Friday 26 October 2012

The 30 day challenge - Day 21. Adapting to the conditions

This statue marks the 'finish' line for my favourite run
Today I learnt a few salutary lessons for running.

I went to favourite place in the World to run, along the front at Sant Joan beach - about 5 miles from my folks house. Its a long beach with a wide pavement which runs about 5km in each direction. Its a beautiful blue flag beach with a lovely breeze pulling across its length from the Med. Normally I bomb along quite happily, but today was one of those off running days. You know the kind. Every step feels heavy. You want it to end before its begun. You question why you didn't take up something more genteel, like bowling or golf. Only was going 4 miles but I was beat.
San Juan beach, Alicante.

Feeling tired and with a more intense midday Sun than I'd legislated for due to the sun, without the motivation of an upcoming race, I just couldn't get into it. So I opted to walk along the shore and take in the air instead. Kicking off the trainers, it was gorgeous to feel the sea lap my feet.

Needless to say, I got my mojo back after a while and I gave some barefoot running a go. Along the compact wet sand I ran just half a mile, but enjoyed it much more than the previous 4. The Riley gets into town on Saturday so I'm going to do a morning barefoot run on Sunday. This time doing the full length of the shore. Though 5 to 10k doesn't sound much, having not run barefoot much before, I'm anticipating it will be a tough (and slow) one.

Take home lesson for me. Don't run in the midday sun when tired. Going swimming was lush though. It woke me from my slumber. Even though its October, the sea here is lovely to swim in still. Tomorrow will be a different proposition entirely. Going to get plenty of rest and get up early for a  tough hill and tempo run in the hills where my folks live overlooking the sea. I'll make sure I've got my game head on for that.

No comments: