If it's Sunday it must be Arthur's Seat!

Well that was some week!. Basically we stretched ourselves so far this week that the days all seemed to merge into one another. We started and finished the week on Arthur’s seat. Last Monday we headed back to Arthur’s seat clutching our ‘hot of the press’ choreography routine for the next Super Sunday. We had no time to lose, we now had our two colours to concentrate on. I had Pink and Blue and Moira had Green and Red. So the plan for the Monday evening session was to try out our new colours.

Following on from the weekends downpours the underfoot conditions were pretty wet and far from ideal. The plan as always was to get round the new colour and familiarise ourselves with the route i.e without the actions. On the whole the training was quite straightforward and we seemed to get round the new colour quite successfully. However, once again my ankle started to play up and I was forced to hobble off the hill after finishing the last legs of the Blue route.

The following day it was back to The Jammy’s tour and a first jogscotland Challenge in Peebles. The drive to the Borders, thankfully, featured the return of that unfamiliar yellow ball in the sky! Striding up to registration we were greeted by fellow run leader, Cat, who was handing out leaflets for Run-4-it. Peebles was a huge success for The Jammy’s in that we had 17 runners taking part. I was struggling with my injury and contemplated pulling out but this was to be my 42nd consecutive JogScotland challenge. The course involves two loops along the side of the tweed, crossing the tweed four times in total. As it turned it wasn’t a PB course, it was 500 metres too long! The Jammys once again scooped the community group prize, the 2^nd and 3^rd female prize and the 3^rd male prize. Yes, Moira managed yet another 3^rd prize.

Wednesday saw the Jammy tour roll into Glasgow, a place where we have struggled to make an impression in the past. Again I was in two minds about running. It was heartening to see JammyHenshite and JammyKatie join the tour for the Glasgow challenge. As always Glasgow proved a fast course, however, I was just glad to get round as the ankle appeared to be getting worse. At the end I took advantage of the Nuffield Health physiotherapists that were on hand to provide quick taster massages etc. Eventually the physiotherapist set to work on my ankle and inflicted pain at one particular point which did appear to alleviate something. I emerged from the tent only to discover The Jammys had managed to get their hands on the Community prize for Glasgow – a first for the Jammys. JammyKenyian and JammyMadge also managed to record a PB.

Moira was out on Thursday training but I opted for a rest day ahead of the planned running at the weekend.  Saturday morning arrived and it was off for our weekly dose of parkrun. I was running and Moira was volunteering or should I say she was patiently waiting on the gang of four catching up to 49 parkruns. The pain had shifted the front of the ankle but I still managed to finish the 5K in a shade under 23 minutes, one minute slower than my average. I had booked an appointment with Grant McLullich so that he could take a further look at the ankle. The result - yet more exercises to do in my rehabilitation process. There was an afternoon trip to Sweatshop in Glasgow where Gavin fitted us up with new running shoes, so that’s us sorted for another 500 miles.

Suddenly the Speed of Light Super Sunday was upon us once more. Nerves set in as we drove into Edinburgh. A new choreography to perform and 30 runners to ensure would have a good time. Our preparation was limited but at least we had managed up on the hill to scout out the routes earlier in the week, surely that would stand us in good stead. As the run leaders gathered, the team ethos took over, after all we were all in this together – united we stand! The nerves evaporated as soon as you got the light suit on – showtime! Before too long the runners allocated to your session were seeking you out and so the briefing could bring. Catriona and I were straight into it, you wouldn’t have known it was our first time working together. The weather this time round was much kinder to us even if the underfoot conditions did prove testing. After the afternoons sessions over-running we were starting off at leg 3 so it was straight to our home from home – Hub3.  I don’t know why but time slipped away so quickly and before long we were heading back for a suit change. The second session benefited from the falling darkness and with it the luminescence of the light suits. It’s always the same, put a runner in a light suit and their face lights up, it’s incredible to see. Once again time ran away for us and it was soon time to come off the hill. You are left with the feeling – can’t wait for August!

Hills, Hills and more Hills

Well, it is no surprise that we are spending more and more time on the hills as we focus in on the Speed of Light. On Monday evening we headed to Arthur’s seat for a date with Katri Walker. Katri is a visual artist and filmmaker that has been commissioned to do a piece on The Speed of Light and it was to this end that Katri accompanied us on the hill.

