Well I’m definitely trying to get into the mindset of onwards and upwards! The beginning of 2016 has started off as hectic as 2015 ended – I wonder if we will get a slightly quieter period to catch our breath a bit?
So how is the training going? Well it had been OK, but then had a bad run at the weekend. Well, I say bad run – but it was still 9.63 miles – so it was very hard, and hurt, but I did it still!
We got up early and drove to our local parkrun, the aim had been to do 8 miles and be back to start parkrun at 9am. We were running a bit late so I knew we wouldn’t quite get that distance in. We ran from Sewerby all the way down the sea front at Bridlington until we ran out of promenade then turned to head back…….. oh dear……… not pleasant………
Now we can’t choose what the weather will be like on race day. I’m putting this run down to good training for inclement weather. It was awful.
Head wind, driving rain, sea crashing against the sea wall and covering us in spray. And because of the route we had taken, we could look ahead along the coastline and see just how far we had to run to get back! I stopped to visit the loo (lots of public loos along Brid seafront!) and my thighs were bright red and very cold – pulling up cold, wet tights was not overly pleasant. But battle on we did. The last mile before getting back to Sewerby Hall was one of my worst ever miles. I actually thought that I’d be forced to walk – but was scared to as I didn’t think I’d manage to start running again. The invisible treacle that my legs seemed to be fighting with was getting thicker and thicker. I was really considering not even starting parkrun – I thought I could marshal instead, but knew that I’d be so disappointed. We had a very quick pitstop to grab extra coats from the car for afterwards, and I had a bite of a cereal bar. I decided by this point that I would start parkrun, and I’d run as slowly as I needed to – the cliff top that I knew would be head wind was scaring me! I tried to warm up my thighs by staying out of the wind as we waited the few minutes for the start and then set off nice and steady. I fell into step with a fellow club runner which meant chatting to distract from the discomfort (always like a good chat!). Near hysterical laughter when she said she didn’t mind if I ran on ahead as she was running slowly that day – I did reply that I was thinking of slowing down, not speeding up!! So we stuck together the whole way – thanks Kath 🙂 Although the mileage wasn’t what I’d planned for today, I am proud of myself for sticking with it when the going got really tough – so I’m not beating myself up, but putting what wasn’t a good run behind me and moving on.
Sunday was a rest day – and wow did my thighs need it ! Valentine’s day was a quiet day at home, with a lovely meal of steak washed down with champagne – perfect (need to keep the protein up)!
I stopped to take a few pics on Mondays short run – I set off in bright sunshine, with icy pavements making me feel like bambi (it was not a quick run!). Just after I turned for home it started to snow. Now I like running when it is snowing – it makes me laugh, I like people’s reaction when they see you and there is just something a bit magical. But that only lasted a couple of minutes….. before it was replaced with icy cold rain. That doesn’t make me laugh. The only good thing about the rain was that it cleared some of the ice on the pavements. Ah well, it was a run done.
a mile run 
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