Week 8 Run 3a - Well, That Didn't Go To Plan

[michaelvdays]

Couldn't run on Thursday or Friday, so snuck in a run on Saturday morning about 11am. This may not have been a good idea.

Problem 1: It was raining from pre-awn first thing so I though I wanted to go out about 7am (just after dawn), I ended up waiting several hours for the rain to pause before going out.

Problem 2: When I did go out, the clouds had completely cleared, so though the air temperature still showed as 29 degrees, in direct sunlight it felt baking.

Problem 3: Pools of water on the sidewalk plus lots of direct sunlight equals terrifying humidity

Problem 4: The park was empty - because nobody sensible does intense exercise in these sort of conditions. So I although I thought I was running slowly and steadily, I ran too fast.

So, after the usual first five minute discomfort passed, and the next ten started off feeling "that's okay, things are working now", they rapid slumped into "I feel I'm going to die."

So 19 minutes into the 28 minute run I gave up, feeling nauseous and horribly overheated. First time I've given up on a run, and felt rotten about it. Crawled home, felt better after lots of water and a couple of cool showers. Lots of lessons learnt, including "You can't sneak past Shenzhen sunlight" and "Find a way to reliably judge your pace, please."

I'm back in the UK now (Shenzhen->Shanghai->Paris->Manchester), and will repeat this run bright and early Monday morning. Wish me better luck!

[Simmypie Graduate]

Well at least you did 19 minutes running, (even if it wasn't your best) which is 19 minutes better than sitting in your house!

Put it down to a "practice run" you were just testing your stamina. Everybody who knows anything about the weather knows that the air in Manchester is much heavier than in China so you have a good reason why it was a harder run!

Also, after flying home you might have the jet lag gremlin (the cousin of jet li) which might make it harder.

It's a shame that the rain stopped you. I find that at the moment if I run later than 8.30 am it gets a bit too warm.

Run 3b will be much better and i'm sure you will be okay. Good luck!

[neuropsycsci Graduate]

Ah don't worry about it, everyone has bad days! And a shorter run than usual is much better than no run at all. You were right to stop because those conditions don't sound fun and you could have made yourself ill if you carried on. Great to hear you'll be running on Monday, good luck!

[lightweightkate Graduate]

Wow! That took some doing in those conditions so well done - sure you'll find your Monday run great 😀

[michaelvdays Graduate]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I'll tell you how today's re-run goes in UK weather conditions.