vrdiver wrote:Well, Sunday's planned run got postponed as I went to a quarry for the day to do some teaching (diving, not quarrying!).
Monday was a bit busy, so it was only this morning (Tuesday) that I got around to it. Sunday had been a glorious day, but today when I went out just before sunrise, it was holding a steady drizzle, the wind was definitely whispering "you don't want to do this, go back..... go back!) but I'd told Mrs VRD I was off on my run and it was too early to divert to the pub.
Anyhow, made it around my planned route without the leg giving way like it did last time, so very relieved and feeling much happier, despite the rain.
VRD
That's great. I'm glad you made it!
My latest runs have been quite interesting. On Saturday morning 7 am, there was frost down, and apparently the "feels like" temperature was about 0* C. So I decided to give my
new jacket a test run. Seeing as it was "meant to be really cold"
and I'd planned on doing about 16k, some in the woods, I also wore leggings with shorts over them. Within about 5 mins I was already starting to feel pretty warm what with hat and gloves too. Needless to say, about half of the run was done with the new jacket tied around my waist!
I went out last night (well 4-6pm). The wind was up a bit on the ol' Fens and there was some drizzle. I elected not to wear the super hot new jacket, instead 1 T-shirt, 1 short sleeved zipped top, and a very lightweight hi-vis waterproof (well kind of) jacket and longish tight shorts. The run started off ok, I'd planned to do my 15k route. Alas about 1/4 of the way in, my OCD (yes I did suffer quite bad once upon a time
) crept up on me......the "lights left on beeper" on my 20 year old car is bust, and I'd forgotten to check whether I'd switched them off, and I be running for almost 2 hours, was about 3-4 miles away from home and, yes, felt I little bit worried. So I ended up, midrun, switching to my 16k run, since that gives me opportunity to run past the car midway (the lights were off
). However the 16k run, meant about 4k in the woods, which were dark by then, very wet and fairly muddy. Yes I do run at night with a head torch.....but all the same throwing a few k around the dark, wet woods was a quite a challenge. Kind of enjoyable, but very tasking, both regards avoiding the worst of mud and the puddles (I still got splattered legs) and the tree roots. Was also mentally quite tiring, what with trying to do a decent pace in the surreal undulating, weaving, slippery trails, continuously trying to figure out what the surfaces I was about to run on were. The dark woods section was certainly a workout, and toward the end I was getting really quite tired and almost got tripped ar$e over face by the odd tree root or two! It was certainly a big contrast once I exited the woods, back onto the broken drove, whereupon I maintained a slightly more sedate pace for a few minutes whilst my lungs and legs recovered. Back on the exposed Fens it was certainly rather fresh in the raw wind (perhaps I should have worn the new jacket!), but very exhilarating and once I'd finished and driven home, I guess I remained on a high for a few hours whilst my heart filled my legs up with endorphins.
Well, I'm glad you made it back VRD. If you can slowly work up to full runs and get through the whole winter, then you'll be well set up for the summer. I might even try to persuade you to try barefoot then!
Matt