#locheil

There's lessons to be learned every day.  

A walk with Mamma J taught me that this flower, which I see all over the place, including on the grass right outside my kitchen window, is called Self Heal.

How have I managed to miss that this little flower, which grows in abundance, is such a powerful plant?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunella_vulgaris

Who knows what else is out there, waiting to sort us all out.

The next lesson, which I know well, but continually ignore, is that energy makes energy and creates feelings of well-being.  I look up at Ben Nevis every day and know that I am going to take part in the race on the 6th of September.  All the brave talk of doing it quicker when I am 50, fades away as I am faced with thoughts of the effort to practice running up and down it's slopes.  When my children were younger and I was pinned in, I couldn't wait.  Now, I don't need to run up a mountain to get peace and quiet - I can sit and look at them.

(Ben Nevis 9.30pm)

(Nevis Range, Aonach Mor 9.30pm)

So when Spook came home after a very, very long day retrieving his big tent from Largs, having left at 5am in order to have time to fit in a big bucket of ice cream from Nardini's before the journey home, and announced that he was going to do the Time Trial, I didn't really think I had much of an excuse for saying I was too tired/busy.  It's only 10 miles, with a 2 mile gentle cycle to the start, but the intensity of a Time Trial means effort and a little pain.  I appealed to Mamma J, in the hope that she needed me to stay with her.  With a pile of library books and the promise of a World Cup football game later - she cheerily waved me off.  Damn the elderly and infirm for not being elderly and infirm when you need them to be.

Spooks gentle cycle to the start was not far off my full race speed.  I caught up and  tucked in behind to save the 3rd effort that the peleton creates.  That did not improve my attitude - especially when a big lorry drove past, swirling up dust in our faces and making me drop of Spooks tail.  

As usual, there's great support from those that have volunteered to time the nights ride (thanks Emma and Ewan) and relaxed chat with the other cyclists.

And then, you gotta try hard.  Before you know it, there's someone ahead to chase, someone chasing behind.  There's the turn, the race to the finish without everybody passing you.  Lungs hurt, thighs and calves hurt, but Spook hasn't caught me yet, and I'm not going to let him. I need a wing mirror to see who's coming behind me - that would make me go faster.  The next thing you know, you've gone from 34.54mins for the first 10 mile trial in April, to 32.10mins in this one.  So when you think you can't go any faster, you can't be bothered to make an effort and you wouldn;t have turned up if you could have come with an excuse - you then find yourself on a 2 mile gentle cycle home with your husband, side by side - enjoying the craic.  Perhaps if I get the clip-in pedals on, and maybe get on to a set of tri-bars........