Wood for the Trees!

Exercise day today! After a short bus trip, we arrived at a nature reserve and set off for a run. We were soon 'off-piste' with me feeling slightly concerned about not being adequately prepared! R pulled a face and reminded me that wearing shorts and my compression top may not have been wise. No shit Sherlock Byde! 

Suddenly, we heard a rapid pecking high above our heads! "It's a woodpecker" I said excitedly. 5 minutes later we actually saw one making a hole in a tree! It's the first time I'd seen one! Well cool. We carried on running, went under a motorway and on to the other side of the nature reserve. It started snowing! Shortly afterwards, two old ladies came walking towards us. One spoke.....not that I can speak Swedish but I think her words translated to "you must be freezing, you crazy nut job". I lied and said I was warm. 

We then ran round a few lakes, me keen to keep the pace up to prevent hypothermia. Rosemary was a bit confused as the lakes and the sun weren't where they were meant to be. Hmmmm.....we eventually found our way back to the road and a bus stop with a map. Rosemary looked confused.....fingering the cartographers work with puzzlement. I used my intuition to point out the 'you are here' red dot!  She was even more puzzled and had a 'how did we get here' face on. The irony is that Rosemary is a great adventure racer who spends half her life planning navigation. The plan had failed on this occasion. 

We soon found ourselves heading in the right direction only to find our path across a very wide swamp blocked because they were rebuilding the wooden walkway. We scrambled through some woods, followed the motorway for a bit and found our way around the swamp. I was now feeling very tired, hungry and cold but knew I was a wee bit in the shit if my mood dropped. Rosemary was concerned that I was freezing despite running reasonably hard for a bit. 

Eventually, we reached larger trails......R was proud of me because I didn't try to run past a couple of joggers who we met at a junction. They soon disappeared into the distance with me revealing that I didn't chase them because I couldn't. Nearing the bus stop, R said we had 4 minutes to catch the next bus and may just make it. I ran as hard as my exhausted legs would carry me but in vain! The cold was now into my core, fingers turned white and I was totally hypo! A coke and a Snickers from the local shop soon worked wonders though! 

After lunch I was in for a treat......the Stockholm metro has loads of arty things in its stations so we set off round the city to see a great public gallery. I loved it and had my camera at the ready to document the journey. We also went to a good cafe for a bucket of hot chocolate and cake/bun which helped the recovery process from earlier excursions. 
What a fun evening.....but another exhausting day.