That's me this week. Started the week feeling unaccountably low. Well maybe not unaccountably, I am female after all :-)
However it got better and I booked Friday off as a me day......good idea really given the weather and the fact that since Mr H went up to his mums on Wednesday, I needed to get out and shop and stuff and its much nicer on a weekday.
Excerise......I saw Russ on Monday, lots of drill stuff and stretching, ran there and back. Tuesday was bootcamp, enjoyed it, lots of boxing stuff. Weds I had off due to upper body weakness......ie I used it a little bit and boy am I not used to that.
Thursday was mile reps round Russell Square, nailed them.
Friday I planned to do longer reps at home, but basically the sky started dumping snow, I went out but wasn't feeling it at all and stopped at 5k. No biggie I'd make it up at parkrun on Saturday.
Which was cancelled.
Went out and did a progressive run round Goodmayes park. Started at 9.20 ended on 8.20. In the snow. I'll take that. 7 miles.
Today was Benfleet 15. Got a late place off my friend Vicki, and waited to see if it would be cancelled like many other races today but no, it was on :)
Running club mate gave me a lift, which got interesting the nearer we got due to now quite heavy snow. Left the car at a jaunty angle and had a cup of tea before we we ordered to hurry up and get to the start, which was about 15 minutes walk....oops.
Slid to the start and lined up, facing uphill and without a lot of fuss we were off. Basically the first part of the race is all xc and so lots of up and down and today frozen mud covered by snow. Not easy to negotiate but if it was easy we wouldn't do it would we :) so around 5 miles of ups and downs slipping and sliding. Murder on the glutes and back.
Water station at 5 and I'm a bit fed up tbh, just cos my lower back is singing and I'm thinking 'fuck, only another 10 miles'. Really hardcore ain't I?
Then a woman who has been running around my pace for a while starts to talk to me. I'm not really in the mood tbh, and she has headphones on so can't hear my answers anyway. I'm thinking she's a bit stupid really and when I tell her I don't like the way the muddy paths are rutted, she say 'rutted?' I say ' yeah you know, has ruts in it where the mud has been churned up then frozen' ...........'oh' she says, ' I don't belong to a running club so I don't know what these technical terms mean, I'm running this on my own you know' ..........'er yeah' I say and make a proper effort to lose her because if she's this stupid I'm going to end up pushing her over.
Of course I do lose her :-)
From around 5.5 on its pretty flat for a long way but very monotonous as you can see people running for literally miles in front of you. It's also quite exposed so I get cold here and when I see our club supporters I tell them this, to which they reply they are bloody freezing......fair point! Well made too!
At 9 miles you start to see the quick boys come back past you as you run along the sea wall at canvey. Although I have done this race twice before we all know I have a goldfish memory and don't remember that it is 2 miles to the turn around. Fuck me that's a long 2 miles, all the time seeing people come back the other way and longing to be them (just be a bit sodding quicker then AJ!)
You do eventually get there, to the turn around and the best Marshall ever screaming and waving her Pom poms (no!) so then 2 miles back to the bridge and onto the road for about half a mile before you are back into the country park for a last couple of miles of xc, and the most bastard hill ever to finish. One of them ones where you get to the top thinking that that's it you are going to vomit or have a heart attack or both, and you turn left and it goes up again, only a little ridge to crest but boy is it evil.
You then run down to the finish, looking like death :-D
Conveniently my lift finished a couple of places behind me, I reckon he really took it easy cos he normally beats me, but it meant we were both ready to leave at the same time which was good as it was still snoring and bloody freezing. Not snoring, SNOWING!
Anyway 2.21 something and a proper hard training run. Quickest on that course by 5 mins in the worst conditions. I can't argue. I'm still too tired and it's Monday night now!
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