Wet t-shirts and cold baths

I’m going out tonight – my one social engagement of the summer – so I took Friday off to do my long run and clean my house. We are having a night out with friends from college, and my friend is coming from England and staying with me so I had to prepare the spare room and generally clean the house. I also knew there was no way I could do a long run and go out afterwards. I really am fit for little after a long run, especially when it’s warm, which it was yesterday.

It was 18 degrees at 8 am so there was no point getting up too early. It was 10 am before I got going and still 18 degrees with intermittent sun. 12 miles was on the plan for this week and I haven’t run all week as I was feeling sick. I wasn’t quite sure which route to take, so ended up on the canal which was beautiful but provides very little shade so I had to get off it. Running in direct sun is the biggest drain on my energy. I am not a master navigator by any means but I figured that running into the sun was not a good idea so I headed into the Phoenix Park looking for shade.

And I found a good bit of it, but it was very hot for running, too hot. I felt ok for most of it but pretty much took a break every mile. I came back through Castleknock village and went into a petrol station for water. There are no water fountains anywhere in Dublin by and large which is ridiculous. Wouldn’t kill them to provide a few in the Park. I threw some of the cold water over me which was lovely but I did end up with a bit of a wet T-shirt situation which I realised when I got home. By that stage I didn’t care.

I passed 11 miles as I was nearly home and I intended to run around in circles to get up to 12 miles, but I just couldn’t do it. It was 21 degrees and sunny. My legs were starting to feel very heavy and all I could think of was getting into a cold bath! Any other day I would have been fine for 12 miles but the heat just got to me. I am going to try and do a few miles tomorrow if I’m not too wrecked after going out.

The cold bath was lovely! I just filled it from the cold tap, didn’t add ice or anything, and got in in my running gear with a cup of coffee and a jacket. I probably stayed 30 minutes or so and my legs feel great this morning, hardly any stiffness. Cold baths are much easier on hot days but definitely worth it. A dip in the sea is even better according to my running buddies but we’ll see about that later in the summer.

So while the run wasn’t totally according to plan it was good enough, considering summer had come to town.