We decided that this training exercise was going to be to run our respective original routes as a continuous run, that way if we could do that then the fitness should be OK when we incorporated the actions. So after meeting up with Katri in the car park we headed off to our starting positions – a gentle 1 mile warm-up. The plan was simple, Katri was going to accompany me on the first three legs and then hook up with Moira for her final legs. Katri was full of questions and the time passed very quickly. I would like to say I didn’t notice the steep inclines but I wouldn’t quite go that far! Just for the record, my ankle felt the best it has been since the injury coming off the hill.

On Tuesday it was back to leading our JogScotland group, it was to be everyone’s favourite session, not! Grassy Hill reps. Has to be said that we must be going soft as we gave the group options – 6 reps, at least 2 of which had to be long. To our surprise many opted for more than 2 long reps – obviously there is still a belief that – no pain, no gain.

On Wednesday, The Jammys were back on the road, this time the destination was Inverness, the Highland capital. Inverness has always been a great hunting ground for the Jammys and this year proved no exception. The Jammys won best workplace group and JammyBilly was second male and JammyMo was third female. It is a long way to go for a 5k but the trip is a tremendous team building occasion.

After the long trip and arrival back in Edinburgh in the ‘wee sma hours in the morning’, Thursday’s run round the Innocent railway, in the shadow of Arthur’s seat was a somewhat subdued affair. Nobody cared to divert to Hunter’s bog and take in more hills. In the evening, Moira and I had a much-needed sports massage.

The planned middle distance run for Friday didn’t materialise, what with the rain and my ankle grumbling we thought it prudent to give the run a miss.  On Saturday, I had planned to do parkrun but again I felt my ankle was just not right so again declined to run.

The problem with our training of late has been the lack of long runs, usually Sunday is the day for long runs but with the intrusion of the Kilomathon, Speed of light and the Marathon the long run has become a distant memory. However, that was put to right on Sunday with a hilly Harburn 10 miler. The price to pay, well apart from being sluggish, I collected a huge blister on my right foot. My own fault really, went back to using my old Asics and re-introduced the orthotics. Lesson learnt – don’t fix what ain’t broken!

On the Road Again!

Who would have thought it? Five years ago we set up the Jammys with the sole purpose of raising awareness and much needed funds for the Simpson Special Care Babies (SSCB) charity. Each year we take on the JogScotland 5K challenges the length and breadth of Scotland and this week we set-off on our sixth tour. The Jammys have always believed in their motto – Joy, Laughter and Fun – it’s a great philosophy to take into these events. The Jammys have grown in number over the years and instead of getting all Jammys to commit to the whole tour we now try and get as many Jammys as possible to each event.

JogScotland are a tremendous organisation who aim to get people active and we remain committed to this aim with our workplace JogScotland group. Throughout the month of June JogScotland put together a series of challenges for their members to aspire to and for many it is the focus of their efforts to get fit.  Over the last few months we have been organising our tour – booking the minibus for Aberdeen and Inverness and sourcing and printing the T-shirts for the new Jammys joining us for this year’s tour.

So the main focus of the last seven days has been The Jammys tour. On the eve of the tour we were dealt a blow with JammyJules, one of the new Jammys, having to pull out of the first couple of challenges as a result of injury. So on Wednesday we headed up north with only eight Jammys for the first challenge, however, this did not dampen spirits as it was just great to be on the road again. The first two challenges are nearly always Aberdeen and Inverness and these challenges have a special atmosphere with the group travelling together in a minibus – a really good bonding session. Over the years there are a lot of traditions that have been implemented. Maynards directly benefit from one of these traditions – the consumption of copious amounts of wine gums – mostly it has to be said by JammyBilly.

It was a miserable drive up to Aberdeen, wet and misty. We arrived in good time, so much so that we were charged by JogScotland to recall the course from our previous visit a couple of years ago. Nobody else seemed to remember the course, so we ran what we thought was the course and amazingly enough our route came in at 5K – total recall or what? The challenge got underway and the heavens opened, definitely the wettest challenge we have been involved in. The Jammys all made it home safely, the bonus being that everyone was pleased with their times. You can donate on our fundraising page.

The weekend was taken up with the Grand Harburn Festival, it was our first festival so it was an all new experience for us. We decided as the festival essentially takes place at three sites we would take our bikes. It has to be said that not much cycling took place, Moira was located at the village hall selling burgers and John was at the Sawmill looking after some of the games. Thankfully the rain stayed away.

It wouldn’t be Saturday without some connection with parkrun and so on Saturday night it was off to Bellshill to celebrate Ally’s 27^th birthday for the 24^th time. It was great to see so many of our parkrun friends dressed up in something other than running gear! I’d like to say they all behaved themselves but that would be somewhat glossing over the truth.

