However, I did also fit in a couple of runs, a bike ride (you can hire them for free in Cascais), some swimming and a few strolls. Plus the thing that made me sweat most - giving Zoe a shoulder carry up to the Moorish Castle at Sintra. (Worth it, it was stunning. By the way, I'm not sure when, despite regular threats, we will decide Zoe actually *is* too old to be carried...)
Had a great weekend on return to Edinburgh too. Saturday started with a season's best at Parkrun. Still nearly two minutes short of my all time PB, but very pleased to have things moving in the right direction again. And always good to see my running colleagues - and make some plans for a Sunday run too.... More on that later. Anyway, the sun was shining so the family decided to go for a picnic lunch after. We headed to Harlaw reservoir in the Pentlands and sat waterside for lunch. Quite a few people had the same idea and some were even swimming in the reservoir, although personally I didn't think it was *that* warm. Then had a lovely short walk round the reservoir with the littl'uns. Zoe and Gregor were inspired to shake off their usual negativity towards anything that might constitute hard work - and even became mildly enthusiastic as we talked to them about the different trees and flowers around the reservoir and in nearby Harlaw Wildlife Garden.
Took advantage of being out Balerno way to quickly visit Malleny Garden (NTS) too, which was looking fine in the summer sunshine. Not sure what the other older visitors who were relaxing on the benches there made of our two running around and shouting, but hopefully we weren't too disruptive...
(Pictures at foot of blog post are from Harlaw and Malleny.)
Saturday evening passed without incident, and I downed a huge plate of pasta in prep for Sunday's effort. Regular readers will know it has been a long comeback from injury for me, but that I'm still committed to doing the Berlin marathon at the end of September. This means I'm having to increase my mileage, and especially the length of my weekly long runs. The furthest I'd managed before Sunday was 13 miles, so I wanted to increase to 14+. Bert had advertised a '16mile+' Sunday run on the club website's bulletin board and I figured that it would be good to have some company. Even if I couldn't manage the full distance I could just turn at 7 miles and come back the same way so I had company for some of the run.
We met at the Commonwealth Pool (currently closed) at 9am and the route was explained. Turned out the planned route was actually more like 18+ so no way I was ready for the full route, but there were options to cut it short.
We headed down past Cameron Toll, then onto quiet roads and tracks along through Hermitage of Braid and over to Colinton. Joined the Water of Leith path heading for Balerno - and could have turned back there for a 12-mile route. Instead, stuck with the main group until 7.5 miles had gone by and then Andrew and I turned back. Instead of going back the same way, we took the path for Slateford and on to the canal path back to Bruntsfield. Through Bruntsfield links and the Meadows and back to the Commonwealth pool. All in all, about 14.5 miles on a very nice route (we really are extremely lucky with the variety of trails and paths we have in and around Edinburgh), in about 2 hours. I'm VERY pleased with that. It was hard work, especially the last couple of miles. Faster than I've been used to on my solo long runs and obviously that wee bit longer again, but a good confidence builder and most importantly, no ill effects after. That's the best I've managed since June 2010.
Plan for this week is to cycle to work once or twice and to hopefully make club training for the first time in over a year on Wednesday.... Then Scottish Gas 10K on Sunday, plus hopefully a few more miles afterwards (Shona's working Saturday so I have to get the miles in on Sunday). I'm ever more optimistic about Berlin, which can only be a good thing.
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