'Mature' runners.

Sorry mcs, it's the pits losing your job, I do hope you find something else soon.

Redhead.
Not good news about your friend and Lola is just coming up to an age when she'll need her mum. Life is strangely unfair at times.

mcs
Best wishes for a successful job hunt. One door closes and another one opens.

JJ

Good morning all.

A lovely bright sunny morning, with temperature forecast to rise to 8 degrees. It's always the way on my "rest days." Tomorrow is forecast heavy rain

Temp rose to 6C here and loadsa sunshine. Much more comfortable.

Younger daughter and baby grandaughter came for lunch today. The baby thinks I'm very funny; she smiles every time I heave into view.
JJ

Anyone know a piece of easy to use, free, website design software that actually works well?
JJ

mcs - Oh that is miserable, being made redundant. I suppose you've got some sort of redundancy pay which will cushion you for a while. Are there many jobs going in your part of the world?

JJ - ah, there's nothing like a smiling baby!

There's a thaw happening here, but it has a long way to go. Ran 4 and a bit miles, nearly all on cleared surfaces. The uncleared bits were solid ice and lethal; I walked them, very cautiously.

Columba, take care in the icy conditions.

It rained heavily all night, but has now stopped. Heavy showers and sunny periods are forecast for the rest of the day. It's 10 degrees at the moment, but is expected to get colder during the afternoon. The forest will be very boggy, but there should be five of us, so we will look out for each other.

Ran 5km with Nemo this morning in the forest, successfully avoided the icy bits and enjoyed the crisp sound of the snow underfoot. Off to the annual triathlon swimming gala now - John's first race in M65!

Afternoon all,

Thanks for your kind words. 

Mark, I'm so sorry to hear about your job and I hope you find something else soon.  Had you been there a long time?

15 hilly miles for me this morning and only one darth vader moment at mile 13 which was especially steep so I'm a very happy laydee again   I wore tights and was far too hot as the sun was out although it was very windy which helped to cool me down.

IW, I hope Jphn won a prize in his new category!

TE, you are turning out some real high quality miles and I bet it's going to pay off in upcoming races.

Supposed to have done a 10 mile race today, but it has been postponed. I set out on my long run and discovered why! There followed a 2.5 hour adventure, 11 miles of scrambling up banks to avoid huge swathes of water, high leaps over sodden fields, and the occasional walk round remaining icy patches.

Two really nice things happened. The first was when I spotted a kestrel hovering over the fields and then dive bombing to reach its prey. I stood and watched it for ages. It was against a beautiful background with a windmill in the distance. Even when the bird scarer went off and clouds of birds emerged from the field the kestrel remained steadfast.

The second was when a blind man with his dog came towards me in the lane. He stopped to allow me to approach and we exchanged a good morning, and then he smiled and said 'Enjoy your jog!' as I went by. It made me think how fortunate I am.  That man would not be able to marvel at the sight of a kestrel as I had been doing a short time before. We are so lucky in so many ways.

JJ - Yes, yola.com  offers a free hosting package and is easy to use. It should suit your needs.

Red - sad about your friend. What a traumatic experience for her husband and children. They wont be able to believe it for a long time. Terrible for Lola, but also for the grown up boys, who are unlikely to have had experience of bereavement. And poor you, losing a dear friend.

mcs - redundancy is horrible, especially when we are no longer in the first flush of youth. It seems to me that the way forward is to work for ourselves. Can you offer personal training, for example? It would use your particular talents, and you are obviously strong in body and in mind or you would not be able to achieve all you have in the athletic field. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. 

BIW, well done on your 5k and it won't be long before you are tackling longer distances. Hope John does well at the Gala.

Red, well done on your 15 miles, I'm hoping that is a sign that you are beating your breathing problems. Thanks for your encouragement of my training.

The rain held off and it was bright, sunny but very cold. The heavy overnight rain had, however, done its worst. The forest was really heavy underfoot, and we had to turn back on ourselves several times, due to deep, fast flowing water completely covering the way ahead. I ran a total of 14.25 miles in 2.38.47, which was quite respectable considering the conditions. Last weeks mileage was 45, Saturday to Friday. It is only 3 weeks now to the Bramley 20 mile race, so next Sunday will be the last long run. I do hope my training will result in good times for this years races.

Looked out of the window this morning, and behold! The garden had come back!

Well run Red (and good news re the breathing!), BIW, Matsmum and TE.

