Wenlock Olympiad Walk went extremely well for me. I was using it for a training run for the Superior 100 in September. Now just a couple 30 mile runs hopefully and I'll be good to go.

Overall throughout the WOW I was very positive and never really had any down points mentally. One expects a valley to have to fight through to feel good again but I never hit bottom which was surprising. At the finish I mentally felt like I could easily go on for more, I was stoked, super happy and ready for more. 

Physically my body was great. I never got that fiery burning muscle feeling like I've had in the past during the other 50s I've done. That muscle pain where you seemingly are forced to walk. Even on the climbs. Squats, squats, squats!  My bodyweight routine shines through! Around mile twenty or so my hips seemed a bit sore but it went away which was good. No problems from my Achilles at all which I had been worried about. Post race my muscles were in pretty good shape. I could easily pain free walk stairs. A little sharp pain in my left hip which was actually hard to get to hurt, but today seems fine. My shoulders were a bit sore from my race vest as was the upper small of my back; both from the weight of the water reservoir. 

No blisters! My feet were dirty and full of seeds etc but no blisters or foot problems at all. Sanding my callouses did the trick. I wore my Brooks PureCadence road shoes. The bottoms of my feet were a bit sore during the run but not too bad.

I had chafing on my inner thighs but I did forget to apply BodyGlide there. It would have been an issue in a longer race. I also got a bad chafe/burn/scab from where the liner in my shorts meets the waist band on my lower back. A tiny 1 inch cut almost that was very painful when I touched it but during the race I didn't really notice it. Once again, in a longer race this would have been an issue. BodyGlide may resolve this as it was a very bad chafe.

So overall physically things were good. A few things that are easily fixed.

Feeding. I had initially planned on 300 calories per hour. Every 20 minutes I'd have one of the three options: GU gel (100cal), 5 Jelly Babies (100cal), or 3 Hammer Perpetuem Chews (100cal). In the past I have gone with about 200 calories per hour using GU and Jelly Babies (a British candy similar to a big gummy bear, they are a well used  energy source in the fell running community). 

This seemed to work well but my plans kind of fell apart since we were talking so much! So I'm actually kind of unsure of how much I ate! I came prepared with all my own food however I did have a few random things from the aid stations, really not much though (juice, watermelon, some cake thing). Maybe my high fat diet helped too making me not so reliant on food? Very likely.

One thing I did learn though is that the Perpetuem Chews suck! They don't taste bad, I know the product works excellent however it's similar to chewing on wet chalk which honestly after many miles will be the last thing I want to eat! I ate about 9 chews early on just so I wouldn't have to force them down late in the race. Maybe I'll get some of the drink mix instead because that stuff works very well.

Water intake. This is more of a gear issue than actual hydration. For the first time I brought a reservoir versus a handheld bottle. In the past I had carried one handheld and would shoot for about 22oz or one bottle per hour. This obviously depends on aid station placements. It was going to be pretty hot so I opted for a reservoir instead of bottles. I had never ran with one before so figured it would be a good test run. I used my UltrAspire Surge with a 70oz reservoir. So I was able to carry plenty of water. 

Honestly I really didn't do much pre planning for this race. I briefly looked at the distance between aid stations and didn't plan ahead. I figured 70oz is more than enough to get by even if I do carry extra. This was a training run anyway. I ended up peeing coca cola around mile 45 or so. Not good. I was very dehydrated so I obviously had not drank enough water. I also didn't fill up at the final aid station assuming I had enough since I had the reservoir. So, I ran out of water with about 7 miles to go. Yeah no big deal but I need to be thinking of Superior 100 and getting a plan that works down.

One would think that carrying a reservoir you would drink more, I obviously didn't. I think it was that we were talking quite a bit and also I didn't want to run out. I think I prefer bottles because I know how much is there and how much I've been drinking. Also filling the reservoir was a pain at the aid stations; take off the race vest, pull out the reservoir, open it up, fill it, put all back, no thank you. Bottles I open the top, fill it up, put the top on, off I go. Way way faster.

So I think that is mostly was I came away with. All good stuff in preparation or Superior 100. Only a few more training weeks then time to taper. 

Wenlock Olympian Walk

Well here goes round two of typing this post after it mysteriously vanished. Not too happy about that one!

