December 2016

[Sweder]

Last month of a busy and, for celebrities of a certain age, brutal year and I'm hopeful it'll be a good one.
Crisp, dark mornings, laced with ice, await. The leaves have fallen, ripped from bared branches by a series of storms. Mud has swallowed grass, browns and greys stain autumn's golden gown.
This is a fine time to be running. 

Late November saw a mini-mileage surge. I managed a run every three days from the 18th onwards, as consistent as I've been all year. Yesterday I hit my second-fastest* Bevendean ParkRun of 2016, this morning the first in our second year of Twitten sessions. Last week I clocked a 9+ kilometre sojourn, a leisurely visit to BlackCap via the Chalk Pits. It's by some way my longest run in ages. I've got a bit bogged down in same-old same-old outings. I'm not really running with CC5's Herd these days, as I still feel a little under-cooked for such exalted company.
*least slow (and, for the first time, V55-59)

My aim for December is to increase time on my feet, hopefully getting a two-hour, non-stop easy run in before year's end.
That would be quite a thing. 

Diet-wise I'm still low-carbing it, well into week four of the experiment. I'm less enamoured with these results, if I'm honest. 
I wasn't expecting a six-pack but I can glean no discernible change other than mild irritation at a lack of beer. Little to no bread, barely a grain of sugar, no pasta, no rice, no pastry. Hardly a beer worthy of the name, though some nice red wine has eased that particular pain. I'm barely touching cow's milk, coconut and almond standing in. Whole cheeses remain on my menu.

Plenty of good vegetables, un-processed meat, fish, nuts, fruit. All very Paleo, all fairly uneventful.
I'll most likely knock this on the head as seasonal pressures kick in later this month.
Just tonight I scarfed a full roast, replete with Yorkshires, roast tatties and tasty neeps.

On, on ...