double wednesdays

 

30th December
As I approached the end of the year I was tempted to look into how things were going and maybe summarise how the year's running panned out. Actually things are going pretty well currently because I decided to mostly down work tools in December (something akin to a Marcothon) and concentrate on running. Which is powering me through the dim dark days of the blackest month. I haven't been running every day but I have done the last three club evening sessions on the back of a daytime session, which I hope is more intelligent and vigorous training than just jogging 3 miles or more on a daily basis for the sake of it. 

I hadn't seen much of a pattern until I looked at the calendar months on Movescount; the Suunto website where you post runs output from a Suunto gps device. The industry norm is Garmin but I got the chance of a 2nd hand Suunto a few years ago when they were faster than Garmins to catch a signal (Garmins have since caught up) and I jumped ship to Suunto. Unfortunately they are scrapping the Movescount website this year and all info is transferred to the Suunto App which I have on my iPad (I refuse to use an alleged smart-phone) but given I use a PC every day and an iPad maybe once a month, I resent HUGELY the fact that Suunto are catering entirely for phone zombies and kicking the PC users into touch. Perhaps this year I will return to Garmin or might have to sign up to strava which I have avoided so far because social media is the pox of our zeitgeist.

Anyway, a pattern emerged that I was running Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday most weeks and not much else for most of the year. Annual total mileage for the last 4 years is just under 2k miles. Averaging 35.8miles per week in 2017, 36 during 2018, 40+ in 2019 (2117 for the year!) and 37.75 for this year. More miles were run in July 2020 than any other month this year, apart from December when I averaged over 60 weekly. Which shows what no work does. However it was as much a stick as a carrot as I was running away from Winter flab and an appetite for hibernation and red wine. I feel it might be working but the jury will be out till late March.  

blue tit and bullfinch

great tit trying on new christmas gloves

namaste!

giant Mazza testing her new Scott shoes

making faces and giving the finger

we ran over to Newington Cemetery
having heard of bird-watching treats there

nice to bump into Jake dog-walking

and Mairi and Molly who had flagged up woodpeckers here

practise for April

hopefully not as Digby suggested, a lockdown cremation,
but a bonfire in the allotments next door

new shoes!

We saw very few of the birds on the noticeboard. We had hoped to photograph the woodpeckers Mairi had posted pics of, but there were none about we could see. It was too cold for moving slowly so instead we headed towards Cameron toll and along to the Liberton end of the Hermitage. Weirdly at Cameron Toll, actually right beside the roundabout and waiting to get across the roads, I saw first a redwing which sat for a photo and then, exotic bird of the day, a goldcrest. Just bouncing about the tree next to one of the busiest roads in Edinburgh. They don't sit still and I took dozens of pics of recently empty perches and tailfeathers coming out from behind branches. And a couple of nearly record shots. I don't see these tiny birds often so it was a treat and I was very nearly stoked. 

best bird pic of the day! Redwing.

on a lamppost 

goldcrest
along with firecrest the UK's smallest bird

I  had been telling Mary a goldcrest was the weight of a 20p piece. Actually the RSPB say it weighs 6 grams and (google says) a 20p coin weighs 5g. A sheet of A4 paper weighs 5g as well. However a small paperclip weighs 1g so if you put the clip on the sheet of A4 you have the weight of a goldcrest. I'm not sure if I have a proper grasp of it though. Not very much is probably as close as I can pin it down. And very cute, although I was sorry not have got a better photo of the bright yellow crest atop its head. Must try harder. Not sure which urban traffic hotspots to try next. (Mairi got some shots of a goldcrest, a wren (cutest ever!) and LT tits in Newington Cemetery (as well as the pair of woodpeckers) so maybe I need to go back there with a warm jacket and more time to kill.)

Mary on the right doing Tales of the Unexpected
ooh that's a blast from the past!

not my bread, nothing to do with me

another redwing several miles away but due to decent light 
caught it with a massive zoom just before it flew off

Liberton Tower

Mary and I kept wondering what this large blocky building is. Must be for vampires or people who do not want a lot of light streaming in. Turns out it is Liberton Tower originally built in 1453-ish (nearly 3 o'clock, boom-tish) and can normally be rented, if you like four poster beds, spiral stairways and have photophobia. I think it might be closed currently due to the pandemic.  

Once onto Blackford Hill we both thought it might be good to go high for the views, but to do that we had to cross a few slopes that had been polished to a miraculous sheen by little people (and their parents) on sledges all day. And were now nearly impossible to cross in anything less grippy than crampons. I got to one bit and could neither progress nor retreat and froze as I felt my feet lose any remaining grip. Mary came close and threw out an arm, but I managed through willpower alone to transport myself off the bobsleigh run and onto the churned snow nearby, just seconds before plummeting down the 100 yards of elbow, camera and rib smashing cresta run. We had grippy trail shoes on but they were useless on the ice. Even hill shoes wouldn't have gripped the slick frozen surface. We watched a youngster fearlessly climb onto a sledge and embrace the gravity rush. Since when did sledging wear include ski googles? Well jell!

We chose what we hoped was the route of least danger down to the pond singing "We're off to see the rats at Blackford Pond." But there were none to be found. Perhaps too many passers-by or too high a level of water which came above their pondside runs and hidey-holes. Or maybe they hibernate. Google it whydon'tcha. There were a few sleepy mallards and not much else. And it was too cold to hang about. We had a sports bar and legged it home through town.

Unless they really change this one in the finishing stages 
its going to look like a right turd.

So, being a Wednesday I had an evening PRC session in Inverleith Park to attend. I really enjoy them once I'm there but as you can imagine, after showering and changing into non running kit it is quite a chore to think about changing back into more running kit and heading out into the dark for another 8 miles; some of which are done at top speed trying to keep up with gentlemen 20 years my junior. A quick look through the calendar uploads suggest the last Wednesday I didn't run was back in early October and the last 3 have all been double sessions. (Only possible when not working.) Hopefully this is assuaging the lack of competitive running this year, and the continual war with the bellymaker.

I took the A camera. The B camera was rubbish in the dark here the other week. The A camera was not much better. And I blame Gus's extremely (far too) reflective jacket which spooked the camera. The session was mostly a variety of sprints on the snowy grass and it had the feel of a cross country race. I almost pined for doing some XC racing. But also had 10+ miles from earlier in the day in my legs, so wasn't feeling super sharp. I ran home the long way, back along the Ferry Rd cyclepath hoping to see Mr Foxy. I was armed with a bag of Dreamies cat treats to coax said fox close to the camera for stroky photos. But alas it seems they only wander the paths during commuter time at 6pm. As far as I can gather. Maybe next time.

Alan (2nd left) thinks up tortures for us.

Gus and that jacket.

Weds night squad!