Onwards and...

[Seafront Plodder]

We all know it. You know, the post run, leg tingling buzzy feeling that comes from a good session; it’s here with me now.

I couldn’t find any training schedule that advocates doubling the mileage of your long run in successive weekends so I had to write my own. Exactly 9 miles this morning of plodding along the seafront. The wind hadn’t quite decided from which direction it should be hitting me but it seemed that every direction was slightly against.

It took a while to warm up and the third mile was the worst. A time when I questioned my desire to carry on, even contemplating merely taking the trip to Spain to be mascot for the rest of Team RC (arsey??). I know ‘they’ say that the first 20 minutes of any run is the worst, but believe me when I say that I am well over the 20 minute mark by the time I enter my third mile, and it took a further full mile before I started to feel good.

But it did get easier, and apart from dodging the stones that had been washed over the path by the recent high tides, I busied myself by watching the lifeboat on training manoeuvres. It was coming perilously close to the shore in what looked like extremely shallow waters, probably just trying out the new depth sounder it got for Christmas!

There were quite a few runners out this morning, and at last I think I’m perfecting the traditional runner greeting of a raised palm and a grunt as we pass, both trying not to look too knackered.

Considering I’d not run this far since early November, this morning was quite a pleasurable experience. I even caught myself grinning inanely at nothing in particular in the car on the way home.