Buoyed by my last run and completely ignoring the fact that I should have probably rested today as effectively I ran a race yesterday, or at least race pace, I set the alarm last night for 5.45am. As I have done away with my own motorised forms of transport for the moment, any travel which doesnt involve biking/running is limited to the bus service and I have to leave the house 20 minutes early to get to the bus stop a mile away. Our bus service is second to none. It runs every 20 minutes between Aberdeen and Aboyne/Ballater/Braemar. Well, it does on paper. In reality, it runs whenever the hell it likes and those poor darn commuters reliant on it to get them to their destination on time really do play early morning russian roulette. And God help you if you ever complain to one of the drivers...
And so, not to break the habit of a lifetime, the 7.04am bus failed to turn up at all and the 7.29am arrived at 7.40am. However, with temps down to minus 12 deg C this morning (thats 10.4 deg F to you Bob), I was just glad to be within seconds of warmth again and so clambered onboard grinning wildly and enthusing to anyone who would listen about the marvellous drivers and their magical buses (I thought some ego boosting might persuade the stony faced driver not to take a dislike to my face and throw me off in the wastelands of Crathes or something). Noone seemed to care, or indeed even be awake, and so I spent the next 20 minutes journeytime humming and defrosting my frozen hair.
There is something quite energising about running in the morning I think. Or maybe its coffee. Not sure. Anyway, having already ignored Plan A (rest) I decided to completely and utterly ignore my Plan B too (doing an easy 3 miles trail) and go for Random Plan which involved running up/round/down/across Scolty Hill as far as my remaining 40 minutes would allow. Well, it looked pretty and inviting and comely. So a quick change out of my trackies at work later and off I went, trying to keep pace to 10 min/miles which according to Bob Glover is my recovery pace. It was as beautiful as I thought it was going to be and I was the only one in the forest save two council men who came to empty the bins at the car park and wondered why a woman in tights was hirpling upwards whilst singing loudly to Heartbreak make me a Dancer.
Scolty hill is Banchorys major landmark. Its not very big at all though, something like 981ft if I remember rightly but its steep side is a good lung buster if run from Banchorys main car park at Bellfield, and the view from the top (which I didn't quite reach this morning) over towards the Cairngorms, Clachnaben, Carn mon Earn, Morvern, Kerloch, Hill of Fare and north to Bennachie and the Bin are fabulous on a clear day. Its summit is marked by a monument to General Burnett. Its base and part of its flanks are covered in trees (Forestry Commission) throughout which weave a myriad of waymarked (and not) tracks of varying lengths and 'difficulty'. Its stunningly pretty in the snow. A proper Narnian outing.
Anyway, porridge and a mug of tea later and I was a bit warmer and so checked my emails and hurrah! My iphone is due to arrive tomorrow (my day off...). I've been resistant to the charms of iphones since they came out, doggedly defending my various Blackberry's but I've been wooed by the slimline, app-ready funkiness of the iphone and have swapped camps. So DHL will deliver tomorrow. Well no they won't. They'll do what they do everytime and not want to drive down our track or work past the magical hour of 6pm when they all turn back into pumpkins and so when I check my consignment number online tomorrow night at 8pm (because I'm eternally optimistic when it comes to delivery drivers and am sure that one fine day, one of them will work on long enough to deliver my parcels on the day they actually specify...), I know I'm going to see that report which has me reaching for the shotgun everytime 'Receiver not in, consignment returned to depot' ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I was in!! I am always in! I take a days holiday if I am expecting something that can't be delivered to work and I wait, by the door, holding in my wee until someone can cover me long enough to run to toilet. Hell, I don't even venture out of the kitchen incase DHL/UPS man knocks in the nanosecond it took me to run through to hallway and get an fleece. Do they really think I want to cycle the 11 miles to the sodding depot only to be told its out for redelivery despite me telling them I'm on my way in to collect..
So tomorrow, it will dawn bright and sunny, with no wind and temperatures oooh, somewhere around -3 or -4 I reckon...nigh on perfection and I will have no work to go to and be hankering to get out and run or bike but I will have to sit. Sit with a steady gaze, eyes never moving from the track, waiting, waiting.....
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