On our feet again

Had a day of rest yesterday, although the old pins are feeling surprisingly good considering what I thought I had put them through this week (maybe I should try a bit harder?!), so I agreed to join Pat and Kev on a stretch of the legs this afternoon. Well, it was going to be this morning, but Pat postponed it until this afternoon, I am guessing because she had had a glass of wine too many last night . But regardless, we are basically panicking about the lack of training we have done so far for the 20km Citadelles trail race on the 23 March, so reckoned we needed a decent distance run with a bit of ascent in it. The day did not start off too well, however, having had a shit night's sleep, followed by a decidedly dicky tummy and an ongoing splinter in my finger (no sniggering at the back, thank you very much!!), but I had to give it a bash.

We started off at a leisurely pace from Espies and headed from there through to Pissou on the hidden footpaths and up to Caugnous from where the route took us up the horribly steep road which leads to the Col de Peguere (18% in one spot!!). Pat and I watched in resigned silence as Kev, being 'ard, decided he was going to show us what it was all about by jogging in intervals up the road. It got to a point where I could not let him get away with creating such a break, so I followed suit. It was actually quite an exhilarating exercise in a masochistic kind of way and I felt quite surprisingly strong! But even so, I was relieved when we hit the turn off for the track/footpath that meant the end of the ascent. Here, the great running commenced, on an easy trail that contoured the hillside. Reminiscent of the Peak in many ways. The views down towards Massat were fab , despite the high level cloud which obstructed the sun

Eventually, we reached a point where descent was called for, so Kev manfully led the way and had us battling down a steep hillside, being tripped up by brambles and tree routes, sliding on dead leaves before we reached a 'chemin creux' that we were able to follow down to the road which eventually took us back to Espies where a cup of tea and some biccys were gratefully received!

Sum total for the day, 12kms in 2 hrs with 600m of ascent.... which was nice!

Oh, and the pooch is pooped to boot, which can only be a good thing :-)