Blue Green Gold Grey, Awyr Maes Tywod Aarreg
Trail and Coastal Running in Wales
Murph and I ran another 6 miles yesterday – He loves it, puts me to shame, when im flagging and he gambols off into the distance its a good feeling though as I know he’s not even really putting any effort into it and clearly enjoys the whole thing. Today we just walked 4 as the ankle still plays up a bit. Its good to be able to do either as I feel. So yeah … lifes good!
I believe in karma. Or essentially what goes around comes around. It works both ways, bad and good karma. Learned the hard way and seen it happen thankfully to others who deserved it (Yes I have a mean streak a mile wide)
So yesterday I had to go out mid morning and decided to fit in a quick 4 mile or so run to the Barrow mound on the cliffs as the tide was in. When I got there it was beautiful and sunny.
So I headed back and passed coming the other way a group of kids doing their Duke of Edinburgh type stuff, all with their packs on etc I met one group at a stile and the first two kids just ignored me stood there dripping with sweat and breathing hard and then a girl at the back said “wait everyone let the person through” (Im not sure that they knew what gender I was due to the long hair) and so I hopped over and thanked them and ran on.
A mile or so later I got to the beach and found one of them had dropped their sleeping mat. So what do you do? I was in a rush as I had an appointment to keep, I had already run 3 or 4 miles hard pace and they were headed in the opposite direction and all uphill. You know what – the tipping point of making me grab it and run as hard as I could to catch them (they move fast these damn kids) over 2 miles or so at 6-7 minute uphill pace (good training hey) was that the girl had called out to let me through and they did.
So I caught them eventually utterly fucked and they were I think amazed that I had done that for one of them – all I could gasp was “Its a bastard sleeping out without a mat” and trotted off – thankfully downhill and home. Ok so I was a little late. So what – And thats karma. Just the little things can come back to you. And maybe those kids saw a small gesture from a stranger and might just try it themselves.
Hill sprints yesterday at Cwm Nash. I never quite know how many I’ve done so I used nature to help me count. Sprint up, jog down and pick a buttercup on the way, drop it in a pile at the bottom of the climb, I think it’s 20 its kinda hard to tell. Whatever the exact it’s almost inconceivable that I can run around 20 of these, 2 or 3 used to kill me not so long ago. Plus I ran back home at pretty much full beans. Feeling good. Please body hold out a month like this :p
Kids do it naturally as do animals so why do adult humans prfer to walk? Just one of those “while im out running thoughts” I had while another 9 miles flew past yesterday in the sun (and then the clouds came in but hey)
Is it possible to feel too good? Some days I just want to fly and I know if I fly I can break. It’s at the point now where 8 or 9 miles after work (Gotta love BST) feel compltely fine and natural and keep my head in such a good place. I can go faster but I know I dont actually need to go faster. It’s just a matter of having to put the brakes on and it’s hard to drop pace, I naturally keep dropping pace to around 8 to 8.30 minute miles which over that terrain is ridiculous and unsustainable for my body but it just feels so good to fly.
I was torn on sunday about whether to run until I saw the weather and then figured my fankles (new word covering my feet and ankles) would survive one more push. The last few runs I’ve been trialing a thin ankle support and it seems to be making a difference. Plus I wanted to get used to running on tired legs and so another longish run was the order of the day.
A further 12 miles with as much climbing as I could get in (going all the way up Witches Point as hard as I could go after 7 or 8 miles surprised me)
I also had some sad news on saturday night – Master Robert had died. He was a lovely old guy who lived in the big house at the Cwm and owned the Bruce Estate. He loved the beach and area as much as I do and was always picking up litter. Guess I’m the only one left doing that now.
So in the last 4 days I covered 37 miles of pretty hard going terrain. The fankle, although aching a little is holding up. I’m just utterly knackered. Few days off I think
I can’t help it, I meant to take it kinda easy as tide was in so cliffs were only option and legs were a little sore I’m guessing from the hill repeats. And as I hit top of the cliffs and stopped to watch the surfers I realised there was a runner behind me. No problem he can pass me easy enough but he didn’t. So I figured if I wanted space I’d have to make it. Which I did at 6-7 min/mile pace along the cliffs which actually felt fantastic to put the hammer down and fly without stopping. Yeah ok maybe not sensible but it felt good to breathe hard but not blow up and the cwm’s were so much fun to fly up and down (well the first was a 200ft mudslide but hey its all foward motion right)
By Witches Point I was expecting to be half dead but I still had it in the legs to do the climb to the top. Recovery was fast and so I decided on the longer extremely wet and muddy route home.
