The darkness prevails...

Day 325 Tuesday 20th November 15.9 miles : miles to date 2160.2 Less than 24 hours after last nights trudge, I found myself at training ninety minutes early. What's a lad going to do to get his running mojo back? Do a 10 mile cross country run in the dark, mud and rain listening to the Foo Fighters at full volume with my head torch of course. I ran into Ampthill Park and joined leg four of the Greensands race, heading back to Millbrook testing ground and the handover from leg three. I have run these trails many, many times and yet tonight they felt totally different. The leaves covered the ground and it was difficult to run in the dark with so many tree roots, so I slowed and just enjoyed my surroundings, dancing around the trails like a little Welsh Fred Astaire. Despite being so close to a town, I had the feeling at times that I was in the middle of no where, which allowed me to escape with my Foo buddies. The trail took me through a number of woods, which cloaked me even further in darkness. The lack of natural light and the shadows thrown up by the torch made it a little spooky at times and when a rabbit ran across my path three feet in front of me, I did jump a bit. At one point the trail emerged to cross a very busy A road with commuters going home. I did pause for a moment in the rain, on the side of the road watching the cars whizz by feet away, wondering who thought they had the better mode of transport. I decided it was me, felt quite chuffed I was out there and dived back into the darkness on the other side. The second part of the run then began as I was helping to coach the club on a number of hill reps. I did my duty and cut back on the effort, concentrating instead on encouragement. The fact that I was starting to tire helped with that decision. No apathy tonight. Yippeeee.

Apathy...

Day 324 Monday 19th November 4.7 miles : miles to date 2144.3 After mudfest, tonight's run was always going to be a bit of a dull affair. An intended lunch time canal run was swapped due to work reasons, for a rather miserable run from my old pal Maulden Woods and the ever dodgy Doggers delight car park. It has been a fair while since I parked up there in the dark, albeit my only concern was the lack of the dirty mac brigade which left my car a tad lonely in the dark. I set off in just a thin top and after a few minutes noticed it was a lot colder than I thought. I fought the wind, cars whizzing by me within feet on the A6 and the onset of - and really sorry for this - apathy. I just didn't have the drive, energy or mental fortitude to enjoy tonight's trot and it was all I could do not to turn back sooner than I did. It all went Pete Tong. I slowed to a crawl, the i-pod ran out, the wind chill increased, the commuting cars all did their best to clip me and I didn't even get flashed at. My intended six or so miler, was cut short. There are days when you can, days when you can't and days when you just want to sit in front of West Side Story with a pizza and a nice Cote Du Rhoné. You can guess where I wanted to be tonight.

Mudfest

Day 323 Sunday 18th November 15.3 miles : miles to date 2139.6

Praise be to the mudfests in England's green and pleasant land, brothers and sisters of the running persuasion, praise be. As the mighty Odissey once sang, I am going back to my roots. The PB hunting is almost done for the year - apart from a wee 5 miler next Saturday - and today was a stick the daps on and meander where ever the mood took me run.
I covered a few road miles before heading over to the Oakley 20 mile race course, where I ran past an attractive woman runner at the front a school (sucked my belly in and ran a little faster whilst trying to smile obviously), when a few roofers wolf whistled. I was tempted to stop and say thanks but kept going.
Then the fun really began. I turned off the route and joined the John Bunyan trail near to the river, which was instantly wet, muddy and very boggy. After my ankle submerged the first time, my foot was caked in the glorious stuff

 and and I then just headed for every mud pool I could see. It was really quite refreshing just to take the straight route through the mud. It was a glorious, bright and only slightly frosty morning and the trails, leaves, cows, and river all had smiles on their faces.
At one point I had to cross a small bridge and every inch of ground leading to it was a quagmire. I just ran straight into it, where upon my trailing legs dap instantly came off. My momentum tok me forward and my shoeless foot sank into the next step to just below my knee. Stuck at an odd angle, I brought my other leg forward when it lost it's shoe and went in equally as far. By this stage, both shoeless feet were just sinking and I went down to my knee caps. I struggled to try to recover the daps and just for a moment stood there contemplating sitting down and getting the whole spa treatment for free. Realising that Fi would never let me in the house, I eventually climbed out and laughed all the way home. Running through the centre of the village caused a few stares and pointing, which made me just chuckle to myself even more.
The only down side was I had to rinse myself off in the garden with icy hose water before I could even get in the house, but even that made me chuckle after my legs became numb to the cold.
The trails are back in the blood. Yipppeeeeee.

Apology time

Day 322 Saturday  17th November 4.8 miles : miles to date 2124.3

After last night's meal, I was suffering from post currymatic bowel disorder early doors, so any thought of a SMC or even park run went out the window. An expected lay in bed was fine, until I realised that the most dedicated athlete in the family had got up and gone off to a race. And it wasn't me.

