I ran up the same steep hill six times, a couple of minutes up it, three of four minutes back round a little loop to the base again. Hill repeats; painful, boring, necessary. And at the bottom of the hill was a field full of pregnant sheep, which I naturally passed each time.
Ascent 1: sheep lying down, dozing, the odd eye opened in my general direction
Ascent 2: sheep think "hang on, you're a man, and we haven't had our breakfast yet". Cue some standing up, and a bit more interest
Ascent 3: nearly up the sheep standing up and quite a lot of baa-ing
Ascent 4: all the sheep standing up, all at the fence, manic baa-ing, mainly along the lines of "YOU'RE A MAN, GIVE US OUR BLOODY BREAKFAST!"
Ascent 5: "You're not going us our breakfast are you?" Much less baa-ing, wandering away from the fence
Ascent 6 : all sheep lying down again, nearly all with their backs turned, the only ones that weren't with looks on their faces that definitely said "ok, you can stop taking the p*** now".
So, sorry to the Sutton Lane Ends flock, I didn't mean to taunt you. I should also apologise to my Achilles too, for it was tough on them. I've decided to blame my achy Achilles on this winter's weather. You see, normally I intersperse the hill running with some nice flat runs, but all the flat routes have been pretty much waterlogged for the last couple of months, so nearly everything has been vertiginous - to the detriment of my lower legs. Still, not many running weeks left now. And then it's back on the bike, which I have to say I'm quite looking forward to...
