Don't stop me now - I'm having such a great time!

When I was told I could start running again towards the middle of the week, I had no idea how slow the week was going to be. It took forever to get to Wednesday and when it did arrive my plans for a run were thwarted – I felt a twinge on my ankle and decided to give the run a miss. Not to be out-manoeuvred I decided that I was getting on my bike. So on Wednesday evening the return to training began in earnest with a 17 mile cycle – it was great to be back out there and my legs definitely felt tired after the bike ride. Mo headed for her core class, instead of joining me on the cycle.

On Thursday, I took a bit of convincing that my ankle would be OK. You know how it is, you suddenly have a fear of the injury coming back to haunt you, so you have to dig deep to return to running. As it happened I opted to run on my own and leave Mo to run with our jogscotland group. I tested my ankle on the superior surface around Craigmillar Castle – trail and ash paths. I managed to clock up 5 miles and was so chuffed to be back. Now for the wait to see if there was a reaction to my training session. Friday arrived and all I could feel was tired legs, too tired to go through with my planned recovery run but the main thing was the ankle was feeling OK.

On Friday night we were joined by Mo’s pal Hazel for a night out at the local Golf club. Not a good combination bearing in mind that we were both intending to run Strathclyde parkrun in the morning. However, it was great to let our hair down after a busy week of meetings and training for the upcoming Edinburgh Marathon festival.

Early Saturday morning we headed west for the 108^th Strathclyde parkrun, a bit the worse for wear and in a delicate condition. Unfortunately we had to be there as we had all the kit. I decided early on that I was going to take it easy and I was definitely not going to do my customary freedom run ahead of the main event. I managed round in a respectable time of 23:08 and Mo did 24:42, both times down on our average.

Now, as you know we seem to get involved in a lot of events and in a moment of weakness a couple of weeks ago we agreed to be part of the Strathclyde parkrun relay team taking on The Babcock Three Lochs Way Diamond Jubilee Relay Challenge. So after parkrun on Saturday we headed off to Helensburgh to scout out the route with Ally and Jon – there are a few hills up that way! It was an education as Jon Edge taught us everything that we needed to know about survival in the wild – we had no idea that weeds were so nourishing! Jon even attempted to teach Ally and Mo how to use a map and compass – Jon obviously also loves a challenge! (Oi I resent that!!! Oh ok Jon does like a challenge!)

Next up was the Speed of Light run leaders training day. The Crags were bathed in spring sunshine when we arrived, a couple of minutes late, apparently there was a big football match the day before and one of the teams was parading the cup! After a call to arms talk by Angus, Scott led us on a pacing exercise up The Crags in order to give us an idea of the Speed of light and it’s not as fast as you imagine – so a word to the wise don’t take the Speed of Light literally. Once again the evening consisted of us going through our choreography legs twice, with the run leaders swapping over midway through the evening. The pink team welcomed Graeme to our ranks and the green team was very much as they were! Once you stood on the plate you had to lead your team of four round your different legs and really for the first time you got to see what was going on with the all the other groups and how they were interacting with your group. It is going to be amazing! The two sessions seemed to go very smoothly and it all appears to be coming together. Before we knew it the sessions were over and it was back to the car after a quick game of find the cone – Graeme and I failed miserably, someone had swiped them all before we got to any of them. Returning to the car park, you couldn't help but notice that it was one happy bunch of run leaders. Fair to say we are all looking forward to the speed of light now!