Month: March 2015

“Like a Bird on the Wire”

Ah yes – the famous Leonard Cohen song. ‘Like a Bird on the Wire.’ Famous throughout the world,  like many such classics this song has many people trying to record their own, unique version; to stamp their own personality onto it. (Yes, I am thinking of Jennifer Saunders as Edina Monsoon in ‘Ab Fab’ at this point).

However I think the lovely village where I live might have out done itself, and Edina Monsoon, this time. Forget “Like a Bird on the Wire”, I give you “Like a Duck on the Hedge”.

Like a Duck on the Hedge. Leonard Cohen eat your heart out
Like a Duck on the Hedge. Leonard Cohen eat your heart out

I thank you.

Hill training for my running mojo

So we all know that Hill training is excellent for running, but what about for running mojo?

After the muddy goodness of my last race I finally succumbed to a cold and spent most of the week sniffling and feeling sorry for myself. A few slow plods to get my Jantastic runs done and that was it. Down in the valley of my hill training wondering where my mojo had gone.

The following week, giving myself a swift kick up the backside I went out running. 3 miles one day, then 4 miles on another, and then 10 miles on Friday. Wonderful. The sun was shining, I ran the 10 miles 5 minutes faster than last time but best of all it felt great. I wasn’t sore or stiff afterwards and I really enjoyed it. I even then popped out for a 5K sprint on Sunday which, if my Garmin hadn’t messed up the start, might have been a new (unofficial) 5K PB. I’d reached the peak, I’d scaled my Everest. Hooray for hill training.

Then came this week. Four enthusiastic miles on Monday. A day painting doors on Tuesday (I lead a very exciting life). Then the plumber turning up early on Wednesday to help the builder rip out one shower room and plumb in a new one, with the water switched off all day. I wasn’t going to hang around being sweaty all day, so that put paid to a mid week run. Today, Thursday, I’m spending the whole day killing time in Swindon waiting for a car to be serviced. No running today either (see earlier comment about hanging around being sweaty all day). However I’m spending much time in coffee shops today so maybe I could fit in a caffeine-fuelled dash later. Is that a good idea? I don’t know, but I do now know one thing about this mojo hill training thing. Unlike running where the uphills are hard and the downhills are easy, with running enthusiasm it feels easy on the way up and miserable on the way down. I never thought I’d say it, but “Bring on the uphills” in that case, say I!