My plan to get back to running three times a week, to help me recover some fitness before the Bristol 10K, seems to be starting off okay. I followed up Monday’s run with another run today, so that’s my two weekday runs done. I’ll get something a bit longer in at the weekend.
Today’s run was a bit of a trial at the start. It was just a simple 5K down the Portway. But I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the first kilometre as I set out, mostly because the weather was horrible. Our brief burst of summer-like spring seems to be over, with a typically British cold snap.
It wasn’t snowing in Bristol, but my walking warm-up was done into a freezing cold wind that nearly sapped my strength before I started off. On the plus side, I couldn’t wait to get running, just to warm up…
Before the first kilometre was over, though, I was still freezing. The thought even crossed my mind to stop for shelter for a bit at the tunnel underneath the Suspension Bridge, and then decide whether I just wanted to run back home. Before bits of me started falling off.
I started to warm up eventually, though, and pushed on to the full 5K. The few other soaked and frozen joggers that I met all gave that slightly wry acknowledgement that says, “Oh, so you’re an idiot, too, are you? Well done, idiot.”
And the good news is that it was five whole minutes faster than Monday’s 5K, mostly because of my desire to get warm as quickly as I could by pushing harder than usual at the beginning. So, throwing myself out there into the freezing wind and rain turned out quite well. Even though, during the first kilometre, it seemed like a bloody silly idea…