A couple of gifts from the running gods this week. Firstly, the mowers, balers, loaders and trailers have been out in force in the field, so the surprisingly treacherous waist-high grass has been replaced with hard-packed stubble, perfect for my Friday evening tempo effort. I made all but one of my miles on plan at 8:30 miling.
Then this morning I stepped out for an early 15 miler to be greeted by, not prematurely baking sun, but glorious drizzle, which kept up for most of the two and a half hours. It was a gentle and comfortable effort, a bit of back stiffness, but generally very good and pretty much bang on 10MM, not counting a couple of drink and snack stops. That's three weeks without a step-back now, so I will be glad to drop down to 10 miles next weekend.
You may remember the problematic heel - a region of swelling that got into a mutually destructive relationship with the collar of my left shoe. There is the tiniest, tiniest tenderness there, but so far it seems I've successfully managed it by religiously keeping off the blacktop, and lacing my left shoe looser than my right. Possibly also by not running as often as I really should be.
On the audio, Richard Herring's long-form interviews on
RHLSTP continue to entertain. A couple of weeks ago there was Rosie Jones, a standup I hadn't heard of. She has MS, and thus speaks pretty slowly, and I almost gave up on it, but am glad I didn't as she has some hilarious things to say and will undoubtedly confound your expectations if you have 70 mins of commuting or suchlike in which to give it a listen.
This morning though was Adrian Chiles, well-known I'm sure to patrons of this forum as a football presenter and Baggies fan. He's a great raconteur, funnier than many standups, but he dropped in the most hilarious and bizarre piece of unsolicited overshare. It take a lot to get me to laugh out loud, but I had to stop running as I was laughing so hard. If you don't listen to the whole thing, drop into the interview at about 1:07 - you'll never look at Chiles the same way again.
2019 - will one thread be enough for the whole year?
