...And a Partridge in a Jack Russell?

Well I'm kind of back on track after letting other things get in the way of my running. Have put in a couple of 12 miler hill training runs and had a really enjoyable little'un up Shining Tor with my old mate 'Collie' Dave. Spooky warm wind all the way on that one, somehow it felt 'oxygen rich' as I seemed to have energy to spare that evening. Anyway back to the 12 milers, nothing that interesting about them except the results of a little 'experiment' and a strange encounter with a tame or stupid Red Legged Partridge. The experiment was a simple trial between running the extreme steep sections of my training run vs walking them. I conducted this against the clock and found no difference in the finishing times. This is changing my 'Me-man!' attitude to hill running a little. I'm sure my fitness must benefit from the sheer aerobic graft needed to run the steep sections yet on the other hand maybe I'm running the less steep sections and down hill bits faster? What is for sure is that when I've dropped of the training mileage the run walk method is far less taxing over the same distance and time. I'm going to employ this practice on the run up to my planned 33 miler in July, and most likely throughout the run itself. To counter balance this I'm picking up the track training again this Thursday (Ouch! it's going to hurt) The Red Legged Partridge? Reaching the summit of Moel Famau during one of the above mentioned training runs, I practically stepped on a Red Legged Partridge which was happily pecking amongst the shale. Being aware that Dot my little Jack Russell was hot on my heels I feared for the bird's safety, and what's more it wasn't in the mood for flying! it happily led Dot on a game of 'Catch me if you can' before I brought her to heel. One thing for sure is that if I hadn't she would have caught and killed it. My guess is that the walkers feed the thing and have tamed it. that'll probably mean the end of it then. Looking to extend training distance this weekend, so need to start planning a route and looking forward to it.