Friday 25 April 2014

thursday night intervals

Okay, quick quiz: where is this?
Answer at the bottom of the page.

I took the photo above while working there and the sun was out. The sun makes a huge difference as it did last night for the Carnethy hill session on Arthur Seat. I usually leave the house about 8~10 mins before the 7pm start but gave myself a bit longer last night to warm up my ankle. After 2 hrs at the computer (working on a quote - not just facebooking) I got up out the chair at 5pm and couldn't walk. I couldn't put any weight on my dicky ankle and hobbled around the house cursing and wondering how I would manage the hill interval session at seven. 

I was going to ask these 2 if they had found any treasure yet as it looked like they were metal detecting not spraying weeds. However I it thought better to resist my hilarious joke.


After hopping around the house and giving my legs a good going over with the magic stick (halfway between a rolling pin and a foam roller) my ankle eased and I was able to put weight on the foot. Rather than the tough PRC session with Willie J the night before, I blame sitting in front of the computer. As Mary said "you can be concentrating so much on the screen you don't notice you have the posture of the Hunchback of Notredame." 


The last thing Willie had said after Wednesday night was "take it easy for the next couple of days." Which I wasn't, strictly speaking, doing. However the Thursday evenings are off-road which is softer underfoot and most of the hard work is up hill - only occasionally do we rush downhill - which probably keeps the danger to a minimum. 


Jim H ahead of Andy F.

There was a bigger turnout last night - no doubt due to the weather - it was a delightful evening and not too warm to cope with the 2 mins hard, 1 min regroup and jog that Iain had planned for us. So about 7 or 8 gathered at the Holyrood car park and set off up the back of the crags. By this point my dodgy ankle was completely over its fainting spell and working fine but it was a reminder not to push my luck as I have a harsh racing schedule in May (racing 4 weekends in a row incl. an ultra and a marathon.) 



There is a good variety of sessions. I couldn't cope if it was (for instance) just the Rad Road week after week. Often we will do pyramid sessions and usually on steep ground at one of 4 or 5 places. It is fairly intense (all abilities welcome) but you know in about 45 minutes you can go home for dinner which tastes better for the experience. Last night we seemed to get off lightly with a pretty moderate session taking a route over the back of the Crags along Pipers' Walk and up to the top of Nether Hill before jogging back to the car park. Usually it is reps on some horribly steep hill.


It was good to see Fergus joining us last night - he has missed the last few weeks due to a PF foot but couldn't resist the fine evening. Strangely a month without running doesn't seem to have slowed him down any.


The meadows looking colourful.




See you next Thursday, 7pm, Holyrood car park.

Quiz: Ramsay Garden, right next door to Edinburgh Castle.
 (if you said Gardens with an "s" deduct a point.)


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