Took an hour off work today

Took an hour off work today so as I could get out running at four rather than five.

Izzi was staying over with my folks, her grandma and granddad, so it was only fair on one of the few days I saw her to get over early and not a hour later than I’d normally be there.

It made sense too as I had a couple of contractors over in Hartlepool for a 3:30 meeting, seeing them and then heading off made sense as I’d not then have to spend an hour looking for work to do in Hartlepool.

Got to Hartlepool and realised that I might have made a mistake, the wind was strong and it was cold, a biting cold straight off the sea, not good at all.

Met the contractors, headed for the disabled loos and Superman-like I shed my work clothes and donned my running gear.

Got to Seaton and battened down the hatches, I wore a few layers topped with a woolly hat and over that I pulled up the hood and my lovely Adidas hoodie. I braced myself and headed out of Seaton into a very strong wind that was sort of sideways on from the sea but quite certainly in my face. The cold was really bad, my face was getting uncomfortably cold when it started to rain icy shards of rain. This wasn’t good but I pressed on, all along following my Dad’s advice not to stoop and press my chin into my chest – this was very tempting in this weather too – but to run proud and erect.

I knew I was making some pace even into this weather but at the turning point I glanced at my watch to find I was doing sub-eight minute miles which at this stage of my training year and into this wind was impossibly quick, this spurred me on. I later found however that the GPS on the watch had over-egged the distance I had run and the sub-eight wasn’t exactly true, it was more like an 8:20.

Anyway I pressed on and despite the inaccuracy of the distance covered my total time was almost a minute and a half faster than my last run, a good time, especially after being battered by that wind.

I noticed that the temptation to stoop and fold my neck into my chest was most tempting when I was tired at the end of the run. I wonder too if the rapid increase in speed can be attributed to my more upright running style, it did feel better and more pacey, however it was difficult to maintain the posture and my neck does hurt a little afterwards.

Running Statistics 26-03-2014

Running Graph 26-03-2014