So Saturday I woke at my normal silly early time however the night previous I had prepared all my things for the Wenlock Olympiad Walk (WOW), a 53 mile tour of Shopshire starting in Much Wenlock, UK. It is an event that is part of the Wenlock Olympian Games. Not really a race but an opportunity to cover the distance with aid stations. Many people walk it as well as run.

I left home stopping to get some cash, extra breakfast, and then a cup of coffee. The girl at Starbucks asked if I had any big plans for the day? I chuckled and replied "just a running race" as if 50 plus miles was no big deal. I got my coffee and was off to the bus stop. The bus to Bridgnorth arrived 15 minutes late but the friendliness of the driver calmed my nerves. 

On the bus ride we drove through beautiful countryside my fingers tapping away to Willie Nelson on my iPod. I never thought good ol' Willie would get me fired up for racing but he does a pretty damn good job. I was all smiles all the way to Bridgnorth excited to get out and see Shropshire.

Upon arrival to Bridgnorth I noticed the bus pulling away was the number I needed to get to Much Wenlock. No big deal, I've got time and the bus schedule I printed off said another bus will depart in 15 minutes. Out of curiosity I peered at the posted schedule. Hmmm, it differed from what I had and in a bad way. I texted the bus company and got an auto reply of the next buses departing. My printout was wrong. The next bus would not get me to the race on time. So off I went to find a taxi, 45 minutes to race start and I'm 7 miles away.

Being before 900am nothing was open for tourist info. The guys at the post office laughed both at my accent and also my question of a taxi! With a smile, "sorry mate, no taxi stand here, good luck, things move a bit slower out here." So I worked my way over to a big grocery store hoping to spot a cab, nothing. Then the wife reminded me that I have a smart phone that had Google on it. Duh. A quick search, a phone call, and I had a taxi on the way. I was cutting it close, I had 25 minutes to race start!

Much Wenlock photo from Wikipedia

We rolled into Much Wenlock with 10 minutes to spare. Fortunately all I needed to do pre race was sign in, take my casual shorts off, switch shirts, and slather up with sunscreen. I spoke briefly with Darryl who I'd raced with before and was introduced to another guy named Daniel who had a pretty impressive marathon time. We all would most likely run together. I was given a punch card to clip throughout the run to prove I completed the course and we all gathered outside in the church yard around Dr. William Penny Brookes' grave, the man who inspired the modern Olympic Games through his formation of the Wenlock Olympian Games which the WOW is part of.

There looked to be about 30 of us starting at 1000am. I'm not sure how many people started at 800am, which was mainly walkers versus runners. After a brief talk from the organisers we were lead through town to Wenlock Edge (a big ridgeline across the land) and the Shropshire Way where we were left on our own for the rest of the course. A small group of us went off the front letting a local lead us along the maze of single track and through farmland to the first punch point. It was nice to have the local knowledge to follow initially but I became reliant on it and the guys with the course downloaded to their GPS watches which kind of made me complacent as to where I was on the map. I tried to follow along but it was hit or miss, trying to match place names of farms and cottages with their label on the map. 

start of Wenlock Edge photo from Nat'l Trust

Conversation was good for the whole race. I met some great people and played catch up with acquaintances. Of course at the beginning we all feel good and are chatting away. The first aid station was in an old church at Holdgate. One thing I hate about these races is that you see some beautiful places but being a race situation I am reluctant to carry a camera thus much of the race is a blur. Anyway, at Holdgate I refilled my water, grabbed a snack and then chased down Darryl as he was in and out ASAP. Daniel, this being his first ultra, didn't realize how little time was spent at aid stations, ditched his coffee, and quickly chased us all down. Darryl had just ran the Coast to Coast over a few days and had mentioned his body was pretty worked so he was likely going to drop out at the second aid station, The Yeld. Daniel had moved ahead of us all striding along like nothing, so I sprinted back to him for the climb up Brown Clee Hill.  We chatted the whole way to The Yeld on the way getting off course a bit, averaging 9 minute miles since the start. Pretty much the pace we both planned on. 

Soon after the second aid station Daniel began to pull away from me. We had been catching many of the 8am starters which was reassurance that we were on course. Now being away from Daniel, who had the GPS, I needed to be more diligent with my map reading. In trying to read the map my pace began to slow even after snapping out of the down I hit when Daniel left me behind. I made it to Nortoncamp, well I think that is where I was, took a wrong turn and ended up thrashing through nettle and brambles adding on at least a mile and of course lost time. With my legs buzzing from being covered in nettle crystals I regained where I went wrong and bumped into a few 8 o'clockers who pointed me in the right direction. 

