I haven't been myself of late....

Scottish Vets Road Relays Strathclyde Park

Forgive my crudeness, but I've had a bastard of a week. High mileage and the ever-increasing stress in my personal life probably contributed to the total meltdown I suffered on Thursday. This in turn almost led to a massive pile-up which was, thankfully, narrowly averted. *WARNING* too much time on your own thinking can seriously affect your health....

So when the desperate plea for a stand-in runner came through for the Scottish Vets Road Relays I responded with a resounding YES!!! Why? Well a variety of reasons really. Firstly, I could use the excuse of running on Sunday to not run on Saturday. I'm pretty whacked truth be told although the suitcases under my eyes are handy for carrying the shopping home. Secondly, while creating more and more elaborate reasons to avoid people, maybe company is what I need? Thirdly, it's been a while since I did a proper speed session and I could probably use one.

...... I haven't slept for several days
Actually weeks. I just can't switch off. My heid's buzzing 24 hours a day just now. I wake up at inconvenient times and that's me. Last night was no different. Struggling out of bed at 8am I knew today would be hard work. I wasn't wrong. Listening to Guy Garvey singing "in despair or incoherent nothing inbetween" was perhaps not the best pre-race music but when I arrived and saw an array of smiling familiar faces my mood soon changed.

We congregated in the cafe, distributed race numbers and before long 11am arrived. Luckily I was on leg 2. After a brief warmup I spied Gail in the distance and then I was off. As usual I set off too quickly, my first mile being around 7.20 followed by an 8! I found it hard going but after spending weeks running on snow, sand, trails and mud I found the road to my liking, passing over to Maryann running leg 3 having run the 3.8miles in 28:43. Aye, that'll do.

An Idiot's Guide to Ultra Training........Part 1

I'm training for an ultra, my first. The ultra in question is the Highland Fling. Being the dedicated athlete that I am (choke, cough....) in true "top athlete" style, I devised myself a training programme. You could argue that any well-intended top athlete get themselves a coach but nah, not me I'm a dedicated self-motivated individual who doesn't like to follow the conventional rules. However, in typical idiot style, I've done nothing more with the schedule than ignore the reminders it keeps emailing me. It's a trick I learned while marathon training last year, eventually giving my schedule the dubious title of "make it up as you go along". Genius eh? It was a tactic similarly adopted at pre-marathon races. Never mind sensible pacing, the idot's guide schedule said just leg it and try and keep it going. See? Who needs a coach?

So the schedule is in the virtual bin and yet again I've opted for the make-it-up-as-you-go-along version. Thus far it entails missing out on WHW training days, pulling out of the Devil's Burden and indulging in stress by the bucket load. There are elements of sensibleness pencilled in for purely entertainment value, however, namely Carnethy 5 (yes, I'm deluded) and for the sake of tradition, good cakes and Smokies fishcakes it's back to Arbroath for the Smokies 10.

Currently then, weather permitting (I'm joking...) it's a case of run what you can, when you can and at no particular speed. It's run when you don't want to but know you should and run twice a day whenever possible, which isn't often I have to admit.

Budding coaches beware, this is the DIY schedule of the future.