July - Mission: Lard-loss

[Sweder]

A stiff-legged warm five this morning.
Butterflies danced through the wavering grass-heads, the scorched Sussex downland lazed under blue skies, caressed by a soothing breeze out of the west. Hard work in the company of Alice Cooper’s Breakfast With Alice on Planet Rock. Floyd, Petty, U2 . . . all did their best to carry me up the hills. The aches and pains eased a little on the homeward lope, my soaked vest clutched in one hand, dog leads in the other. Willow, my plucky spaniel, sought respite in the sheep trough at the top of Landport Bottom, eyes and ears peeking out from the grey-green water, looking for all the world like a miniature hairy hippo.

I seem to be getting to grips with these warm-weather jaunts. The irony is that I’m about to leave these shores for cooler climbs. Cape Town shivers in winter, battered by rain in a 10 degree chill. Is this the first recorded instance of ‘cold-weather’ training? I’ve two opportunities to run in my three days there. The first will be an early morning coastal jog along the route where we’re hoping to stage a 5k fun run during the World Diabetes Congress in December. The second, early Tuesday before I fly home, will be a Hout bay/ Chapman’s Peake/ Hout Bay loop, around 12 k in all.

Can’t wait.