Away I went, feeling great, cruising downhill. I could see the town of Craven Arms below in the valley, the next aid station. After some time descending a rough dirt road I realized I was off track. Shit. I could see where I needed to go but didn't know how. I considered going all the way down to the main road adding miles to avoid climbing back up. But back uphill I went. Finally spotting a tiny sign pointing down an overgrown trail. I weaved my way through farmland, foot bridges, up and over stiles. Finally into town and luckily the directions to the aid station at Craven Arms were easy. 

I refilled water, had some juice, off I went. From here it appeared easy route finding. Get out of town back up onto Wenlock Edge onto the Shropshire Way to easy cruising for a while. I doubted a few of the fields I crossed but finally made it to the climb up to Wenlock Edge and picking up the pace, feeling good, caught up to the 8 o'clockers that I saw at Nortoncamp. It was nice to be on a continuous trail.

that's how far my watch made it

And route finding puts the brakes on my speed. Off the Shropshire Way and into farmland where a wrong turn means added miles. Through gates, stiles, over bridges, and through a perfectly cut single track through a huge field of wheat. The laser cut line running down a gradual slope through the field of gold looked like a Pink Floyd album cover. The wheat was waist high I ran and laughed dragging my hands over the tufts of grain. Working with another 8 o'clocker we zig zag our way through the maze of fields, creek crossings, and woodland edge to a bridle way that brings us into Hope Bowdler and the final aid station. 

I run in and just outside the door is Daniel! He was looking a little frazzled! He was on his way out but decided to wait up for me. I ate some food and had some juice, my reservoir seemed ok so I decided not to fill it which ended up being a mistake. Anyway on we went towards Hope Bowdler Hill the high point next to town. 

According to the directions we were given we're suppose to go around Hope Bowdler, according to Daniel's GPS route we go up and over! At first my thoughts were, "well the directions say go around....." but then on second thought with no check point to get to it really doesn't matter. I was a bit turned off at first peering up the steep incline but Daniel's enthusiasm and energy kept me going up which was great! I most likely would have gone around if I was alone. Once up high we could see some 8 o'clockers below going around. Fortunately for us our fitness levels made it more efficient for us to go up and over.

We were now in familiar terrain to me being right behind Caer Caradoc which was part of the Stretton Skyline fell race I had done last September. So now we went up and over Little Caradoc and dropped to the crease between it and The Lawley, also in Stretton Skyline. We ended up bush whacking a bit through a small field of thistle and popped through a hedge onto a road. A girl walking two dogs looked at us and laughed as I asked her which way to The Lawley, then I told her it's been a long day as she laughed yet  again.

The Lawley from top of Little Caradoc

                                              

So up The Lawley and at it's summit the final punch point. We half walked and ran, once again me power walking and Daniel once again pushing the pace making me run! Up high on the ridge and summit it was super windy. Sure would be a shame to lose a punch card in the wind up here Daniel joked as mine wasn't fixed to my race vest, just a piece of Tyvek in the wind! 

Straight down the side of this monster and we were on our way bush whacking once again; nettle, brambles, thorns, thistle. I think by now we were immune to these plants thrashing our skin. I stopped for the first time since near the beginning to pee, yep, coca cola colored, and of course I was out of water. Luckily somewhere we passed a farmer watering his flowers. Sure we were near the finish but I ran over and asked if he could fill my water up! Hey, placebo is an amazing thing! He insisted we go inside versus filling up from the hose, then shook his head at us as we told him what we were doing!  You've got to love a race that isn't marked and you can accept outside support like this! 

We were nearing Wenlock Edge for the last time however the persistent fields over and over again were endless and mind numbing. Why is it that the last 5 miles goes on forever! We ended up on a country lane that was downhill, it was nice to be able to stride out and run on a smooth road for a change. We start seeing people involved in the race, volunteers or spectators helping us go the right way and giving us an idea of how much further to go. Always nice! Then finally we saw the National Trust sign for Wenlock Edge. Downhill to Much Wenlock, into town, and for a second we forget which way to go. Good thing Much Wenlock is tiny! 

