Blustery day

Despite the energetic dancing of the trees outside, I agreed to go for a bike ride with Clare and Marie. Definitely a bit gusty at times, but not nearly as bad as we feared, and the sun and lack of traffic at 4-5pm on a Sunday definitely made up for the headwind. A lovely social ride - 24 miles via Barford and Wramplingham.

Yesterday I did parkrun (number 9 for me), 28:28 which is a personal second best - ran without a watch, with mp3 player, just doing what I felt like and could have sworn it was much slower than that. So the result was a nice surprise!

Photo: Trees and wind by nyoin, on Flickr

PRPB

First parkrun in yonks today. There were about 199 more people than in the photo above :) Glorious weather, not a cloud in the sky - perhaps a teeny bit chilly in the shade, but that's all to the good. Keeps me moving. The cool headwind along the only incline was welcome too.

No watch so no pressure for a particular time, I was just out to enjoy it and I did. Despite stiff legs and various other aches from yesterday, it felt good to run and I was steadily passing people all the way. I couldn't put a finger on a time while I was running, but judging my pace as best I could I thought I was in with a reasonable chance of a PB (previous PB 28:35). It turns out I knocked 43s off, running 8:58/mile to get 27:52. Wheeee :D

About halfway I looked back down the course as I rounded a corner and saw Mark (training regime: bugger all) about 20-30s behind me. For the rest of the race I expected him to appear over my shoulder but he never did, and I had the fun of watching him sprint finish with a bunch of other guys (it was the timekeepers I felt sorry for!). It's not often I beat 'im indoors in a race so clearly the training is paying off - although I have to say I won't be doing weights in the gym the day before the tri. Now I'm wondering what I could do on fresh legs...

Photo: Weak? Thought ee, too? by harry harris, on Flickr

Puddlejumping

My first parkrun for a while today. It was cold and drizzly, and I ended up running in my decidedly non-breathable €5 waterproof. Actually, the waterproofs I needed were wellies.

Unfortunately, despite quite a bit of recent investment, the paths in the park are not very even, and there are lots of puddles. LOTS of quite deep puddles, and lots of mud created by people running on the grass to get around the puddles. The run used to finish wonderfully through the northern entrance to the bandstand/colonnade, but that's one of the biggest puddles so they moved it back a bit. It's a shame - all it would take to fix things would be a bit of thought and some good workmanship. I finished with very soggy, cold feet, and some people looked more like they'd been doing a cross-country!

At the time of posting this, the results aren't yet available. I chose to run without a watch, so I'm not really sure what I did, but I'm guessing close to or even over 30 mins. I got lapped quite early, so either the winner was really fast or I was pretty slow. I'll have to wait and see!

Edit: 30:20. Pretty slow but still a massive (*cough*) 7 seconds ahead of my PW!

Edit 2: Blog post no. 500! Woohoo!

Photo: Running part 2 by The World According To Marty, on Flickr

Finding my feet again

I said at the start of the week that I hadn't been on the road bike for a while (OK, about 5 months). I felt it today! Not in terms of the saddle, or tired legs, but getting used to a smaller, twitchier bike (I missed you, Bluebird) and... (cue dramatic music) clipless pedals.

No, I did not fall off.

Where I seem to get bizarrely paralysed is starting off. Making that move to actually get going took a lot of mental effort this morning - I can't even put my finger on why, it just felt scary somehow.

Zelda by elana CXLIV, on Flickr

I need to practice, I think. It did improve over the course of the ride, thankfully! The ride was the Norwich sprint tri route, plus riding to parkrun beforehand (that was what made me give myself a mental kick up the arse to stop being a scredy cat, get moving and not be late). There were eight of us, all ladies, and it was just a nice, relaxed social ride, with a healthy helping of bloody long hills in the middle. The only thing missing was my waterproof, windproof overboots - when I finished the ride I half expected there to be a few deep-frozen toes rattling around in my shoes.

Parkrun beforehand, not much to say about that but two words: personal worst. But not by much - 30:27. With 5 days' training in my legs and trying to bear in mind I was about to go for a bike ride, that's OK. I ran the whole way and I wasn't last :)

So, I have cunningly combined both my weekend sessions into one day, and I can have tomorrow off. Yay!

What I learned today: I need to do some more work on starting off on the road bike. And I need new running tights as I wore out my old pair and suffered chafing as a result (ouch)