Wet and Windy

Finishing a 12 hour day and driving 40 mins home.  I stood looking at the trees sway and the sideways rain hit the kitchen window.  Welcome to our Irish summer!  We have been blessed with the recent weather dry, warm and calm.  I hate to say it but maybe too warm for running at times (I am not complaining though)  So when you are in the process of ramping up training and are faced with an evening like tonight what do you do??  You get the gear on and go running of course.  The worst part of the weather is looking at it.  I will admit the feeling of "what am I doing?" when I first step out in the rain.  Less than a mile in and the rhythm takes over.  The body heats up and the rain feels warm.  I was running at a slower pace to up the miles.  Not looking at a watch and a route that I had guessed was close to 10 miles.  It turned out a mile and a bit shy of 10 but I was so comfortable I could have kept running.  I think I read somewhere not to go more than you had planned even if you are feeling good.  I finished comfortably with a slow jog to walk as a warm down. 

I am in the process of finding a training plan and tweaking it for my conditions.  In the mean time I plan to just keep running with a cross training day (Mountain biking)  Also a strength and conditioning day.  This will be the first training plan I have ever looked at.  I ran two Marathons without training plans or structured training.  I struggled and my finish time was not too hot.  I NEED to get more structured to improve.  I have had some great hints and tips from fellow runners and some great references for books and plans.  One of which is "Relentless Forward Progress" By Bryon Powell. (Thanks to Gary Cullinan for the reference to this book).  I have been listening to the audio book and the paperback arrives tomorrow.  Structure in progress....