Yesterday we went to friends to do a pre-survey on how we are helping them tomorrow to plant 600 rosemary plants on three slopes of 75 metres width and 4 metres depth.
We have been designated Project Managers by our friends, as we did something similar four years ago in our garden, but with fewer plants and a gentler slope. Not entirely sure how that qualifies us but hey ho.. Prior to doing their site survey we went for a walk with our dogs and theirs over the tops of the hills. Looking at my footwear we decided my daytime trainers were probably too smooth to negotiate some of the rocky and occasionally muddy slopes. Not a problem said G I have a guest pair of walking trainers you can use,
Fine, on putting them on left foot no issue, right foot something crunchy in the toe area, I put my hand in somewhat gingerly, nothing moved, so tried to shake out whatever it was - leaves or something. Then G said she'd take the trainer to the light and hook out whatever it was. Yup it was a dead mouse and its tiny claws had caught in the laces. Yuck....
Okay a minor setback, well a major one for the mouse obviously. Out we walked, halfway up the hill my left trainer sole started flopping a bit, no worries. About 10 minutes later the second one started flopping from the heel area, I was like a very badly co-ordinated Lancashire clog dancer, G ever resourceful, pulled off both soles, looked at what perished rubber was remaining under my feet and said we'd be fine to continue. And we did up and down for about 6kms. It was glorious, no problems with my feet, avoided the worst of the mud, and when we got home the trainers followed the mouse into the bin.
Onto the site survey, OMG the slopes are almost vertical, we have to lay a weed suppressant and pin it to the escarpment, then cut holes into the material and drill holes to plant the rosemary plants, whilst doing this on a ladder for stability. The sloping shark had just taken a great big chunk out of our confidence, we'd all thought it was a days' work maximum for us and the rest of the curry club team. We think it might be a weeks' worth. This is my non-running day rest day proposal for tomorrow
Mmm, we are going to need a bigger boat as they say. The garden centre has mis-measured the gaps necessary, and it would seem our friends need to buy and plant probably another 300-400 plants. That's tomorrow sorted and probably most of my rest days until graduation...
After the mouse and the shark shocks, today was going to be easy of course. Staying local I decided on Mill Lane, lovers' Lane, Cavendish Hill (so called because Mark Cavendish the cyclist once won a Tirreno Adriatico race on the monster of a hill I think it has up to 18% gradient over 300 metres...), Bendy scary Road, Village Via and possibly the Slope of Hope depending on when the 28 minutes timer kicked in.
(90s mix again, finishing off with One and Only again, followed by Nothing Compares to U and then End of the Road by BoyZ To Men, at this stage I was on Cavendish Hill running down early on in my interval and I passed the sign. This is a teeny tiny 'park' - actually a patch of grass commemorating an Italian who saved Churchill from a German sniper. As I passed it, I thought Churchilian spirit was definitely necessary for the first 28 minuter. The problem with doing Cavendish Hill downwards is I have to run back up again at some stage, so the bendy scary road route comes into play. Pootling along quite merrily, I got tooted by one of my toot army - Stefano the bus driver, who usually toots when he passes me with the dogs. I waved and carried on, it was okay the gradient a bit tough as it coincided with the so-called terrible ten stage. Then Jo Cool piped up saying that the next time I'd hear from her it would be half way through. Only I listened to all of I See You Baby Shaking Your Ass, and Jo hadn't appeared, Deee-Lite now were telling me Groove was in the Heart, but after shaking my ass for what seemed like an eternity there was no Grooving going on. Yup the app had paused, so I really had no idea for how long I'd run. I reset from pause and continued on, but I was totally tatered, and had a stitch. I have to say at this stage the chicken made an appearance in my head, after all I had totally no idea what I'd run, therefore far better to abort and put this down as practice run.
I was really tempted to stop because a 20 ish minute run would be no bad thing especially with tomorrow's marathon planting session in diary. But then luckily for me a friend Lucia drove past and waved and I thought it would be better just to see if I could carry on.
Not going to lie, it was really, really tough I was approaching the Slope of Hope, which ordinarily I'd turn into for the final ascent home, but I just couldn't face it so decided I'd run back and forwards on the Village Via. therefore I actually did chicken out. As I spluttered past the local filling station another friend Mark saw me and shouted Brava, and then looked somewhat perplexed as he saw me another three times whilst filling up. I could only shout 'Sh..' and wave.
Eventually it was done so I definitely did the 28 minutes, Map My Run said my run and walk amounted to 6.2 kms, 56.22 duration and 134m elevation gain, which I think probably all in all means I actually did a 30 minutes run at least. Maybe I went from chicken to Churchill?
But C25K pause gremlin you do choose your moments to make an appearance. I'd had enough wildlife to last me without you popping up.
Week 8 run 1
Week 8 run 1
Week 8 Run 1