WOW elevation profile from Daniel's blog, 6600 vertical gain

We roll on into the Priory Hall and we are finished! Long day out. Daniel tracked it at 58 miles, my watch battery went dead at 43 miles but I estimated mine at about 56 or 57 miles total. We finished in 10 hours 27 minutes. So we definitely ran a bit further getting lost. Oh well, part of the game I guess. Far far off our estimate of 8 hours which with a marked course I think we easily could have done. 

finisher's slate coaster

I'm tired of typing! I'll have a run down on what worked and what didn't; food, gear, training, etc. in a few days! 

I had a ginormous post typed up about the Wenlock Olympiad Walk but it disappeared so it may be a day or so for me to get it typed up again. Ugh.

Hot, humid, tired.

Well things seem to be moving along. It's been a low mileage week for me. I'm pretty sure I needed it but with the wife out of town and the little one up early sometimes you just can't run. I had been really tired, not sleeping well, etc. which I think I've mentioned recently. I thought I may have been over doing  it a bit but looking at my miles it wasn't that bad. So I tracked my food intake and looks like I've been low on calories yet again. I also have been popping a few 5-HTP supplements before bed which help me crash out faster at night and get 7 plus hours. I've been getting up at 430am now which gives me enough time before the little one gets up to run at least 12 miles which has become my low mileage run. 

Rifle Range

Well, after I realised (friggin' auto correct is set to UK English! RealiZe.) I was only eating 2500 calories I decided it may be the source of my problem. So I am eating more now and seem to feel better. Between trying to feed a 21 month old and having a wife who eats irregularly I seem to forget to feed myself. There is no consistency in meals yet with our family unfortunately. I eat a fairly high fat diet so I rarely feel empty and eating enough slips through the cracks without the empty stomach alarm. Tracking it with Livestrong's MyPlate helps tremendously. I try to underestimate if I'm unsure of quantities and seeing I'm down makes me so much more aware of my intake.

River Severn

Been rolling the hell out of my left calf in an attempt to rid my aching Achilles. It's not bad still but it's there and the calf work seems to be helping out. I rubbed some Tiger Balm on the stiff muscle the other day and it seemed to help more then the rolling. Looks like the house will be stinking this week! 

Above St. Leonard's Church

I got in touch with a guy from Minnesota via his blog about the Superior 100. He had posted his splits which was cool. It's nice to see an estimate of how long between aid stations it can take. He did however get second and finish pretty fast, 22 hours I think, and I need to focus on finishing, not a time. That's tough thinking that way though!  Good to have an idea none the less. He said not to worry about the hills since despite a lot of them none are really long and drawn out enough to destroy your quads. He said mainly the footing was most challenging, roots, rocks, etc, these aren't  the groomed trails of the Western US! I dug around a bit in his training log he has online and it appears he did about the same mileage as I am doing. He did say he did a ton of body weight squats to prepare his quads though which I've been doing now since February so that was nice to hear. 

tracks leading to Coney Green Farm

I always doubt my training. It seems I'll Google online just for some reassurance I'm doing enough and the right stuff. Preparation is key as I'd hate to do too little and be in the pain cave for hours on end fighting just to walk at mile 80. But then I don't want to over do it and get injured or burnt out. Maybe having such a restricted time frame to run will help me out by limiting my time on feet? Just need to be sure to get this 50 miler done and two more 30 mile runs and I think I'll be doing well.

sheep!

So the series of photos are from my regular 12 - 13 mile loop I've been doing and from a couple days ago. It's a hilly-ish loop that finishes on the canal, flat, which is kind of nice to be able to pick up the pace and run fast. A lot of the loop is on the Danny's Dash race course. I won't be running it this year since the Wenlock Olympiad Walk is the day before. 

misty canal

The weather has been hot for here, mid eighties and humid. The little one has had problems getting to bed it's so hot in her room which is a pain. Kind of throwing a wrench in my routine but whatever. I'll deal with it. I really should do some 2 or 3 am workouts just to experience the tiredness but I'm guessing the wife will totally freak out with those! There have been a few assaults lately on the canal (and they are trying to catch a flasher!) so she's always worried about me getting mugged. I worry about it too, that's why I run in the morning, however anytime before 4 am and you see the drunk leftovers out which is unnerving. This place is a shithole. Yesterday at work I proposed the question of "is going shirtless in town socially acceptable" to my co-workers. They laughed and we all agreed it is very low brow. Well, where I live it's common place!  The town I work in I saw zero people wandering around bareback. Kind of says a lot about the quality of people.

