Heavy air

As excuses go, it’s not a bad one: believe me, having employed thousands of freelance staff over the years, I have heard a goodly few reasons why people can’t do something.  What sets this one apart, aside from the fact that I’ve not heard it before, is that the Bok ventured it as the probable reason why I was not running so well this morning.  This is a third-party excuse, making it far stronger.

He is such an amazing friend that he completely ignored the scientific control group: the fact that he was breathing the very same heavy air and yet, if anything, appeared to be faster than ever!

It’s fairer to say that I didn’t run on Sunday, that I had a glass of wine last night and went to bed late.  But then he didn’t run Sunday either, probably had a bottle of wine last night and got woken from his slumber several times by his sons.

He’s just faster and there’s an end to it!

It was lovely to run in the warmth again though – a whole 9 degrees (Centigrade I hasten to add!) and although the sun didn’t really break free until we were back, it was a bright morning.  What was very different was the amount of standing water present en route and by default, mud!  It’s a great workout for the core stability muscles and they were well used today: I had one moment and Nick had at least two that I saw, but neither of us even came close to hitting the deck.

Give it time though as the mud only gets thicker and more tricky as the autumn progresses!  I hope it’s a day when we have a camera with us… whoever it is that goes down!

We proved that we were rubbish at cattle herding on a narrow bridge, where we just couldn’t get the bovines to pass us.  Instead they stood in our way for as long as they dare before turning around and fleeing from the two strangely dressed bipeds!

In the end we ran the same route as Friday in 58 minutes – three more than I thought it took before, although Nick’s watch, very conspicuous by its exhausted absence today, had claimed it took us 57 minutes last time round.  The mud was definitely a factor in this, but I suspect it had more to do with my walking at several points while the Bok could have bounded on!

Different tactics will be applied next time out in an attempt to experiment and we’ll see if we can’t get the time down a little (ergo, speed me up a little!).  Watch this space for the results!