Rain and Running; what's not to love?

As I wrote in my last post I’m finally entered for the Bristol Half Marathon.  Now EVERYONE who I have spoken to, and a few people on this beautiful site have told me that if you can run 10 miles you’ll be fine on the day.  I personally love a ‘do it on the night’ sort of attitude, but we’re not talking about a little trot around Hanham here are we?

On Thursday I looked at my training plan and saw it wanted 10 miles from me.  I was looking forward to the challenge and thought that it would be achievable.  I wasn’t however betting on the gallons of water that would come tearing from the sky at around 9:45 on Thursday morning.

I consider myself a hard-core sort of person, I’ve waited for a parking space in the Galleries at Christmas for over an hour before so, I could deal with a little bit of rain.  As the rain turned from drizzle to rain to a torrential downpour I realised that I might be alone on the cycle-track for this run.  

I was.

There was one other woman running, in this downpour and I tried to convay a look of don’t-worry-I-feel-your-pain-too-it-might-stop-in-a-minute-bloody-British-Summer, but it turns out that’s quite hard to commnuicate that particular message through the use of eyebrows alone.  

I didn’t stop, I completed the distance.  But I did have to turn around when I reached Staple Hill and the water was pouring down from one of the bridges and flooding the path and I didn’t fancy any real world practice of the Aqua Jogging Phil wrote about, I like my Nikes too much to submerge them totally in water (although they’re actually still drying out from yesterday).  

Running in the rain is a great experiece, it makes you think that you’re in a movie, or even better… a music video!  After finishing my run, I was soaked, my iPod had broken and I was very cold, but I had finally completed that magical 10 mile distance, so yeah, I’m still hardcore.

American Blueberry Pancakes with crispy bacon

American Blueberry Pancakes

I’ve been busy this afternoon making little lemon tarts and and a rather tempting-to-the-eye apricot tarte tatin…delicious. Well, they probably are, but they’re for a friend so I mustn’t touch unfortunately!

We’ve had a really fun weekend of activity. I went along to the Bristol Half Marathon Training weekend, held by Run Bristol and the team at Full Potential, sold a few copies of Go FasterFood, and then did a 9 1/2 mile run in the evening….in the sun (I think that was the last time it peeked out from those heavy rainclouds we’ve got here in Bristol at the moment). I felt really good and even sprinted at the end! Nick at Full Potential recommends that you should incorporate a few race pace sessions of 10 minutes or so into your weekly long run, so that your body learns to know what to expect. That makes sense to me and it gave the run a nice focus point.

On Sunday, Mark took hold of my book and cooked up some of my American Blueberry Pancakes which he served up as a late breakfast with maple syrup and some crispy bacon…yes, the kids are away!! He misread the abbreviation 2 tsp as 2 tablespoons - of baking powder (!) but I managed to thwart his attempts at sabotaging my recipe and the end result was completely delicious. We were nicely stoked up for our cycle along the Bristol to Bath railway path for lunch with our lovely friends there. Door to door is only about 20 miles but the rain was torrential from start to finish and what is normally a gorgeous cycle ride was pretty unpleasant really!

The American Blueberry Pancakes are in the breakfast section of Go Faster Food - Page 60 - (maybe I’ll make them recipe of the month at some point?). They are actually fantastic for post exercise recovery; a great fun and tasty way to get some high G.I. carbohydrate and protein into your system after a serious workout, with the added kick of the blueberries, now classed as a superfood and bursting with nutrients. It is really important to feed your tired muscles with some fast-acting carbohydrate to replenish your glycogen stores after exercise, and you need some protein to help repair any muscle trauma. What’s great about these pancakes is that you can make the mixture before you leave the house, dream about them when the going gets tough on your run and then cook them on your return, even while you’re doing your stretches. Hey presto, you’ll be sitting down and pouring maple syrup over your first one within the 15 minute magic window of recovery!

Bitton 5k - by bike

I just love these local races out on the Bristol Bath cycle path. At long long last I’ve done a “normal” local race after many months out of the swing of things. I really hope this marks the beginning of a return to the routine of running, and maybe even the form of over a year ago.

5k races are what I’ve done most of. Previously I’ve done lots of the Bridge Inn 5k and my pb was there - 17:47 I recall. I also recall thinking I could do a 17:00 5k if I carried on the way I was. But I didn’t. And I’m a long way back from there. Tonight I did 19:11.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to do 17:47 now - over 5k, that is a big difference. It feels really different to run that much faster - or this much slower.

Anyway, the race: I’ve not done the Bitton race before. It’s a monthly thing, and I would recommend these little monthly races for people who are wanting to get into running. It’s a friendly atmosphere, with people of all abilities, and having a regular benchmark and a few familiar faces is really motivating. And there is a bar … and showers.

My shins and thighs were feeling a bit stiff from the 5x850m reps I did on the downs the other night. My ride out from Bristol and the jog from race HQ to the start was my warm up, but I wasn’t convinced I was ready on the start line. No aggression. No hunger. I just felt stiff, and wanted to do less than 20 mins, and thought I would be well happy if I did under 19 mins. So I set my virtual partner (see my Garmin post) for 19 mins.

But once running I felt OK. I think I paced it about right. It’s mostly downhill going out, and the weather brightened up, and it’s a beautiful stretch of the cycle path. So I felt good as I approached the turn at half way. At which point I slipped and fell over, landing my neck on the marker cone! But on balance I think that was a good thing: I spent the next 500m with much more adrenaline in my body, and distracted from the slow agony of running by wondering if I’d put my neck out again. Better still, I have an impressive welt on my neck - I hope it looks good in the morning.

Aside from the fact running is physically unpleasant, I enjoyed the next couple of kilometres as I had enough in me to overtake a few people. Overtaking people feels good, and it’s a good reason for starting slowly at the back! But as the return is gently uphill, I began to slow down, I slipped back from my 19:00 pace, and more to the point, I couldn’t find it in me to try harder.

But I’m happy! I’ve done it, when I could have not done it. I did under 20 mins, and I had a pint with Phil and a couple of others afterwards.

Also, very important - WHAT A GREAT RIDE! 14k each way from home, on the Bristol Bath cycle path. It’s looking very pretty now, with it’s mown verges and fresh painted signage. Lots of people out strolling and riding - enjoying the evening. Furthermore, I really pushed it on the way back, arriving home feeling satisfyingly finished - 14km in 30 mins. In total, 28k of cycling, 2k of jogging, and 5k of racing, 1 pint of lager, 2 Mars bars, a hot shower, and a glass of wine as a write this.

Race results here