Sometimes a race is a good day out – regardless of where you finish.
Belle, in ‘The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl‘
Run
Middlering Miscellaneous
First up: I’ve got new shoes!
… and I don’t love them.
After running through my last pair of Brooks Ghosts in just 9 months, I didn’t want to spend another £100 on a new pair. With winter approaching, more of my regular paths will be turning to trail anyway, so decided to get a budget trail pair this time. Non-available sizes in my preferred model, and unreliability of some store brands meant I ended up buying these – Salomon XR Shift. Not the best shoes I’ve tried or run in, but at least I like the colour ;) Continue reading “Middlering Miscellaneous”
Run like a tourist – Exmoor coast edition
Edinburgh was the best place to get started on ‘running as a tourist’, and now Exmoor coast provided the next opportunity.
We had rented a large house for a long weekend, and drove in on Thursday after work to make most of the 3 days. Despite late arrival, the night was spent drinking and playing games, and the sky was already turning bright by the time I went to bed. Running was no where on the cards.
Yet, when I woke up 4 hours later, and saw the view from our window, I knew what I had to do. Running vest, shorts, water belt, shoes on, and off we went – I and my best running buddy, Chewie.
Continue reading “Run like a tourist – Exmoor coast edition”
Run like a tourist – Edinburgh edition
Running while on a vacation has been high on my plans ever since I finished the couch-to-5K program in early 2013. I’ve carried along my running shoes to 2 Lake District vacations, one vacation in Scotland, and on 2 trips to India. Yet, for various reasons – primarily because I became overwhelmingly lazy once on vacation – I never got running, and the shoes came back unsoiled.
Edinburgh, my favourite city in the UK outside London, was just the perfect place to finally get started.
Shit and Run
Of all the blogs and books that I’ve read about running – and I read an unhealthy amount – no one ever talks about this one thing – shitting on a run.
If we were to go by books, blogs and public discussions, it’d seem this just doesn’t happen. Ever.
Yet, I’ve heard people softly admitting about having to do it. I know people who’ve done it, and lived to tell about it. And, for the first time, on a 20K off-road run last Saturday, I had to do it. Since, no one else publicly writes about it, I am.
2013, the year that I ….
Learnt to run, finished C25K, ran my first 10K, and then many more, and then first trail run with Chewie.
Learnt to swim, cranked up to 1500m a session, started swimming 10 laps a set.
Lost 15+ kgs – started the year at my heaviest, 99.8kgs, and settled in low 80s.
Planned, but didn’t attempt, a triathlon.
Got my first set of injuries in a long time – hamstring for over 3 months, then knee injury for 2 months and counting.
It was a good year.
H.E.A.T.
Failed the brick session today. Didn’t hydrate on the bike properly, so had to cut down the run to just 5K. Pissed at my stupidity!
For someone born and brought up in a place where temperature tops 40C for months in a row every year, I’m disappointed how even high-20s heat crashes my body’s engine so spectacularly :(
Hope the heat relents next weekend. I’ve got a 125 mile ride, and really don’t want to suffer so long in 25C+ temperatures.
Mornings Too Cold & Grim To Head Out…
The mornings when it is too cold and grim to go running are the mornings you feel king of the world after you’ve done the run anyway.