Wintery weather arrived

Distance 21km [total: minimalist 88km: Barefoot 398km]

While not quite in winter yet the weather has arrived early.
The end of the working week was cool and cloudy with the rain arriving on the Friday.

I don't mind running when it is raining, my usual provision is that it mustn't be raining when I set off but I don't mind if it rains once I have warmed up.
On the Friday though the rain started about an hour before I set of for my run home.
I did consider taking the easy option and catching public transport back but psyched myself up for an 1.5 hour run in the rain.
It wasn't too bad, I was wet through after a few km, the rain was steady but not torrential.
I gave barefoot running a try with wet feet but it doesn't really work.
The feet are too soft once wet and the ground feels much more abrasive, small stones that normally you don't notice suddenly hurt. I ran for around a kilometre then put the Vibrams back on again, which by this time were soaked.
They felt much better and I could run faster with them on tonight.

Saturday run:
Today was a day of strong westerly winds blowing from the sea and intermittent bursts of rain.
For a change I drove to West Beach, parking at the sailing club then ran to Glenelg and back along the beach.
It was very windswept and hardly anyone around. The tide was quite high and in places was right up at the rocks and I had to run through 30cm of surf. Towards Glenelg the water was too deep to run through so I had to run on the path. Once again I had the problem of the feet being too soft due to the wet surface. I retreated back to the beach where the surface was more forgiving.

I don't seem to suffer from stiff tendons at all these days, not even in the mornings when it was usually at its most acute.

Neil