Category: Great things to do!

With driving rain and severe gusts of wind blowing the cobwebs of of the trees, it was certainly not the weather to be going for a run this morning.

The principle that Kurt at The Run Shop advocates for fair weather runners like me is to wear the right gear so that you’re always comfortable.  So I donned my goretex jacket, beanie hat, long tights and woolen Thorlo socks and out I went for a run.

The going was somewhat more than wet underfoot, but we’re not far enough through the season yet for the mud to be all-encompassing.  Most of the water was either sitting on the surface or running off and judging by the backs of my tights, even Nick wouldn’t have noticed if I had splashed mud on him!

I ran out to the Royal Oak and across to the outskirts of Wivelsfield before cutting up through the woods towards Hundred Acre Lane.  Here it was just a lickle scary, with long gusts tearing through the trees above and raining twigs and other detritus down on my head.  The expectation of something larger following them down was ever present.

I swung in a large arc through the wood to come out near Lew’s place, looping around Ditchling Common Industrial Estate and heading back down the magical path.  I reckon the gradient must go this way as it was easy to speed through, hastened by the wind whistling through Damoclean branches above.

I knew the common would be waterlogged so I used the road to circumnavigate it, scurrying along the bank where it too was underwater.  And then it was back up into the ‘Hill with a quick sprint where Nick usually speeds up, followed by a slow jog back to the house.

My neighbours looked at me aghast… I’m sure due to the fact that I’d come back after only 45 minutes!  I had been quite sprightly though, managing to cover somewhere around 5.3 miles and returning a speed of over 7mph.

And lest you think that it was nasty horrible wet & cold out there, it was not… I was just luvverly, snug and warm in my gear and I can verily recommend the woolen thorlos!  Overall, it was a great excuse to get out and, er, swim through some fresh air.

I joined Burgess Hill Runners at the Lewes track last night for their monthly session there.  Despite being an interloper (this is Kim’s club) I was once again made to feel very welcome indeed… they truly are a wonderful bunch of people and Stuart is an excellent coach!

I warmed up with a gentle 1600m, although when I say warmed up I mean just my muscles – my hands started to get incrementally colder with every passing minute from the moment I got out of the car!  It was fweezing!

Next came hops, skips, jumps, scissors, running backwards and a stretching session to create a little pliability from the part-frozen bodies present.  This was followed by a session where we ran slow until the whistle, then fast until the next, slow, fast, turning round to run the other way when it sounded twice.  This enabled everyone to run at their own pace without stretching too far around the track.

The main course of the evening was the interval session, with 1,000m sprints followed by 200m walks, or staggers in my case as the session progressed.  I started by trying to hang onto Stuart’s coat-tails but quickly found Jo’s pace (a few seconds slower at 3 minutes 55) more to my liking… at least for the first three intervals.  The last two intervals I hung onto Jo until the 500m mark, then fell away to come in 100m back and then only 50m back.

Next came all-out 100m sprints with teams of three relaying.  600m later and I was very grateful when the circuit lights were extinguished!

We stretched out comprehensively by the light of the swimming pool (they looked oh SO warm in there!) and it’s a testament to Stuart’s stretches that I can still walk this morning!  My hands even got warm again.  But only after about 20 minutes in the car on the way home!

I’m already looking forward to the next session – if my behaviour in the meantime is good enough to get invited again!