I was out with the herd again last night. Even though three hours prior to this I was waiting for a plane at Edinburgh airport… the alignment of planes, trains and cars worked for a change, which meant I found myself once again standing in the cold waiting for instructions from the great leader (aka Dave the coach – who as it happens, is a lovely chap).
This time we were split into four groups with me again in the intermediates heading out for what I had been led to understand was going to be a nice ‘easy’ run around the streets of Lewes. And so it began… a lovely pace along Southover, past Chez Cats to the bottom of Rotten Row – which is the foot of quite a steep hill. The first mile achieved with just a nice amount of effort – pushing it enough to feel legs, heart and lungs working. Lovely.
At the bottom of the hill we stopped for what I initially believed was a rest before we tacked the incline and carried on to the top end of town. This wasn’t to be.
Our great leader decided that a few hill reps would be in order. Three times I sprinted up that bloody hill and ran down. THREE TIMES! Then with the hill reps complete we still had to run up the bloody thing again to head on our merry way. Your merry way back to the club house? I hear you ask…Oh no, I reply... our merry way to Malling Field… where we got to run slow/sprint/slow/sprint, backwards and forwards along the river path for 20 minutes. Christ.
Having now pummelled our bodies into a mere fragment of their former selves, the GL announced it was time to take a nice, cooling run back home. We only ran 4.6 miles… but Holy Cow Batman.
However, for all my moaning, I can report that the months of grinding up the local hills with BGG have paid off. On the hill reps I was comfortably first to compete the circuit each time, powering up like I had a hover board strapped to my feet. Now there’s an idea.
The thing is… and what I find particularly worrying… is that after all of that, I went home with a big grin on my face… that can’t be right… can it?
October is a fine and dangerous season
