Meadow's Loop - 7.5km - 53mins 20sec

I pretty much just went out for a jog this morning as my legs had been a bit sore since the fart-lek on Tuesday and also I played an hour of badminton last night (there was only three of us so plenty of one-on-two action which is always hard work... but good fun).

About half way round I though "this is the best that my legs have ever felt" and I was pleased by that. The time, however, was a good 5 mins off my best and that was disappointing but I suppose I wasn't really trying and there was plenty in the tanks.

One thing that is getting much more obvious is that my recovery time for a run like that is minutes now. My breathing goes back to normal almost as soon as I stop which I guess indicates improved CV fitness. I wonder what my BP and heart rate are doing? Perhaps I should find and blow the dust off my heart rate monitor!!

17 days till the Stirling Triathlon. Quite excited. 1:42 to beat from last year.

Meadows Loop (Fart-Lek) - 7.5km - 52min 49sec

This was the first time that I'd ever tried fart-lek properly. I tried to sprint-run the whole way but eventually it became sprint-walk then run-walk then hobble-walk. I can definitely see the advantage to it but to be honests it's really horrible and making the effort to do it once a week it going to be hard.

We'll see.

North Berwick and Back - 80km - untimed

Bailed on the Loch Leven half marathon out of sheer laziness so punished myself by getting on the bike and cycling into the wind for 40km. Was originally planning to take the train back up but since the wind was behind me I decided to got for it on the bike.

Good fun but not too pleasant by the time I got to Arthurs Seat on the way back - ended up with cramp IN MY THIGH. So weird. Had to stop on the hill for a bit and then slowly cruised home for some much needed water.

Legs feel fine today so quite happy with that. Need to do a LOT more as I've got the triathlon in less than 3 weeks.

Dunfermline Half Marathon - 2:30:54

Well that's another one in the bag.

This was a mixed bag today. There was not that many people there and it was a 2 loop course. Things started out ok and overall the first lap was relatively straight forward but it became apparent there were a significant number of hills and the second time around they made their gradient felt.

On top of that it was a late (11am) start and the sun was beating down. I had to take two bottles from every water station - one to drink from and the other one to pour over myself. The salt in my eyes became quite annoying and it wasn't long before I couldn't wait till the end.

However there were some good points...

1. I managed to overtake and beat a girl that whomped my ass at the Edinburgh Half Marathon

2. The legs felt better this time and my ankle/achilles didn't give me as much jip as I thought it would

3. I got another medal.

4. I managed to overtake several people in the last 2 - 3 miles.

5. I beat Arfon (sorry mate)

6. Although my time was slower than the Edinburgh Half I feel the victory was mine due to all the hills etc.

Loch Leven Half Marathon in 6 days.... if I'm up for it!

Results

Fastest time - 1:06:59
Slowest time - 3:03:43

Stuart - 1:37:49 position 141
Zain - 2:30:54 postion 646
Arfon - 2:52:48 position 660

Well done everyone.

Long random loop - 17.3km - 2hours 8min 5sec

This was a post race training run but at the same time was a pre-half marathon training run. All in all it was quite good. Totally relaxed and I totally ran at a really easy pace. My left achilles was agony again but stayed consistantly shit the whole way round. I guess it's something I'm going to have to put up with for the duration of this "season".

Anyway, glad I got another run in. Two more halfs in the next 10 days so we'll see how they go.

Edinburgh 10km - 1hour 7mins 07sec

Another race. Another Medal.

This had potential to be a really great run. The atmosphere was amazing and there were about 10,000 runners. It reminded me of the City to Surf in Australia. However, there were loads of problems.

First, the number of people meant that the place was rammed. The runner never actually began until the top of the mound so we walked for ages. Then at the bottom of the mound there was a bottle neck at the National Gallery so we were actually reduced to waiting for people to squeeze through. On that narrow path along Princes St Gardens people were already walking and instead of keeping to the side they were walking in pairs and threes... WIDTH-WISE! Morons.

As the race went on this was a running theme (no pun intended) - people stopping infront of you without moving to the side. This meant a lot of side stepping and dodging. At one point I had to avoid a line of real tubsters who were walking around Arthur's Seat with t-shirts on which had "Running for *someone*" written on the back. Running???? Bollocks! They were simply there as obstacles for actual runners. I think it's admirable for "fun-runners" to do these things for charity but there should be some sort of etiquette for when people walk like "Keep Left" or "walk on the outside of the corner" etc.

Anyway, I beat my last time despite this... not by much but I still beat it so I'm happy. Here are some results...

Finishers.... 7817

Fastest - 0:28:13
Slowest - 2:01:02

Simon - 1:12:08 position 7157
Me - 1:07:07 position 6535
Isla - 0:52:18 position 2337
Sara - 0:49:03 position 1468
Cathy - 0:47:02 position 554

Dunfermline Half Marathon next week.

PS - couldn't find Natasha's result but she says that she did it in about 59mins I think.