'Mature' runners.

The Queen and I...

High winds, pouring rain, much of it coming down almost horizontally. Sheets of water on the roads. I didn't quite get Red's spring-cleaning urge, but turned out a kitchen cupboard, identified a few items of cookware it wasn't worth keeping, put them together with a number of other things I've been planning to get rid of, and took them down to a big recycling centre out of town. Getting rid of things is almost as much fun as acquiring new ones! - Then went swimming. 

Red - with your knitting/craftery hat on - I am knitting one of those scarves made with weird yarn, all open-work and lacey with bobbles along one edge.  Glad you liked the owls.  

TE
I'm one for quality training too rather than quantity.
I put the doodle's lead on and she half walked, half swam. She's quite a big dog and thought it was quite a good game.
JJ

Morning all,

JJ, I have a very comical image of you and the doodle fighting your way through the water.  Doggies love swimming don't they?!

Columba, that sounds a fun scarf.

My Spring-cleaning urge has departed with the sunshine as today is vile - horizontal rain and gale-force wind.  Intervals on the treddy later.

All I can say is ....Ready,  tready,  GO !!!!

The weather is rotten here also, although it is 12 degrees. It looks like tonights hilly circuit session will be held in the wind and rain.

Bit warmer today but really carp weather.

Redhead
Swimming is the doodle's idea of a great time.
JJ

Weather continued appalling today, but I forced myself out for an evening run with the running club. Only did just over 3 miles; even the keenest runners had had enough by then. My hat blew off twice, before I thought to anchor it with the band of my head-torch.

The first hint of spring in the air, but sadly it didn't last long.  Six miles today and then a 1.5 mile experimental cooldown on my brand new state of the art treadmill......which isn't working!   Well, the street map bit isn't anyway, so I can't at the moment view any of the advertised runs or put on any of my routes. Flipping nuisance. 

It is going to be torrential rain apparently tomorrow, but I have a day off to go into the city with daughter B to get her birthday present. Then pilates in the evening. I think perhaps I should go swimming sometime because there is a lovely pool only about 9 miles away that I should take advantage of.  I went for a few lessons last year ( since I am crap in the water,and only learned as an adult)  Unfortunately whenever I try to do anything other than breast stroke my legs sink. Oh, and I can't breathe, which is another obvious disadvantage. 

On the up side I have entered the ballot for the London Parks Half on 6th October. It sounds lovely. Have any of you done it?

Our dogs love swimming too, in fact when it's time to go we have to trick Nemo into coming close enough for one of us to grab his collar, otherwise he dances out of reach! Never wants to leave the water.

Matsmum - have you tried swimming using a pull bouy? That's a plastic or foam support that you grip between your knees or thighs to isolate the arm stroke, but it has the added extra of keeping your legs high in the water. We use them in training quite often. With breathing, many folks try to breathe in and out too quickly. You should breathe slowly and evenly.We have beginner swimmers stand comfortably in the water and put their face in the water, then practice turning the head to one side to breathe in, then put the face back into the water to breathe out for the crawl stroke breathing. For breast stroke, you breathe in with your head out of the water and lower your face into the water to breathe out. It's easy once you stop trying to breathe in and out at the same time. Our trainer makes us do an exercise where we breathe every 2nd stroke for one length, then every 3rd, then every 4th, sometimes even up to breathing only every 5th or 6th stroke and then back down the ladder again.

No innuendos from you, JJ!

IW
I couldn't do any innuendo without knowing what sort of ladder we're discussing

Our club session was held last night in heavy rain and very strong winds. Total mileage was 8, and our main session was 4 hilly circuits of 0.78 mile. The wind was strongest and into our faces, as we ran up the steepest hill.

I was woken at 3.30 this morning by howling wind and rain battering the windows. The rain has now stopped and the sun is shining.

Our Coaches are worrying that the forest won't dry out sufficiently in the summer, for us to undertake our normal training. We usually do hill and speed work, and this will be impossible unless conditions improve dramatically.

Afternoon all,

What a battering we took yesterday - lots of tree branches down in the fields but all boundaries OK thank goodness.  My intervals didn't go well yesterday as I couldn't get over .3 miles at pace without gasping so I just went with the flow and did 10 x .3miles @ 8.5 min miling with .1 recs.  

In the evening we adjourned to the village pub for our annual Tuesday Tipplers meal (even though we don't go to the Tuesday session we always try to make it to the annual meal).  On the walk home we got absolutely drenched but we didn't care and it was only .7 mile anyway 

What was troubling however was the drunken comments from a man in the village. We don't know him very well other than to say hello to and last time we saw him he made lewd comments about me wearing lycra which I found very embarrassing and Mike was most unhappy about but we ignored it 'cos it was obvious he'd had a few drinkies.  However, last night was worse.  

