Wow, what a day for a run! For a (very) short time I'd thought we'd waited long enough that the rain wouldn't be torrential...in fact it was only spitting out when we headed out....but not for long! It really does feel like Vancouver here lately. I don't really mind all that much, I actually like running in the rain, it's kind of refreshing. At least until I get the gooshes. The first goosh occurred at about the 30 minute mark. It was my left shoe that succumbed first. I had thought I did a good job bypassing the puddles, but I guess the rain was too much. The insole of my shoe was saturated and with every step I could feel the 'goosh' of water between my toes. It made me giggle as it's kind of a funny feeling. The right shoe held out longer, but at the 40 minute mark succumbed as well. Alas, it was inevitable with the amount of rain coming down.
We started our run from the pool parking lot because we had a swim to do afterwards. The plan was originally to run on the paths, but it would have been too mucky today (offroad training will be another day!). So we stuck to the sidewalks, which was fine, except for the worms. There were TONS of them out there. Which didn't bug me, but I learned that Leslie has a wee bit of a phobia about them! This from a woman who will live under the most primtive of conditions and doesn't mind spiders and other creepy things, haha. Ah well, my only issue with them was I didn't want to step on any. Afterall, they have a right to try and sneak across the sidewalk to get to the other soggy patch of grass without the threat of a massive shoe coming down upon their head, or tail, or whatever they have! I looked like I was doing wee hops as I ran and tried to avoid them!
I think people are more sympathetic to runners in the rain. Typically if we have to run on a stretch of road the drivers won't budge. Today they seemed to give us ample room and they'd move over. Perhaps they thought we were insane, considering the conditions we were running in, and would attack their vehicle! Too funny.
The run went by fairly quickly, we were out there for 1.25 hrs. My legs felt good and I had a good run overall. Every once in a while I couldn't help but start laughing because we were absolutely drenched. Nothing was dry! We looked like drowned rats. Thankfully the only time I felt cold was when the wind picked up now and then.
The pool wasn't open when we got there, but we didn't have to wait long. I noted something today - it's much easier to remove a bathing suit from a wet bod then to try and get one ON a wet bod! As noted above we were drenched - I could even wring out a small amount of water from my running clothes. So trying to get the suit on was an feat of much wriggling and yanking. Liner spilling out everywhere too. It was really quite amusing.
The pool felt like bathwater when I got in because as it turns out my limbs were quite cold from the rain. (I guess I lost the feeling in them so didn't actually notice it whilst outside.) I got in the pool and started out with an 800m warmup that included swimming and drills. It was the first time in the pool for a while as I've been able to swim in a lake. Felt strange having to stop and turn around at each end. I'm not sure I like being able to see all the things floating about either...like hair. GACK! Give me a lake I can't see the bottom any day! (Quite a change in tune from last week!)
The main set involved 10 x 100 m sprints. The big thing was we were to swim the first hundred and time it. Then add on 0:20 s and swim remaining sets under that time, including rest. Well this is all fine and dandy for the first one because you can figure out the time on the pool clock and it's usually even numbers. After a few though I was getting lost trying to add on time and figure out when the heck I was supposed to take off next! I'm sure for a few it was taking me longer to add all the seconds and I was resting too long. I had no idea so just ended up swimming as fast as I could for the 100m then tried to suck some air in at the end and take off as soon as possible. I definately slowed down for the last few hundred meters - lack of oxygen may have played a role. Really now...it's hard enough some days keeping track of how many lengths you've done and how many sets - I honestly don't need to have time keeper added in there! haha.
Overall we covered 2000 m in the pool. It's amazing that that distance now feels 'easy'. I will never forget getting into the pool, for the first time in years, in the summer of 2005....I 'swam' (if you can call thrashing about in the water swimming) the first 25m and was hanging off the diving board gasping for air thinking 'what have I gotten myself into?!'. Now that I think about it though, I have yet to swim 3800 m, which I'll have to do for IMC...so perhaps I shouldn't get too cocky. LOL.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and listening to the rain. This week the weather is supposed to turn around, which will be great! Not a huge training load this week, it'll likely feel like a rest week!
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