Early morning run on the Braes with Katrina

In lots of ways I feel this week has been the start of our build up to the Fling. Looking back Katrina & I have had one long run (20miles or so) a month in October, November and December but this feel like the serious training is starting.

We have the training weekend run in a couple of weeks so we planned an 11mile run today and then 15 or so next Sunday as we build up.

So we were up at 7am and out the door by 7.45am. It was still quite dark so I took my headtorch. I also carried my rucksack with waterproofs and a few other bits of kit in. I'm planning to carry the gear I'll need for the Lakeland 100 race on all my long runs to get used to running with it.

Katrina was wearing her new Inov-8 Roclite lite as recommended by Debs who also recommended sportsshoes.com who had them for half price. She bought a pair a size bigger which has given her a bit more room around her toes which her addidas pair didn't have. They looked very clean and new .... until we reached the first muddy bit!!

We ran nice and steady for the whole run and I was very impressed with Katrina's pace. She is really enjoying running off road and looking forward to the next few months as we build up to the Highland Fling race in April.

I bought an iphone recently and was looking forward to getting to the point where we normally have a great view over Paisley/Glasgow towards Ben Lomond and trying out my photosynth app which lets you take a paroramic view. The mist was so thick we couldn't really see anything so that app will have to wait for a good view!

I took a picture of Katrina instead ...



Note Katrina's new shoes are not so clean!! This is the point where we stopped on our New Year's Eve run to see in the New Year.

The whole route was pretty wet and muddy. As we made our way back down we came across this tree that had been blown over by the recent heavy winds ...


Here is the view once we'd made our way round the fallen tree ...



Hopefully no-one was walking/running that way when it fell! We both enjoyed the run and felt comfortable as we finished. A quick shower, bacon butty and then off to church. I really enjoy doing these runs early and even better now that Katrina is running with me!

Sadly I can't get my Garmin to connect with my computer. I got through to Garmin support on Friday and they suggested reloading the drivers but it hasn't made any difference. They said as it is less than 3months since they sent me this reconditioned one I can send it back for a replacement.

I'll use it tomorrow night for a our Club Fartlek session and then send it away.

Weekly summary ...
4 runs = 37.5miles