I'm going to get the 'bad' out of the way quickly. I'm a bit grumpy and haven't run since Monday. I'm neither inspired to run in the evening and have found much needed comfort in my bed in the morning. It's pretty much all I have left, and I'm desperate not to lose my passion for running. But it's not there right now. And that's all I'm going to say about that. The flip side is that only a week ago, I was having a blast with Pete at his place in The Lakes. A bit of a boys trip away from it all, for a few days.
We ate heartily, overly so, drank excessively, yet hauled our arses out into some of the best scenery in the grimmest but most rewarding weather this country has to offer. We ran, rode and walked, shopped, drank coffee, ate cake and made many unnecessary purchases of sporting equipment. To clarify just how much we enjoyed being outdoors, Pete even used the 'f' word. He admitted out loud that he'd actually had fun. He doesn't normally have fun...he trains, and sends me texts with numbers...something about k-splits.
And neither does he usually ride mountain bikes. A dirty, hard to measure sport...something his boys do, and do well. There was that inevitable jaw dropping moment when he fell and landed heavily on his shoulder, the same shoulder he's only just recently had pinned after breaking his collar bone. But like our breath...it held. I think the trip both did me and him some good, in our different ways, each taking something positive, either collectively or individually. The thing with the countryside round there...it's either up, or down.
There's very little flat, and what of that there is, is usually consumed by water. Puddles. And we found a few of those. The running is hard, very hard. No road running, only the trails. And they are gnarly. Energy sapping ups with mind focussing downs, every foot placement well thought out. Our new head torches caught deer jumping across our paths, and our new socks kept feet warm and dry. We didn't run or ride far. But our outings were life affirming. Hot and cold, night and day, up and down, rain and shine...we embraced it all.
