reps, leps and spidey-sense

over the crags, over the summit, round the bog, bit of whinny,
then triangles of hill reps just south of Dunsapie

It was only a fortnight ago or so but I have little memory of this collection of photos dated 15th July. Rather, I am unable to remember with clarity this run in particular. So I went to the gps trace and see that me and coach Mary ran all round Holyrood park. It shows that after quite a decent warm up we did 3 or 4 triangles, a session Coach Gordon would wrongly (but knowingly) call triangulation. So we didn't measure the length of one side of a triangle then by deducing the angles find the lengths of the other 2. What we did was run triangles and measure the exhaustion of the 2 runners. It was considerable. This was the second time we had done this session recently and eased me back into the notion that pushing yourself doing hard training is good. At least when you stop. During it, it hurts. But there is something rewarding about it. Knowing you are testing yourself, knowing you are pushing towards improvement. And if it is not butterfly weather, well, what else are you going to do to pass the time till the sun comes out?

ringo star

Now there aren't many pics of Hunter and none of the triangles. Which means it was deadly serious. (Or drizzling.) I have quite enjoyed a return to proper running stuff and dare I say it a bit of discipline. I haven't (up till recently) done a Weds eve club session in months (they ceased with Lockdown and I'm not a huge fan of the winter venue (Porty Prom) and the 3 mile cycle there.) And Wintervals also cancelled so Thursdays have been remarkably pain free for months. Time to get back on that bike and ride like hell! Or more likely, do a couple of moderate sessions on the road back to running for speed rather than running somewhere to stand still or creep up slowly on butterflies to take their photos. 

However you can get too much of a good thing. And then the sun must have come out because while Mary ran home I went in search of lep thrills. Looks like I found them (mostly of a small tort variety near the Paliament building in among the freely flowering mass of scabious pincushions, ragworts and oxeye daisies that festoon the raised beds between cement walls before the ponds. Nice to see a small white or 2 there too. Seems to have been nothing but GVWs since. The whites mostly doing fly-bys, only occasionally settle for a photo then are off again chasing the ladies. It makes a pleasant methadone rush to the heroin of Holyrood, the artificiality of the planted borders a slightly tame adventure compared to the random chance of unplanted wildflowers and wildlife available in the park proper. But often, as in this trip, the best of the days butterflying, on the way out out the park rather than another lap round the barren DGF patches. The stairs up to bedfordshire.

 

small white joy

Bonus creaure feature:

That same day a tiny zebra jumping spider Tom Cruised down from the ceiling on a thread between Mary and her screen. It was not easy to corral the jumpy wee blighter on a sheet of A4 and take a few photos before thanking it for being so snappily dressed then ushering it out the flat and goodbye. Great big headlights which it needs for seeing prey (it does produce silk but does not make webs) and accurately jumping distances. And pairs of sidelights for additional info. Quite the looker.