Phew....

I had the very best of intentions of running in the week. But, well, the best laid plans and all that.... Still, never mind, Ice Cream Sian and I had an arrangement to run at 7.30am on Friday morning from her house. I turned up to find her looking un-ready for running as she'd forgotten to tell hubby Richard our plans and he'd gone to the parlour so she had to stay home with the children... We chatted work for a bit (the parlour is now a fully fledged proper client of mine), I remembered I had a 10.30 meeting and I said I'd go run on my own.

Yeah, right.

I decided to try running without the knee brace. I got 100 yards and realised it was A Bad Idea. I walked back to the car and added the brace. Tried again. Got 100 yards again and realised it was still A Bad Idea. So I gave up and went home for a swim instead...

On Sunday Ice Cream Sian and I had arranged to run again. This time she turned up and we set off on the Machen 8, trying to get finished in under an hour so that Fit Mark will allow us to enter the Mud Runner in October - he's set us the challenge of doing the Machen 8 in less than 60 minutes before September. (Little known to him we're entering anyway, but we'll let him think we're not just yet). We were quicker on the first 3k which is uphill, but we turned into complete wimps on the 'very steep downhill mind you don't break an ankle' bit. We lost about a minute just on that part of the run - it is really steep and full of brambles - how Fit Mark just bowls down it is a mystery to us...

When we were near home I thought I could just be under my fastest time if I speeded up a bit, so I abandoned Ice Cream Sian ('no - go on, run, get the time, don't think about me') and ran as fast as I could for home. Slower than my 'personal best' by 6 seconds.

SIX SECONDS.

After an hour and 5 minutes, I was SIX SECONDS slower. Do I mind? Yes, yes and YES. I will be quicker next time...

Ice Cream Sian wasn't far behind me, and collectively we shaved 30 seconds off our previous time. We have three weeks to go and at 30 seconds a week we're going to be three and a half minutes over the hour. Bummer. So we're now going to do the same run on both Fridays and Sundays - and take half a minute off each time. Then we might just make it...

To help us speed up I thought it would be helpful to cut back the brambles from the steep downhill where we're both such wimps. So after I'd recovered from the run Guy and I and Rubbish Running Dog and New Running Dog set off to do the Machen 8 again. At a walk and with secateurs.

It felt a lot more uphill at a walk.... we stopped and chatted to a nice lady walking her dog for ages and Guy did a lot more de-brambling than either of us had intended, and he's really improved the steep downhill.

There are now No Excuses for not running this bit quickly. On Friday. Eeek.

Doing the Machen 8 at a walk with dogs and secateurs and Being Chatty To Other Dog Walkers took nearly 3 hours. So today my little legs have done 16.4k and I've been exercising for 4 hours. And we also mowed the grass. Active? Oh yes...

And we've discovered that New Running Dog is part Pointer. We found this out by meeting a dog who was identical out on a walk when both us and the twin's owner shouted 'SNAP!'. Twin Owner knew that hers was a Labrador/Pointer cross (we think that makes it a Pointador) and the two were almost impossible to tell apart - so that's what she is. Knowing nothing about Pointers, we have now looked them up and found that they are tireless, hugely energetic, love running and make great jogging companions.

I plan to go running with her every morning before work.

I think you'll find the key word there is 'plan'....