BACK TO NORMAL AT LAST...

As ever, my plans to exercise over the Christmas period were more ambitious then reality merited. One day I will be realistic about what I can achieve.

I did manage one run up in Shropshire visiting my mother. To anyone who has read my book, you may remember I did a run up the Long Mynd on New Year's Day. The Long Mynd is an incredibly steep series of hills that stretches for about eleven miles down the A49. It is bloody hard work walking up it let alone running up it.

Consequently, before I went on my run I consulted with my brother, who is a veteran of these hills and therefore might know a good route. Which indeed he did.

Go up to valley to the carpark he told me, and then you can take a path that goes round the side of the hill, and leads you back down a valley which comes into the woods along a path we often take, so I knew where he meant.

My bro is good at many things, but directions really aren't his hot point. (I once drove three sides of a square through Morden and Tooting trying to find where he lived in Wimbledon - but you can go down that road on a bike, he kept saying, pointing out one way streets, which er, I couldn't drive down).

I got to the carpark, so far so good. We've walked up there many times, and it is a slow gradual slope on the road (another hazard of the Mynd is the slippery muddy paths which mean you are in constant danger of tripping up and breaking your neck), so not too tricky to negotiate. It was a sunny day, and amazingly for late December not windy, so all in all it was very pleasant and I was enjoying my little jog.

Amazingly I spotted the path my bro was talking about straight away, and it wasn't too slippery or steep, so I was still running at a reasonable (for me) pace.

Then I got to a reservoir which meant I was definitely in the right direction, as it was a landmark my brother had mentioned. The path then became very steep, I had to negotiate my way up slippery steps, and then run along decking presumably put in place to stop walkers from slipping. The trouble was they had walked across it with their muddy boots, so it was slippery as hell, and there was a nice steep drop into a brook to my right.

The further I went the narrower the path became, until eventually it disappeared altogether. Oh sod. The trouble with all the valleys on the Long Mynd is that they all look the same, and I hadn't a clue if I should keep going round the side of the hill, or head for the top, where at least I knew I stood a good chance of hitting the main road back into town. Recognizing the waterfall (another landmark) to my right, and knowing that I had once climbed it to get to the road, I took that option. So of course, by now I am not running at all. I can't even dignify my pathetic scramblings up the hillside as climbing either. It was a question of hanging onto dear life to gorse bushes, and hoping I wasn't going to go arse over tit down the waterfall. It did occur to me that this wasn't the most sensible thing I've ever done. I had foolishly left my mobile behind, and no one knew exactly where I was. People do die in them thar hills...

Fortunately, though I wasn't one of them. And eventually I did stagger to the top where I was met by a group of disinterested sheep who manage to cling to the hillside by travelling on the narrowest paths imaginable. I staggered over some nice boggy ground (another hazard up there is getting stuck in a bog), before seeing the road ahead of me. I then ran for all of ooh, five minutes before the road headed downhill again. It's incredibly steep and my worries about breaking my neck outweighed my desire to make up the time I had lost scrambling up the hillside.

I made it home in about an hour.

I think I had run two miles....

So it is with great relief that the children are back at school, and I got back in the pool last week. It was absolutely knackering and lovely coach didn't make any allowances for people still recovering from Christmas, but I did manage to do the fifty lengths he imposed, and did another thirty on Wednesday. I only got one run in - just under two miles in twenty minutes - but am hoping to do more this week.

Despite the crap weather here - it is good to be back...