Into Autumn

Distance 74.2km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 4343.6km] Week 12

Wednesday, 20-Mar. 10km

This will be one of the last of the warmer days before we slide into winter, it reached 32C today but strangely it didn't feel that warm. I was even able to run barefoot along the pavements without problem, maybe due to the sun being lower in the sky and not having the same punch as in January.
An enjoyable run, no aches or pains to report, I think they are now behind me. I'm quite happy running 10km's at the moment without thinking about stretching the runs out to 20km +. Should I do the Good Friday run, still not decided yet.

Saturday, 23-Mar. 11km

 A road run on a pleasant morning. The heart rate is still a bit high but that is probably due to the warm day. I did hear off a fellow runner that as a rule of thumb for every 1C rise in temperature above 20C you have to add 1bpm to your heart rate for your average. So if I at a normal pace my heart rate would be 135bpm at 20C then at 30C I would expect to see my heart rate up at 145bpm. I shall have to do some research to find out if that is in fact true.

Monday, 25-Mar. 11km

A road run on the beach path through Henley and down to West Beach, a nice warm late afternoon

Wednesday, 27-Mar. 11km

Our warm weather ended this morning, in fact it was warmer overnight than it was during the day. The temperature fell through the day and the winds picked up as the weather system moved across the state. I think this will be our last taste of 30C+ for this season. For my evening run I parked by the Grange Hotel then ran towards West Beach, into the the strong South West wind. There were some big waves being whipped up by the winds and I stopped for a while at West Beach to watch the waves breaking on the rocks and spraying water up onto the pathway. The thing I like about barefoot running is feeling all these elements underfootnot just as some abstract idea of what it might feel like. The wind pushed me back on the return leg. After getting back I had a walk along the jetty to watch the waves breaking against the timbers and feeling the spray over the decking. The strong wind evaporated the sweat on my T-shirt and cooled me off so I didn't hang around too long.

Friday, 29-Mar. 13km

Well, it has been a while since I have run the length of the beach to Semaphore, the last time would have been before Christmas when I was still having calf problems so that is over 3 months ago. As always when you go back to a familiar run that you have not done for a while it seemed soooo long. I had some good sand to run on and I kept it nice and relaxed so I could look around. I ran into the breeze on the way north then had it as a tailwind on the way back. It took around 37min each way, a bit slow but I had plenty of seaweed to contend with that had been pushed onto the beach by the stormy weather on Wednesday. As you may gather I didn't run in the Good Friday Easter Bun run at Athelstone, I knew I wouldn't or else I would have woken up in plenty of time. I actually woke up at around the time the race would be setting off. I just didn't feel inspired this year with my state of readiness and also the weather wasn't very inspirational, grey and cool.

Saturday, 30-Mar. 10km

So good to feel the legs and feet are working well again and carrying me smoothly on my run. It was an overcast day which was threatening rain, a temperature of 19C which was perfect for running. I parked on the seafront at the end of Grange road. It was a later start this morning as I had a good sleep last night, not waking until around 8.30am. By the time breakfast was out of the way it was after 9am so I had to wait another 1.5 hours before heading out for my run. I felt good and relaxed trying to keep the heart rate to around 137, it mostly worked. I had a 2 minute rest at West Beach then ran back covering the distance in around 55min.

Sunday, 31-Mar. 8.2km

Last day of the month and it started off looking gloomy and it did indeed rain shortly after I finished my run today but it held off during the course of my run. A great run today, felt good and some of the speed is coming back but I'm not going to live by the stopwatch.
As I was crossing the the West lakes lake, along the boulevard I run along the kerb as it is smoother than the bitumen on the bridge. As I was doing this a young hoon with his girlfriend on the back of his motor bike swerved towards me to scare me, what a fail on his part as I gave his a resounding "fuck off" directly into his face, causing him to swerve. Would have been good to see him take a fall but, no, he didn't.  Maybe I need to carry a club to deal with dickheads when I run, a good crack across the head to sort them out. The rain began shortly after I arrived back at the car park, it was refreshing to stand in the rain to cool off.

Neil