Douglas and the weekend

I went to see my best friends Dave and Sara last night. Their son Douglas is nine months old now and growing so quickly it's amazing. I shared a house with Dave when I first moved to Yorkshire and his family is like my family now. It was great to see them and lovely to see wee Douglas doing so well! I've done a lot of running with Dave in the past (including several Howarth Hobbles and the Round Rotherham 50) and he's training currently for the Three Peaks fell race. He had a bit of a calf injury scare a few weeks ago but is back on track now

Stef is coming up from Southampton after work this evening and we've got a good weekend's training planned. Tomorrow it's the LDWA Four Lakeland Passes challenge event, and on Sunday we're going over to Heptonstall to run the first Heptonstall fell race The two runs combined will give us around 33miles / 8500feet climb. I know there will be a lot of familiar faces at the events, so we should have a fun time plus both manage a 10,000feet week

I'm hoping to go for a walk by the Wharfe this afternoon after work, probably around the Barden Bridge / Strid Woods area. It's probably a bit early to see sand martin but dipper, goosander and kingfisher are all quite probable. The four mile circuit from Barden up to Cavendish Pavillion and back along the other side of the river is one of the great Dales birdwatching walks and it won't be too long before wood warbler, redstart, common sandpiper and pied flycatcher are all back for the summer to breed