Week 2. Day 8.

There’s quite the story behind this one.

Was meant to run this one on Sunday, but it turns out F1 Sundays are quite busy for me. I probably could have squeezed it in first thing but there was some wicked wind happening outside, so I told myself I didn’t have time.

Then I stayed up til 3am editing a podcast, so today, I was feeling generally a little under the weather. However, I was determined not to get too far behind on this course… not so early on anyway! Off I went. Oh god, the wind. I really, really hate it. As soon as I started, I knew that it wasn’t going to be a matter of being fast, it wasn’t going to be battling tiredness, it was more a matter of keeping the bottle up to finish the thing.

There were only two sections where the wind was behind me, and that was a good feeling. The rest of the time, I was buffeted all over the place. Twice I faced up to some stirred up dust and was left blinking my way forward. It was horrible.

The run itself, though, pretty good! I felt comfortable throughout, although that’s no doubt due to the slower pace. I was barely concentrating on keeping the average up, but I’m glad I kept it below the 9:25 self-imposed threshold. I’m also happy that I completed the distance in under an hour - I had enough left in the tank at the end to speed up to ensure that happened.

All in all, quite an ordeal, but a great feeling of satisfaction that it’s done.

Week 2. Day 10.

Mostly just disappointing.

But the intervals were fun. The first one, I just wanted to stop, but by the second one I was running fast and going downhill at the same time. That was kinda fun, although I did think I might fall down. By then, I was on board with the intervals and was disappointed when they stopped.

Week 2. Day 12.

Terrible, terrible. The less said about this the better really.

Only that it was raining, which is fine. I much prefer that over the hideous wind. There were just a couple of downhill bits where I was wary of slipping.

Week 2. Day 14.

I was definitely not keen on going out there today. It’s not been a great batch of runs this week and the wind was picking up again. However, I went out there, determined to get it over with.

Perhaps it was because I was so keen on just doing it, that I did it quite fast! The fall-off at the end was annoying. I was going to cross the road but a car was coming. Then a little girl on the pavement fell off her bike. She wasn’t in any danger, but the car slowed up just in case and it was all a big delay.

The girl was fine, though. Got right back on her bike and carried on. That’s what they say you should do, after all.