Is 2.00 p.m. too early for a snifter? Just a small tot of Jamesons for its miraculous recuperative properties? I think it’s justified as my quads are singing. Not singing like a heavenly choir but more a tortured Trent Reznor wail. I guess barrelling through snow is tough on the quads. On the plus side the calves and hamstrings are quiescent.
My run wasn’t the speed session I needed, but a steady snow plough along the road and through the fields. How come minimal back lift is a good thing in cricket and football but not so desirable in running? No danger of my heels hitting my arse as I shuffled along today. I chickened out of a run round Headingley with some clubmates as I didn’t fancy the drive out and back. I couldn’t justify curling up on the sofa with Trisha and Jeremy so headed out to Golden Acre park and then round Eccup rezza and back. This is a regular training run (or at least it would be if I trained regularly) and gets me out into the country (and untrammelled snow) pretty quickly.
There were very few people about so just my bad luck to have to scamper away from some sort of devil dog that was unmuzzled and unleashed. I like dogs. I like some dogs. I like very few dogs. I like mongrels and dogs that make good pets. In my view when a breed of dog has been selected over generations to bite or kill other animals or humans then that dog is not going to make a good pet. Some dogs were bred specifically to nip at the forelocks of livestock or tear the throats out of small mammals or bait badgers. These are not the kinds of dog I want to bump into on my runs. Rant over (until the next rant).
I’ve only once been bitten by a dog. It wasn’t a happy experience and due to the circumstances I don’t feel I got the sympathy I deserved. It was a few years ago when I was on holiday on Skye. For some reason I went for a stroll on my own one evening. It was the evening before some sort of local celebration and as I wandered up a country lane, I heard someone practicing on the bagpipes. It was a dreadful cacophony with a mixture of screeching and groaning. This din was coming from a small farmhouse set about 50 yards back from the road. As I passed the entrance four border collies trotted out of the farmyard and started to “round me up”. I beat a hasty retreat, but as I was shooing one of them away another one of them dashed in and nipped the back of my leg. I went for them trying to put the boot in, but didn’t get anywhere near. I did feel some empathy as I assume they were driven mad by this terrible noise that they had to put up with. Bagpipes may have been ok on a faraway battlefield to scare the bejapers out of some poor blighter trying to defend their country, but they have no place in our modern world. Anyway the damage was done and I’m not quite as blasé about loose dogs as I used to be.
I don’t know how long I was running for or what my average speed was. Quite a while and not very quick. I wasn’t wearing a watch as I wasn’t running for a good time just running for a good time if that makes sense. There is something uplifting about running in the snow especially when the hedgerows are alive with Fieldfares and Redwings and such like. When trotting past the lake in Golden Acre Park I wanted to get my skates out and get on the ice. This is unlikely to happen as I don’t have any skates and on the occasions that I’ve hit the ice, I’ve usually hit the ice. Eccup rezza looked anything but inviting. Just really cold. Plenty of wildlife though and I was as filled with joie de vivre as much as someone of my nature can be.
The quads are singing again; where did I put that bottle?
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