I had such a lovely rest day yesterday! My lovely friend Romy organised a day in Suffolk for us, since that's where she and my other lovely friend (Harri) are from, but I'd never been. We started off in Ely (okay, that's Cambridgeshire, but still) and had a wander round the town, followed lunch with some other friends (Henrietta and her brother and stepmother, and Tom, Harri's brother). Ely is absolutely stunning - it looks exactly like a picture postcard!
How pretty is that?! Then we pootled over to Bury St Edmunds, where Tom lives, for a walk through town and then a visit to the Abbey Gardens and along the river (also an icecream, don't tell anyone). Bury was so cute, exactly like you'd imagine an English market town to be. Finally, we headed over to Harri and Tom's parents' for supper - her mom had cooked a feast! It was the perfect rest day (even though I had actually intended to run in Suffolk, but too much time had to be devoted to having fun).
Today it was back to the grindstone though - a run in Brighton. I'd had a pretty intense headache all day yesterday but I'd slept it off thank God ... however that was where the good news ended for this run. Here's a list of what went wrong ...!
- Slept through alarm
- Left remote phone charger in the car (parked 1km away)
- Managed to get to Victoria on time (complete with charger), only to find that the ticket machines were broken and only one actual cashier was open, so missed the train
- Got the next train, only to find it was cancelled half-way so had to spend a freezing cold 50 minutes at East Croydon (which is as horrible as it sounds)
- By the time I FINALLY got to Brighton (two hours late) my porridge had already digested so I wasn't especially fuelled
- Started off the run so cold that I was almost blue, since I hadn't managed to warm up on the train down
- Got blisters after 12K and even my magic balm didn't calm them
- Got absolutely exhausted after 14K but still had to make it back home (ummm!!)
- It absolutely hurled rain down about 3/4 of the way through
- Did not manage nutrition, and completely bonked about 23K and only just managed to crawl the last hour or so back to Brighton
- Ran out of water with about 45 minutes to go
- Had to visit Sports Direct (the horror) to get a new jumper as mine was soaking!
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| Blister maintenance |
Apart from that, it was a lovely run ...!!!!!!!!!!
Bonking was exceptionally unpleasant - I literally couldn't stop walking (by that time there was no chance of running at all, but I knew if I stopped even for a minute there was no way I was getting back up again), I could barely hear anything and my brain felt like it was wrapped in cotton wool. Even when I made it to Pret for a restorative water and ham and cheese toastie (being the first thing I saw) I couldn't really wrap myself around it, because I couldn't properly swallow it down. It took me half an hour to get it down me!
At least taking that long meant that it kicked in and I could use that energy to get back to the train station where I changed into my new warm Sports Direct sweater (all class) and got myself onto the train. It took me approximately 2.4 seconds to fall asleep on the train and I woke up back in London feeling much better for a good 54 minute sleep. A hot bath and my slippers on and I'm almost good as new (my feet might not agree).
There were a few good things I've taken from it:
1. It was my first run when it rained, so I now know what that's like;
2. I was not not not in the mood, but I still managed to do it, even though I could have quit at any point (including when the trains were cancelled);
3. I ran/walked longer than I've ever gone before - almost 30K I think (my Garmin was playing up and my MapMyRun was being very weird!);
4. I need to manage my nutrition and sleep properly - I think sleep is super-important and I'm not getting enough!
The other good thing was that my depleted body demanded steak and sweet potato for supper. I managed to step up to the plate and cook up the most enormous garlic steak, paprika sweet potato fries and blanched broccoli. Obviously it was tough, but I managed to sacrifice myself for my body and eat it for supper ...! I followed it up with fresh (organic, obvs) berries and a dollop of clotted cream. There are definitely advantages to this running lark.
I'm a bit worried about the fact that in six weeks and five days (not that I'm counting) I've got to do almost double that distance for three days in a row - eeeeeeeeeek. Training training training for me!
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