Anyway, I'm expecting the rest of the family to wake pretty soon here. The little one woke at 445am today so I have yet to run. The god damn squeaky floor boards here sometimes rouse her I think. The wife tried to calm her and I had yet to leave running so I stepped in to let the wife go back to bed. She needs the rest more than me. She works her ass off all week and I try my best to help her relax if she can. I've always been good at burning the candle on both ends. I'm thinking I'll do a mind bending session on the treadmill this afternoon. Hot. Boring. Incline. Mileage will be really low this week but what can you do. 

Wyre Forest Half, time for a training change

Well it's been kind of an odd training week I guess. I attempted to take it easier in hopes of running well at the Wyre Forest Half but ended up doing not nearly as well as I had hoped.

I'm still not sleeping all that well, I'm getting 7 hours but it doesn't seem as solid as I used to sleep. I love the extra time in the mornings but I'm worried I'm overreaching a bit and need a break from training. Poor sleep patterns can be a sign of this, or is it just the late and early light keeping me up? I feel ok running for the most part and have been napping for about a half hour when the little one naps but who knows? I may get some sleep supplements today to see if they help out.

I've been tracking my heart rate too in the mornings and at night. I've always had an insanely low HR, a couple weeks ago I tracked it at 34 bpm at 930pm! The odd thing is that it has consistently been lower at night versus in the morning. One would expect the morning to be lowest, but I've been in the 40s to 50s in the morning and always low 40s into the 30s at night. Odd. The bump into the 50s can indicate I need a rest though which hints once again I need a break.

Well with the Wenlock Olympiad Walk coming up if I take time off maybe the week leading up to that would be best. I hate to take a week off but it my be what I need.

My Achilles is doing ok. I think I figured out what it is, some muscle in my calf. When I roll it I can hit one area that hurts like all hell, that must be tugging on my Achilles and causing that bit of pain. So I'm going to work the shit out of it with my roller, rolling pin from the kitchen, and also do some eccentric calf raises. I may invest in The Stick, a sports massage tool that works great for calves too. Hopefully that will all help.

So the Wyre Forest Half Marathon went down yesterday. I have done it three times now and enjoy it. There are a lot of races that weekend so you never know who will show up. The numbers were higher than last year as were the temps! 

Two guys from the club I'm in showed up which was fun. I've ran with both of them before and we're all about the same speed so we were hoping to all run together. A couple other fast guys were spotted  from other clubs as well. It was hot, in the mid eighties, and despite it being heavily wooded at the start the outer portions of the course are pretty exposed. It's a hilly course with 2 to 3 miles of downhill right off the start which usually means a fast one. I think we averaged about 5 to 520 miles through the beginning. Then the climbing started. There was little if any mud which was a change from the past, we just now had to negotiate hard ruts and bumps that are normally wet and muddy. We all spread out about 5 miles into it. One of the other fast guys took off to the lead and we never saw him. My teammates held onto 2nd and 3rd as I slipped back to fifth. My quads were burning from the downhills and by mile 8 I was hurting. Heat? Overtrained? No speed work? I don't know. I ran 3 or 4 minutes slower than in the past and finished in 5th. We won the team division though which was cool. I was bummed. But, I need to be more concerned with my quads considering what's coming up.

Quads. Looks like I need to focus on down and uphill running. If they are not prepared I will not finish Superior 100. I've been doing 200 body weight squats 5 days a week and I've noticed it helping during my runs, but obviously not enough. So I may add some weight and also start doing single leg squats with the other leg elevated behind. These are supposedly good for the eccentric phase of running; the downhill motion. I also need to do a specific hill training day. The good size hills are about a 4 mile run from the house which is too far to run to, do a hill session, and run home. I just don't have the time which sucks. I could bike there which is an option. Otherwise I may just go to a smaller hill, about a quarter mile away, and run up and down in a loop for a hour and see how that goes and see what kind of vert I can accumulate or see how bad I can make my quads hurt with uphill and downhill speed. 

So that's about it for now. Took today off from running and did a bunch of squats and hand stand push ups. The wife is off to London tomorrow so I'll try to get some treadmill time in. 

Crooked boat

Just a quick one. This morning on the final few miles of my run I saw this at about 6am:

                                   

They were fast asleep and I am guessing that some dumb drunk pulled one if their mooring stakes! Let's hope they sleep in and are awoken by an early boater trying to pass! Anyway despite feeling tired had a nice 13 mile run at normal pace. Did 5.5 miles on the treadmill yesterday on an incline while the little one slept and felt it today, need to do that more.