 I owe an apology. Since the need for speed thing has appeared, it seems I have become even more boring. If Star Wars was Running War's, Yoda would be Satnav himself, Richard Jones. And Yoda Jones spoke and the fact is, he was right. I started this challenge for one reason and one reason only. I love running. I don't need times, PB's, targets, distances or in truth anyone to pat me on the back. If it was just me and a pair of daps, tick tock tick-addy boo. I don't need to time every run and I need to 

 With that in mind, tonight's rather odd run just hit the mark. I parked right by Xscape in central Milton Keynes at 6.15pm, just as the entire world went out to the various bar's, eateries, shops, and snowdome inside. I then looped around the streets, dodging shoppers and cars in a busy urban run, before diving off down into the quiteness of Campbell Park. Within minutes the roads were swapped for a canal before a very dark, lonely and truly wonderful run on my own for a few brief moments heading back to hugely busy car park. In the park, I climbed a dark hill, to find an illuminated pyramid edifice on the high point, which I have never noticed before whilst in the car shooting past. 

 Tis time me thinks, that I need to go back to what I am most famous. Doing No 2's in the woods. Hopefully my apology is accepted? 

Day 321 Friday 16th November 5.1 miles : miles to date 2119.5 An early work finish allowed me to run slowly around the Marston Forest Centre figure of eight loop in the dark. There was mist around and combined with the darkness, my vision was a little impaired under the lights of the head torch. I was tired anyway from last nights run, so it was a straight forward i-pod long play thingy machine and a wee bit of Dad's rock. God save the Queen by the Sex Pistols still sounds good even after all these years, although it didn't make me run faster tonight. Right, tonight's post is being curtailed by an independent third party. I'm off for a Ruby Murry with Fi and the crew, I'm late and the Chef wont wait. I should mention that as a modern man, we are sharing the driving. I'm driving there and Fi's driving back. Kingfisher anyone?

Another PB!

Day 320 Thursday 15th November 7.9 miles : miles to date 2114.4 Yet another Thursday night session with the club, on an undulating urban figure of eight loop with a few testing climbs chucked in for good measure. Over the years, I would guess that my average time has been around 64 -66 minutes. I have tried to reduce that and dipped below the hour for the first time ever last year. Since this new found need for speed started earlier this year I have found myself a bit in no mans land. I am in-between the whippets and the next group down, which meant I was firmly put in my place by the real speed merchants tonight. I set off with the whippets near the back and not so slowly graduated backwards. By the time we climbed the second hill, I was already 20 feet behind and the gap grew. By three miles the leaders were out of sight and I could just about see the Flying Scotsman having for him a slow run in front. He turned 40 yesterday and has slowed down overnight. Or the beer more likely effected him. I was at this point puffing hard and I just tried to keep the gap from growing essentially for the rest of the remaining five miles. I couldn't catch him and concentrated on trying to get a decent time. The front runners came in at around the 48 minute mark, which is a pace I was never going to live with (yet). Despite being firmly last in that crew, I was none the less quite chuffed to dip in just under 53 minutes for the first time ever for that route. The Silver Surfer had a great run coming in comfortably first in the next group at a little over 58 minutes. And there you go, right in the middle. The challenge for me next year, is to avoid my normal 14 pound weight gain at Chrimbo (no exaggeration) and get closer to the 50 minute mark. Its making me tired just thinking about it.

The stripper

Day 319 Wednesday 14th November 7.2 miles : miles to date 2106.5 Now I've changed from the whistle and flute into my gear in all sorts of funny places this year. I have developed a routine that allows me to strip off almost anywhere. For the first time I had the luxury of the car back seat. Now why didn't I think of that, er, say 297 runs ago? The well oiled routine was put into motion in the middle of a jam packed car park at my daughters school where a parents/teachers evening was taking place. Fi and Meg were in the front praying that a teacher, pupil, parent or police officer didn't walk past. Heck, me and Satnav totally stripped off once on the back seat of a very busy top deck of a bus in Brighton after one particular late night race, so a car is well safe. I set off intending not to run too fast and stick to a 7.30 mile pace, given last nights session and Thursdays pending lung buster. Rather spectacularly I hit seven miles on the garmin at precisely 52:30, but I know the miles weren't even. The route home was undulating and the hills did slow me down going up and speed me up going down. I also picked it up on the unlit country road coming into the village, which was a little hairy in the dark and a bit of fog and then slowed down on the uneven pavements. In the end it was a reasonably comfortable run and I even turned down a glass of vino having done it. Has anyone seen my halo