choughed

Right first things first, that (above) is a Jackdaw not a chough (pronounced chuff). Specifically a Western Jackdaw. However in Chaucer's day that was a chough (from it's call) and Shakespeare may also have been referring to this as a chough in Hamlet although the jury is out on that one. These days the name has transferred to the red billed Chough you find in Cornwall. (I am rarely chuffed to get a red bill.)

Coach Hunter came up with a great session for today. We would do the 10 miler round Holyrood and the Innocent Railway. After the 2 mile warm up which was required to shake off any aches and stiffness from Sunday, (and took us to the roundabout at the top of Salisbury Hill) we would run hard for 3 mins then regroup and run at recovery pace for a further 3 mins. Rinse and repeat. Until mile 9 then jog home last mile or catch ambulance to hospital.

Mary hallucinating.

obstacles blocking training

one of the hardest sections was up to Dunsapie

So the first couple of tempo 3 mins went fine. I would get a bit ahead of the coach but would double back and we would chat for a couple of minutes before the pinger went and we would go hell for leather for another 3. Ping, double back, chat, ping, RUN! ping. After 4 or 5 there was less chat and after another few I stopped going back and pretended to take photos of the corvids, waiting for Mary to catch up. Ping oh bastard, already? And so on. I think we did about 11 reps before we got to the end of mile 9 and could jog home trashed. Great session. You should probably stop when there is no discernible difference between your fast 3 mins and the recovery interval. Just making a different face. Good hard session; I may have to lie down before dinner. 

Mary did 10.4 I did 11.4 going a bit further each fast bit then doubling back.