Water meadows in Britain are an endangered shrinking habitat constantly under pressure from road and housing development. The Saxongate Water Meadows depend on volunteer support for their general upkeep and well worth it is as it home to many wildlife species. The water meadows here surround the River Linnet and once belonged to the Church and the Abbots in the Benedictine Monastery in Bury.
Wildlife to be found here include
- great crested newts
- palmate newts
- smooth newts
- frogs
- toads
- coot
- mallard
- moorhen
- water shrew
- water vole
- blackcap
- great spotted woodpecker
- heron
- kingfisher
- coal tit
I ran slowly this morning and felt tired from the off. The Runners World SMART schedule is leading me to increase my mileage every week and I am already at 36 miles a week if I complete my long run tomorrow with no problems. Last year in 2009 I only ran higher mileage than this on 2 weeks of the year. I average 23.5 miles a week last year so the schedule I am following is a significant increase. No wonder I am a little tired.
My 6 mile to day were run in 54 minutes exactly 9 minute miling so it certainly wasn't quick for me. My splits show 8.19,9.02,9.11,9.20,8.56,9.10
The 3rd photo on my post shows a lost childs umbrella probably dropped and then blown by the wind into the water.
I also completed the 1st session of week 6 of the hundred push ups programme. I stuggled a bit with this as well today and did sets of 40,30,25,25 and 40. I was supposed to do 50 on the 2nd and last set so I will need to repeat this session or go back a week before I move on again.
Looks like you have beautiful place to run too! So fun. That hundreds challenge looks amazingly hard. Look forward to reading your future post!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Becca
Your Great-Spotted Woodpecker seems similar to our Picoides villosus, albeit a little more colorful and slightly larger. Fun to see birds like this on the run!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a pretty good run today. So, what do you think of the smart coach so far? Nice pics. We have a little trail that is 3 miles or so with habitat. Volunteers help with the maintenance. Great Job on the push ups. I might repeat week 1 again. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThanks Becca I think I have reached a bit of a plateau at around 50 so may be a while before I can advance on again to try and achieve the 100 push ups . I will continue to tune into your blog diary
ReplyDeleteregards Paul
Revrunner
ReplyDeleteThats the great thing about running never knowing what wildlife you may spot on a country trail though thankfully we don't have any bears like you guys!
regards Paul
Thanks Kenley. I really do think the smart coach is working for me so far. The great thing is that it is personalised to your previous running history so it takes account of any previous races that you have run and builds a training schedule based on this. However I have another 8 weeks to go and I am not sure if I can go on adding more mileage every week -time will tell
ReplyDeleteregards Paul