15 miles

[Charliecat5]

It would appear over recent months, based on the content being generated by the RC collect of running misfits, that MLCMM is the only one who has been doing any running… well the only one stringing jumbles of words together.  I am not sure whether this constitutes much running, it is hard to tell.

Anyway, in the land of Le Chat things appear to be going quite well.  After a summer of angst and little running, the tide has turned and, touch wood, I’m running reasonably well at the moment.

As is the case with us Rawsons’ (we are all the same) we don’t tend to do things the easy way, or indeed the intelligent way.   Having arrived back from holidays a few kilos over weight and doing a pretty good impression of a sloth in the slow lane… I decided it was time to get one’s self sorted.

So… I crashed my calorie intake in half, stopped drinking beer and decided to run every day.  This started on the Sunday after a very hard, and frankly embarrassing Twitten Run and ended on the following Friday when I discovered that I was completely buggered.  I couldn’t run more than a mile without stopping and every bit of me hurt, mentally and physically.  Worse, on my Tuesday outing with the herd, I had to bow out at 5 miles.

I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking “duh… lack of food, no recovery time between runs, over-doing it… what the funk did I expect”.  And I’m thinking: “yep… you’re right”.

So I started again… went back to a sensible calorie intake (by the way, I did lose the kilos) and started to measure out the running in a more sensible fashion… with an aim to maintain an average distance of 2 miles a day (currently on 2.5).
  
The turning point however, was Bank Holiday Monday when I took myself out to prove that I could still run some kind of distance.  Eleven miles up and over the hills surrounding Lewes (including the Relentless Bastard) was just what I needed to tell myself that it was all still possible.  It wasn’t quick, and it wasn’t pretty, but it was done.

Since then I have my mojo back.  I have re-started track running to help with my speed – and frighteningly have started to enjoy it…  made more enjoyable for having @ThatCoachNick to laugh at, and Mary-Louise to try and keep up with.  The Tuesday night herd runs have been great… the last one was a tough 6 miler through the Valley of Death… but I flew down the last hill, not just running with the Crazies, but actually catching them up as we tumbled down the hillside.  Although, once on the flat they pulled away again… but only just.

Last weekend I ran through the forests of Nottingham on a new Wildrunning track which had been built by my good friend Chris, inspired by my love of off-road running!  Why it’s not called CharlieCat's Wildrunning track, I have no idea. 

Tomorrow I head out for a 10 miler over Blackcap and then into the unexplored wildlands (well, I’ve not been there before). 

And then of course there is Almeria in February.  I don’t like races.  I don’t like road running.  But I am really looking forward to meeting new friends and getting back together with old. 

Finally, my old mucker set out for his first post op run this morning… I can’t wait to hit the trails with old goat face again.

Oh yes... there's this as well:  https://vimeo.com/181526755