Streak to the hills… (insert Gary Moore guitars here)

I had no clue what to expect when I embarked on the streak challenge, I guess I thought I’d just shuffle round the block the days I didn’t do any “proper” running. Ten days into it all, but really 12 days of running following the 10k race and the group session the day after, I’ve done anything from a measly 1.04k to 15.12 (still not that far), and mostly between 3pm and 11:20pm.

Status?

The days I head out “early”, before 5pm say, I get antsy legs after a few hours. If I run after sundown – which happens way too early these days – my legs seem happier for longer, even if I’ve just jogged about a mile. So far no morning runs, I’ve no idea why other than the fact I’m feeling so tired lately.

Each day brings a mini crisis – what do I do today? Quick shortie round the castle or something a bit more organised? A single kilometre seems silly, so I’ve done a bit more most days. Wednesday I just let my legs do the planning, and they took me round the inner parts of town – just over 4k, it seems to be a village, really – and I loved every minute. Reasonable pace, a bit faster towards the end, and I almost headed back the same way but had work to do…

Hubby probably thinks I’ve finally crossed over into crazy-land, but still kicks me out the door when I’m pacing round the flat with antsy legs. The cat is mostly annoyed that I’m not taking him with me – but he’s so slow! I’ve had garmin on a few times when he’s been out – only on a lead, he’s a right Houdini the little stalking panther – and  I think 31:00/k is a bit slow even for maffetone type training…

Yesterday I’d planned to do a bit of trail running, minus the trail. I drove to our little cottage in the woods (where I grew up: outdoor loo, 5k to the nearest bus stop/shop/school, lovely…) and did a quick check of the “grounds”. What do I see?

A big moose footprint! Bit unclear in the pic but it’s one print on top of the other, and they’re about the size of my hand. Probably a calf from last year, not the biggest variety but certainly big enough for me to decide to run somewhere else. I picked the trail near my dad’s house, the one that has the wild boar. Yeah right, like they’re less scary… Made poor dad come with me though, on his bike, and did some lovely hill training instead. Excellent idea to bring dad – he kept complaining that his bike goes faster than me running even without him pedalling.

Sadly I’ve managed to leave garmin at dad’s house, so I’ve no idea how fast – or slow, if you ask dad – I ran up that hill. Another excuse not to do a morning run today, like I needed one…