This morning it was 20 degrees in the shade, at 7am, so I realised a long run would be foolhardy.
However… I may just be that hardy fool.
A trip to Holland & Barratt yesterday had yielded some weird pre-run chemicals and I was interested to see whether it did what it said on the tin.
There was sadly no explosive surge of energy as I ran off down the road just before 8am, but I managed to reach the Beacon two minutes faster than last week and still felt like running.
Most of the route thus far had been under tree cover, but as I neared the top of the Beacon track I kept getting wafts of superheated air coming through the trees from the grass slope below. Yikes!
Wanting to go slightly further than last week I turned east from the Beacon and headed along to Blackcap, arriving in 1:21. This meant that I had averaged 5.74mph compared to last week’s 5.5mph at the halfway turn. I had taken the precaution of carrying a Beet shot and rather than waiting to run out of energy and drank it at this point.
It was really hot along the top of the Downs and I was glad that I had all my black gear on again! Actually, the wool is very comfortable indeed, despite the heat… it’s really growing on me! I even noticed on the Armadillo website that when you finally have wrung every use out their stuff, you can put it in the compost heap to good effect. Green as well as black!
Once again I ran up to the Beacon and then turned north, back the cool under the trees. Tiredness came over me somewhere between Ditchling and Oldlands Mill, right about the time that my supply of water ran out. Fortunately for me, Oldlands was setting up for an open day and a very kind steward refilled my water bottle.
I made it back to Ockley Lane and then my mental energy just seemed to evaporate in the heat. I walked for a couple of hundred metres and then ran walked all the way home… fortunately not too far by that point.
Four Dextrose tablets, two handfuls of nuts, a bowl of porridge, umpteen glasses of water and a cold shower later and I was ready to write.
15.5 miles in 2:50 is an average of 5.47mph, which despite the increased distance and walk/running is still faster than last week… and I’m still awake! So maybe the Nitro did its job after all… on a crazy hot day to run!
STOP PRESS: Kim quite literally just booked us on a short trip away and I can’t now do the marathon… I’m really sorry Mark! I’m definitely fit enough to join the guys on a training run sometime though!