Tranquility and a Head Stand.

'No rest for the wicked' was a catch phrase from my childhood, but who said it, must have felt as I did this morning when at 6:45am I got a wake up call from His Lordship, who had decided in the absence of his pals this Wednesday that I would have to make do as a companion.

With the bikes hitched to the back of the car at 8am, we set off for Kinross and a spin round Loch Leven on the newly constructed path as far as was possible, and then the road back to town.

Since I knew this was about the easiest run that could have been chosen, I accepted the loss of my restful Wednesday with something bordering on good grace.

In the event it was a very peaceful roll through a leafy landscape, sometimes beside the loch, sometimes through dappled woodland and sometimes beside bewhiskered fields of ripening barley. We had out cycled the early dog walkers to have the place to ourselves.
In the distance across the fields the villages of Kinnesswood and Scotlandwell twinkled in the sunshine, but we were safe from the traffic on the main road which goes through them.

Eventually we reached the path's end at Vane Farm and an ice cream awaited us as we sat in the courtyard there.
A further 5 miles on a badly surfaced road and we were back at Kinross and a coffee at the loch side watching the little boat plying back and forth to the island where on the orders of Queen Elizabeth of England, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned.

We remembered that once upon a time in the loch Leven half Marathon, we had run this circuit of the Loch but in the opposite direction and on the road, no nice loch side path in those days and no nice sunshine, but a bitter wind which caused hypothermia amongst several of the competitors.

And so, hardly a training run this morning, but oh so much more enjoyable.