Are my running lessons done, O Master…?
[Sound of muffled laughter]
Er, not quite yet.
Today was one of those days when the stage seemed set. I woke early, with the sun was crashing through the curtains. I felt alert and alive and energised. Not even a hangover to grapple with.
Just before I left for my run, I had the brainwave of drinking some fruit juice and a cup of strong coffee. The caffeine would really get me motoring, I reasoned. And it worked for a while – a mile or so – but then I suddenly began to feel dehydrated and, quite simply, too hot. I was sweating, and felt lethargic. I still did my five miles but I had to stop twice to walk.
Was it a mistake to drink coffee immediately before a run? It’s a diuretic to be sure, but I glugged back so much water yesterday that I expected to be OK. I might have got away with it if it hadn’t been so unexpectedly hot and sunny. Today’s subsidiary lesson would seem to be to get out as early as possible on sunny days.
Given the conditions, it was disappointing not to run better than I did. It was yet another example of the Running Commentary Rule No 1 (Provisional) which states: the success of a run will be in inverse proportion to the degree of expectancy that precedes it. It’s provisional because it needs a bit of polishing up. Something to do on tomorrow’s run I suppose, along with trying to devise a Rule No 2.
The rest of the day was spent mowing grass and digging a new, 200 square foot bed. It was hot and hard work. We hadn’t planned to have another vegetable bed, but I rather overdid the seed potato order back in February, and find that I still have about eighty splendidly chitted Pink Fir Apples and King Edwards, begging to be interred. They’ll get their final wish tomorrow.
Was so knackered later on that, after making a virulently green, but tasty, vegetable soup out of the decaying contents of the lower half of the fridge, we had energy only to watch some very dumbed-down TV. We couldn’t resist taking part in the BBC’s IQ test, which suggested that M and I are geniuses. She’s an even bigger genius than me, it seems – and we were both just ahead of Paula Radcliffe.
And it’s not often you can say that.
