MOKRUN - The Mull of Kintyre 10k run

I'm just back from an 8 mile run and feeling very pleased with myself. The run took me by road to Anniesland and then twice around the rather hilly Dawsholm Park before returning to home. No problems encountered so I'm ready for the West Highland Way run next weekend.
How did I get here? In my last blog I reported on the Garscube Training Weekend. It set me up for some good training over the next couple of weeks before I caught a nasty cold (with persistent cough) which put paid to training (and saxophone playing) for over a week. I managed to get a couple of runs in before running the MOKRUN with my neighbour John. You'll know from an earlier blog that John has had a recurring problem with a calf muscle. Last year at the MOKRUN he tried to race and pulled the muscle again so this year he was determined to stay on my shoulder and thus run a gentle race. He did just that and we completed the race together in a comfortable 50 minutes and 1 second. We did put on a bit of a stide to duck under 50 minutes but luckily we didn't try too hard and so no injury resulted.
I followed the race by leading the slow pack in a Fartlek session at Garscube on Tuesday. Those who took part enjoyed it and it suited me too. Just enough speed work to get moving without any strain. The speed work did ensure that I was properly stiff the next day but a gentle run soon sorted that.
So that brings me up to today and a most satisfactory run with half of it off road and up and down hills that gives me loads of confidence for next weekend's efforts on the West Highland Way.

The Training Weekend

I made it. Got to the training weekend and trained.
This year the Garscube Training weekend was at the Trossachs Tryst, as it was last year. Back then I bought a Ridgeback Neutron bike afer the training and cycled it home in glorious sunshine (but the bike was stolen from our garage a month later - doh). So this year I decided to stick to running. As usual the weekend was a mix of running and eating and drinking. I got up to the Trossachs Tryst crammed into a car with Jill diving, Maz, baby Fin and dog Cree and all our collective stuff. We got to Callander in time for a quick 3 mile run before the evening meal. Saturday was more demanding on the running side. In the morning we did a drills warm up and then 20 reps of 1 minute recovery followed by 1 minute at pace followed by a warm down. The whole thing was run along the cycle track north of Callander along the banks of the Falls of Lenny. A perfect place for a run. In the afternoon we did a hill session up a forestry trail. I ran eight times up the hill which was enough for me (six were enough... but). We were planning to have a carry-out meal on Saturday night but we had brought so much food up from Glasgow on Friday that we were able to cope with a few Pizzas bought in Callander and the food we had brought with us. The picture shows us at the meal (and Ailsa showing off her shoes). On Sunday I ran an early five miles with Rob, Marco and Lesley who were all going to looking after children while others ran their 20 miles in preparation for the Edinburgh marathon.
Jill and Maz were unexpectedly accompanied by Cree on their 20 mile run but she trotted the 20 miles without difficulty.
For me the weekend was a success. I managed to do a run in every session and had no injury problems. I can now look forward to training for the Mull of Kintyre 10k with confidence.