A cold, damp, dark November evening after work yesterday. Home, dinner slob on the sofa with a good netflix series and a nice glass, just like old times? ...NOPE!
Instead I'd set myself a challenge:
Just over a week ago on my travels I'd seen an older guy (proper runner type) running a circuit down at the beach. He was running in a perfect 1K loop and at one end of the loop was a steep ramp from the beach path all the way up to the main road. And at the other end was a set of stairs. He was running very quick loops around this little circuit. The ramp and stairs didn't appear to slow him down at all. My initial reaction was hhhmmmmm... IMPRESSIVE ...but he's clearly BONKERS why on Earth would you do that to yourself.
So yeah... that's uuurm, what I've got planned this cold dark damp November evening.
Note to self: Never try and get changed into your running gear in the car after work EVER again. Not only is it completely impractical, I think at one point I potentially came very close to a public indecent exposure offence.
It was two degrees and inclement outside the car, the damp chilled air hit me as I opened the door. This challenge had just got tougher, no short sleeves for me today. Burrrrr....
I walked one full lap of the loop to try and get my reluctant body to warm up. Within minutes my fingers were frozen. The set of steps were wider than I thought so potentially nice to run down and the steep ramp can only be described as horrible to walk up let alone run.
I set off, the first half KM felt very clunky and I was cold and had started out too quickly (as usual). Down the set of steps, which were actually very nice to run down, apart from the last five that were smaller and had to do a little tiptoe shuffle down them. Past the deserted beach ice cream shop... a blast along the beach path, then up the killer ramp and round loop once again. I did the loop three and a half times for my 3.5K and you know it was tough... it was gruelling and I've definitely got some good leg burn going on today ...but I survived, and dare I say enjoyed it.
I'm definitely going to head back here for some more of my short runs, and maybe bring along the jogRunSprint app to add some more crazy to the mix! 🤪
Just my 5K left for this week, happy running VRB's 👋
Yes, it has been on my mind since the the guy wooshed! past me on the seafront. I just hope we don't end up doing it on the same day together, he'll start to think I'm stalking him 😂
My 3.5 is tomorrow. Was meant to be my gym day, but the road to it is closed and because I’ll be in a rush I can’t be faffing with diversions. So an early doors outdoor run instead. Fine by me!
Fantastic read! Well done! Getting leggings on over shoes is my dread falling over, getting all bad tempered, thinking “why did I think this was a good idea” 😁. All was freezing to death
If you keep doing this circuit you will get better at it. You don’t need to start fast. Take care on the steps obvs I do a series of hilly streets near me, in a 5k loop. Sometimes I do them very slowly and other times I go for a bit quicker. Makes you stronger in your arms and don’t half shred your middle 😁💪😃.
It’s fun to. Shake things up too. Good on you for getting out. Makes you feel epic 👍
Haha - oh my gosh that must be a nightmare with leggings! eeek
Thank you misswobble, if it's good enough for the super speedy older guy I'm going to keep it up. Oh yes, I didn’t even think of the upper body benefits.
Great work with your hilly 5K loop I'm dead impressed! Absolutely, epic...👍
My giant ice cream🍦 shot was inspired by your fantastic head torch in the middle of nowhere pics juju, loved that big spider one 🕷 keep em coming... and thanks 🙏 😁⚡️⚡️
It was like a red rag to a bull Sandie, definitely sticking to my flat beach path for the rest of the week, I’ve got a bit of a John Wayne walk going on again today 🤠
I'm trying everything I can Crawlhome! one day, if I keep at it... I may be as superfast as you! 🙏 🙌
My other half had the cold bum thing too, it must be to do with blood flow mustn't it?? …although I imagine the glutes are pretty damn active when we’re running?! ⚡️⚡️
Thanks Ibot! Did you see that warm ice cream that UNM posted on this thread?? Will you make me some please I’m crap at stuff like that and I know you’re pretty handy! 👋
Ooh I’d love it if someone started doing it because they saw me, that would be very cool indeed 😎 I’ll go back any they’ll have changed the park run route to go around the loop 🤣⚡️⚡️
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and that ice cream is huge!!!
Although not before / after run. And not in he cold.
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