As we were about to leave he came over to us and started talking about me running through the village in lycra and then he said that I'm always wiggling my bum and pushing my breasts into his face!  OMG, I was mortified and protested loudly but Mike immediately stepped in front of me and told him to back off.  I then grabbed hold of one of my chums and started talking to her and pulled Mike away from the offending man but he was absolutely seething as you can imagine.  Mike was still angry about it this morning and says that he will have a stern word with the man when he sees him again.

What's troubling me most is that I sometimes see him out walking his dog when I'm out running, often in remote locations and I'm absolutely creeped out by him - maybe he's just an old letch but maybe he is more than that which I find very worrying.  As I run alone in sparsely populated areas it's definitely a concern and I think that if I see him again when I'm out running I shall turn round and run in the opposite direction.

Matsmum, how annoying that your treddy isn't working properly.  Where did you get it from? We got ours about 10 years ago, from Gymworld and they set the machine up for us and tested it and their aftersales service was very good too.  Hopefully it'll be sorted out for you soon.

TE, it's going to take ages to dry out the ground after the soaking it's had.  I usually graze the horses in the orchard in March but there's no way I can this year as they'd trash it as the ground is sodden.

This morning I did a marathon-paced run of 7 miles on an undulating/hilly route and my breathing was OK - perhaps the mixture of Macallans malt followed by a white wine sprizter or 2 agrees with asthma!!!

Red, what you describe sounds to me like sexual harassment. Mike showed great self restraint by not thumping him. This creep is intimidating you and you shouldn't put up with it. If he makes any more nasty comments, or approaches to you, I suggest you should notify the police. He may have a police record, and they can take appropriate action.

Ran a steady 8 miles this morning in bright sunshine, wearing shorts and just two tops. It was great, not wearing a track suit top, hat or gloves. I have now run 30.25 miles, as from Sunday, so look set for another high mileage week. Tomorrow night is 7 miles fartlek, which I believe will be 7 x 1 mile with recoveries, and not 7 miles broken down into various distance efforts. More of a rep. session than a fartlek really

Red - maybe you could get it on prescription!

That neighbour sounds like one to be avoided at all costs, and what a good thing you can (almost certainly) run faster than he can.

Matsmum - your swimming sounds much like mine, though I have been working on the breathing problem. I have also been enquiring about private swimming lessons but so far without success. But this may be down to the leisure centre not passing my requests on to the lady who gives the lessons, rather than her not wanting to take me on. BIW, I shall follow your advice if I can track down a pull buoy.

I hadn't realised the saturation of the ground was likely to last into the spring and summer.

Working today so didn't run. When I reached the coast, the wind was so strong and unremitting it was difficult to stand, and the sea was a mass of "white horses", most spectacular.

I posted before TE's post, above. I agree with him about notifying the police if you get any more trouble whatsoever.

Redhead......Agree you should report that letch, anyone who makes comments like that needs reporting in case there is another incident.
Matsum I have done Royal Parks Half its a good race, the first half is interesting the second half is just round the park which is a touch tedious and was windy when I did it but worth it for the scenery.
Just got back from a 10k run up the trail in 46 mins, very windy first three miles and then ran back with a tail wind, happy with that as had a tough week, lost two kilos poorly and made redundant so stress levels abit high, seemed to have done my head for a few days, feeling better now as got a couple of interviews lined up already despite not knowing when I have to shut the office here. Hopefully find out Monday when HR comes back for a second visit.........
TE you are running plenty of miles keep at it and enjoy..

Mark, 46 mins. for 10k on trails is an excellent time! Hope you are successful in your job interviews.I hope to get somewhere near that time in the Eastleigh 10k in March, which is listed as a PB course. As I have said before, my PB days are 25 or so years ago, and the last time I got below 46 mins. was in 2004, when I ran 44.14. It will be a bit of a miracle, to be honest, if I go sub 47. 

mcs - good to have interviews lined up already; that must be encouraging.

8 miles today, in high winds that almost never stopped.

A couple of short easy runs but nothing worth reporting on here.

Redhead
Very disconcerting for you.
The guy probably thinks he's being funny. I would threaten police action first.

TE
I'm confident the water companies will be applying a hosepipe ban by Easter.
Nice training going on.

mcs
Hope the interviews lead to something concrete. You could end up with two jobs.
JJ