August 2009

[glaconman]

August : A Retrospective

It's been a difficult running month. Most of August was spent on holiday in India. Actually 'holiday' isn't a very accurate way to describe a trip to the sub-continent. Test-of-will would be better. Interspersed with pockets of other, more congenial, emotions of course. You can't fail to have some kind of adventure. It's lots of fun. There's no place like it.

The salient running facts are that modern running shoes can no longer be trusted to come out of a washing machine in the same shape they went in. The heel-cup on my trail shoes shrank and became disfigured, giving me terrible blisters. A further attempt at running in sandals cut my feet up again. Add to this heat, humidity and a generous number of bites and other abrasions and you end up with cellulitis, antibiotics and no running.

Which is were I'm at now. Close to my fighting weight and chomping at the bit. But unable to get out of the door.

Still, there was some running to be had in August. Most notably on the beach in Kerala. And along the jungle tracks around my oulaw's farm near Chandrapur.

The beach running was a revelation. As the warm Arabian waves crashed onto the steep beach I found myself running through several, very different surfaces: dry, hot sand; wet sand with a firm foundation; wet sand that allowed me to sink to my ankles; swirling knee-high water; small bluffs of sand providing a few strides of uphill. All-in-all it's something to give you a really good work-out for off-road running, including the muscles in the feet.

I took off as soon as I was able when we got home. But that only excaserbated my foot problems.

So it's forced rest for a few more days now. Time to relax for a while and think about the autumnal months ahead. Traditionally my favorite time of the year. Cool evenings snaking through heather and Beech woods and an Indian summer if we're lucky.