No running today. Instead, I had a lovely day out with Younger Daughter and her boyfriend, this being the birthday outing postponed from last week. We met at the Small Breeds Farm

http://www.owlcentre.com/

had lunch, walked around visiting the owls and animals (most of them under cover in this weather,  which was just as well as for about 15 minutes there was howling wind, lashing rain and a smattering of hail with it) and then had tea and scones before going home. Lots of the animals are eager to be petted and stroked, - there are even 3 or 4 owls which "may be stroked gently by adults" - so it was all very hands-on. The downside of the stroking was that the smell of billy-goat hangs on even after several washes. There was a notice warning of this, but billy and I had been in close proximity for several minutes before I noticed the notice. Some of the notices are enlivened with a bit of deadpan humour. One near the goats explained that the nannies in Billy's harem will come into heat in succession, and their kids will then be born in succession throughout the spring and summer. At the bottom of this notice it said "information courtesy of the goats' Family Planning Association".

Daughter brought me pressies too, so it really did feel like my birthday. As indeed it was, if a week late. 

Nice sunny day. Did 2 doodle walksin deep mud then a lot of garden maintenance. Finished the day with a gym session.

matsmum
Thanks for the website tip.
Great run today. You will have benefited a lot.

Redhead
Glad the run went well. Maybe you've turned a corner.

Columba
A birthday every week is a bit of a mixed blessing.

IW
How did his lordship get on?
JJ

JJ - exceptionally well!  In training he's been swimming around 19 minutes for 1km. Yesterday because of an unusually high number of entrants there were 4 swimmers in his lane instead of 2 - 1 guy was around the same speed and the others were a couple of minutes slower. It's a 25m pool too which made it more difficult to pass, our trainer was yelling at John to  get past the other man but it was difficult, John was swimming right on his heels on every length but losing time on the turns. After several tries he eventually swam right through the middle of the lane into the lead and never lost it, finishing in 17:04 - if it hadn't been for the "traffic jam" he'd have been under 17mins which he hasn't done for about 3 years. So over the moon with his time.

He's very competitive so I should have expected a good time!

Been watching the BBC News Channel while job browsing this am....sleep elusive for some reason. Thanks for the postive comments.  Nice swimming and running going on I havent run since Thursday due to sore throat and abit of man flu so coughing all night I have been pushed downstairs. Will plod to the office this am me thinks and see what is happening. Meeting on Tuesday afternoon to fill us in on our future. Done five years there so will get some cash to tide us over for a few weeks. Jobs are a bit scarce in the Peak District so might have to head over to the cities nearby again though I hate commuting but its going to be a new year and interesting 2013.

Happy new week to all.

Morning all,

It's a lovely bright morning here and I'm feeling the Spring-cleaning urge!  I loathe housework as you keep having to do the same stuff again and again but a real, thorough clean sees me happy as a happy little redhead can be.  Core stuff and cross training today 

Mark, stay positive.  You have many skills to offer.  Good idea from Matsmum about self-employment.  You never know, that could be your solution.

IW, well done to John!  He is an amazing athlete and I always admire your training regime.

Matsmum, thanks.  Your run sounded lovely.  I too always stop and watch the wildlife - yesterday I saw 2 egrets and a herd of deer.

Columba, it's nice having 2 birthdays.  I got very excited when I followed your link as it lead me to the owl page - I'm having a bit of an owl phase at the moment and have been crocheting and embroidering some ideas so that page started my creative juices flowing!

Have a lovely day everyone.

A rest day today and nothing really to report. At the moment, there is a very strong wind blowing and it is pouring with rain. I'm glad tonight wasn't a club night

Walking the doodle this morning and came upon a 30m stretch of footpath that had the river Medway overflowing across it. Had to roll jeans up to knees and wade through it. This was followed by a narrow bridge over the river with the river running over it not under it. More wading! Wasn't half cold.

IW
Great swim by J.

TE
Just noticed your high mileage week Well done. Don't think I've done more miles than that on more than a couple of occasions.
JJ

JJ, I presume you had to carry the doodle, whilst you were wading? Lucky you have a good sense of balance. I've worked my way gradually up to the 45 miles, and tried to not to increase by more than 10% each week. I've never been an exceptionally high miler, and when I ran 3 marathons in 1993, I only exceeded 60 miles once. I was averaging between 50 and 55 miles, with my longest run being 22 miles.

Columba and Red, I thought it was only The Queen who had two birthdays