A Return to Action

After a month off running it was back to training – it is always hard coming back after a long lay off.  Everything seems to require that much more effort. Training is definitely a habit and once the habit has been broken it is difficult to re-establish. However after the last Speed of Light run leader’s day we headed back up Arthur’s seat to learn our routes. Returning so soon afterwards made it hard work particularly on the steep hill sessions, however with Angus words still fresh in the mind we kept to the pace he suggested (thankfully on the slow side).

We were ever mindful of our busy weekend looming so we got our head down and did plenty of Hill work over the remainder of the week. Suddenly it was the weekend and our stint at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival (EMF) began.  It’s our chance to see what goes on behind the scenes to stage an event such as this. As a runner you tend to take for granted the work that goes on to deliver an event of this scale. The hard working team at GSI certainly put in a power of work both before the weekend and during the weekend, many of them working back to back 20 hour shifts over the weekend. We have been involved with the marathon for the past five years, starting off as marshals and working our way through various jobs such as the sweeper bus and ending up at the start. We help manage the two starts, London Road and Reagent Road, it’s hard work but we wouldn’t miss it for the world.  We have gained a lot of friends through our stint working on the Edinburgh marathon.

In order to recover from our marathon weekend we took the week off work to give us time to recharge our batteries before launching ourselves into Speed of Light training and the up and coming JogScotland 5k Challenges. Well that was the plan as it turned out we didn’t get much training done, just a 7 mile run before it was the weekend again and a return to parkrun. Moira had opted for the 25 minute pacer vest and I went for the 23 minute vest. Once again the pacing event was a success despite the cold windy conditions – is it really June?

On Sunday we had an early start as we had to be in Helensburgh for 9:00 am for registration for the Three Lochs Way Relay Challenge. Each team had five runners and team JJAAM consisted of five Strathclyde parkrunners: John, Jon Edge, Ally Robb, Anthony Butler and Moira. As we assembled in the Victoria Hall there was a lot of mind games going as another Strathclyde parkrun based team,  The Bumble Bees, tried to physic us out. Team JJAAM were stronger than that and were determined to do a Gandalf ‘Thou shalt not pass!’  As we headed to the start we were still working out the logistics of who was driving where and who was to be in what car. At the start Jon limbered up impressively, although chatting to the First Aiders as a ‘precaution’ had us worried. At 9:55, 5 minutes early the race was started and Jon disappeared over the horizon and we disappeared in the car onwards to stage three. As we passed stage two, Ally was already limbering up; these guys were taking this challenge seriously. Ally had opted for this section as her map reading skills were such that she complained about the lack of red dots on the road – enough said.  Moira and I sat in the car at stage three, aware that on the map this was a designated ‘Danger Area’  We were left to reflect about the situations we find ourselves in as a result of saying ‘yes’ to some of the challenges in life.

Time passed all too quickly and over the horizon came the lead runners, the field was already well spaced out. I left the comfort of the car to take up my position on the changeover point. Before I knew it Ally appeared over the horizon and I was on my way. Stage three was billed as a 6.8 mile leg over tarmac minor road, crushed rock forestry roads and a short rough trod section. The tarmac minor road was, well, not long enough. The crushed rock forestry road were not crushed enough and the short rough trod was not short enough and it was vertical. However, in order to overcome the shortcomings the leg turned out to be 7.3 miles. Aside from all this I thoroughly enjoyed the run even if it was a tad sore on the feet, the scenery was spectacular. After just over an hour’s running I handed over to Moira who hared off at breakneck speed along leg four.

We had reccied my leg about 2 weeks before the race and it appeared to be a bit wet to say the least. The large puddles filled with tadpoles had me a wee bit concerned! However, things had dried up and there was not a frog or tadpole in sight. So I was pleasantly surprised to run the first four miles of my 4.1 mile leg without getting my feet wet. It was a tough four miles, undulating over rough terrain but the scenery was spectacular. That’s when they did the dirty on me and surprise surprise my final 100 metres were through a bog. Not only did I get wet but my trainers are now stinking! I then handed over to young Anthony for the glory leg.

As young Anthony sped off on leg five, his four team mates reflected long and hard about the wisdom of not telling him about the slight uphill start to his leg.  After reflecting for all of ten seconds we jumped in the support cars and headed off to the finish to cheer young Anthony in! Arriving at the Power Station we took the opportunity to shelter from the midgies and grab some coffee and a sandwich. Eventually young Anthony brought the team home in 8^th place – pretty respectable considering we were only beaten by local Athletic clubs. Would we do it again – you bet we would!