We set off for the sheep loop backwards again this morning. Just because it’s a sort of door to door loop without the need to really get to anywhere to start or to walk home from anywhere. I wore my new pants and new trainers – more on them later.

We plodded our way down to the canal. I felt pretty good but could definitely feel that my eating and drinking has been a bit all over the place for the last few days. That G&T I had last night seemed to still be sloshing around in my tummy. Kath was obviously the same because she got a nasty stitch as we were about half way along the canal. It was an evil one and wouldn’t shift at all so we walked a bit and when it eased tried running again  – we made it to the bottom of the golf course but that was it. We passed a border collie with her (?) human who remarked on the lovely day we were having and I thought to myself that she was absolutely right, it was a lovely morning.

We walked all the way up from the canal and had vague ideas about running again but then we met Libby the dog and one of her humans and stopped to say hello and had a little chat. Kath’s mum was in the sheep field pulling up thistles – we said hello to her too. Then we met another dog and his human and we stopped for lengthy chat about holidays. Then we walked on home, spotted a few goldfinches along the way arrived to a garden full of sparrows. We did decide to run all the way up Ilkley Road though just to get a sense of achievement and we made it – it’s noticeably easier when you come to it at the end of a walk rather than a run.

It was lovely to be out though and it was still early enough to have a sense of the world around us just waking up. I was hoping we might see a kingfisher again but that wasn’t to be. We did see a heron fly over and we did see lots of ducks and a few rabbits on the golf course and a baby bunny in our fields.

Not exactly a training run but a nice little outing.