It was a hot one........!!

  There was only one song in my mind as I set out on the planned 10 mile run yesterday from Staveley between Windermere and Kendal in the Lake District.  Rob Thomas's SMOOTH on Santana's album Supernatural
   "Man, it's a hot one, like 7 inches from the midday sun, well I hear you whispering the words to melt everyone, But you stay so cool......."

Cool I was not!  I had hoped to enjoy an out and back flat run alongside the river but being away for the weekend and not having chance to "reccie" the route, it threw one hill after the other at me as the temperature soared.   So much so that more than one passing car queried my sanity running in such conditions. My reply being that we have to race in hot conditions so we have to train in hot conditions. The roller coaster run took me 95 minutes: probably my slowest ever 10 mile on the road.  In contrast my wife, Pat,   was up and out by 8.30 a.m. ran 3 on the trail then sat afterwards on the deck in her pool of "effort".  She did warn me but I never like deviating from the week's plan.

The very tough 10, following a 6 on the trail the evening before brought the week's total to 43.  But no real quality in the miles as that Manchester 10K had taken it's toll  and certainly yesterday's heat did nothing to bring a spring back into the stride.
The reward wasn't bad though later in the day.   A couple of pints of cool, refreshing lager overlooking the marina at Bowness On Windermere.   Certainly a view to break into a sweat for.



T-SHIRT COMPETITION RESULT

  Thanks to all those who took the trouble to have a guess at the number of race t-shirts in the 2 piles last week.   The guesses ranged from 51 to 125 but with his estimate of 99  Phil McGeever of Horsforth was nearest to the correct answer of 95 plus the one I was wearing.......so 96.