Being a ‘baby runner’ in the sense of still in my infancy, in my first year of continual committed running, I have not yet learned to love bad weather running, maybe I never will 😣.
Monday and Tuesday this week I did my very first consecutive run days, courtesy of Amy on the HM plan (the one I thought I was going to ditch but haven’t, yet! 🙃). I’m convinced she lives in my watch with Mr VO2 Max, they think I’m 20 years old ( I wish!) and conspire to have me run 4x a week and have me running negative splits on my long run 😝.
Anyway, back to the weather, Wednesday was a rest day, I got in 9 holes with a friend & a 3 mile walk and then the rain set in. Then the torrential rain set in, then snow, then ice and more rain. I found it really hard to get out in all this, I really wanted to run, kept checking the forecast, looking out of the window, but in the end I spent a great deal of time on the 🛋. Inspired by lexi6 I did manage to get my yoga mat out a couple of times, finishing with some happy babies & voicing my frustration wah wah wah 😫😫😫. And so that was how I missed my 3rd run of the week, an easy 3 miles.
Last night I told myself tomorrow whatever the weather we are running. This morning came and I overslept, a mean hard white frost everywhere and then it started to rain again! As I’d decided to go anyway I started to get ready and then realised my watch battery was nearly dead. The delay meant I needed to eat something, I much prefer to run on an empty stomach but wanted to stretch my long run out today, after all I thought I should be running on fresh legs. So half a bagel and half a banana and an extra coffee later it had almost stopped raining 😀.
Now all I needed was a plan, something to aim for, a quick risk assessment ruled out my normal tracks so I decided to run to my nearest town to the alternative Christmas tree to collect my first Bingo tile. ‘What on Earth is it?’ you may ask...read here if you want to know more edp24.co.uk/news/alternativ...
Thanks for the inspiration Forest_Run_Beginner
I’d prepared a long 90 minute playlist for a relaxed tempo run, lots of past favourites from over the years. I had a sticky start, toxic 10 running uphill to get out of the village, stepping aside for cars to pass hoping not to get a soaking from the puddles, my first experience of extensive road and town running, road crossing, dog dodging, singlies, couples, families, pushchairs, but really it wasn’t so busy. In town were folks sitting outside cafes wrapped up warm with their Christmas hats on having coffee, people sat under shelters on the pier having fish and chips, surfers 🏄♀️ 🏄♂️ out in force, like black ants all lined up ready to ride the foam, so lovely to see it all. I was having a whale 🐳 of a time. Running across the tops along the edge of the golf course one walker said ‘well done with all these ups and downs’, how nice, 🙏 , 160m elevation today, and some golfers I know waved to me from their tee box. I did a bit of Jeffing on some of the steepest bits to keep my heart happy.
By the time I was heading back to my neighbouring village, & achieved a negative split for mile 6, I knew I would get to 7, my body was a little tired but I felt strong at the same time. After climbing the ridge one last time the run back to my own village is always downhill and at last sunshine, I felt comfortably warm and very happy 😃.
Longest Runtime yet, total including warm up walks, Jeffing 1: 35: 46
Longest run yet, 7.10 miles or in new money 11.42k
Happiness rating 10/10
Keeeeep runnnnning 🤸♀️🏃♀️🤗
A new experience - running with someone else
Rookie mistake and sausage fingers
Dreary weather = no running
Festive Bingo Card & Speed Challenge #4
