Results tagged “holiday” from Birmingham Mail - Road Runner

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last two weeks. Paul and I have been on holiday in Mallorca for the last eight days, and only just got back this afternoon.

Before that, we both had an utterly manic week. Paul was doing hostile environment training in Germany to prepare himself for reporting from Iraq in October (I'll let him tell you all about that), while I was running around like a headless chicken sorting out all our travel arrangements for the day he got back. A little more than 18 hours after Paul touched down at 11.30pm on September 19, we were jetting off to Mallorca. And in the gap, we had to drive from Stansted up to Brum to drop of his camera equipment at the Mail office, and get as much sleep as we could before driving back down the Gatwick to catch the plane. It doesn't sound like it needs much organising but it does.

So, after all that, I have not run a single step for a week and a half. Shameful I know, but I decided I needed a holiday more than I wanted to achieve my target time, and I refused to run myself down more than I was feeling already by that point. We both took what we felt were well-deserved rests for the week.

But I will be back into it from Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what a week and a half off has done to my speed. Three weeks left before the race, so I hope not too much damage!

If you are considering training while on holiday in a sunny seaside resort this summer then I advise you to learn from my painful mistake.

Yes, running in the sun is hot work.
Yes, a dip in the sea straight afterwards sounds like a great idea.

But no, not under any circumstances is it clever to do your training in swimming shorts.

Why? Because an hour of synthetic waterproof material rubbing against bare human flesh is a recipe for the worst chafing imaginable to man.

The cool sea water soothes this temporarily, but as soon as you try and walk the pain begins.

Be brave, ignore this advice, but waddling on the beach is not a good look -believe me, I've been there.

We've been away in Wales this week and thought it would be a good idea to continue our training by running along the picturesque Pembrokeshire coast.

It turns out this was not the brightest idea we have ever had.

After our first 55 minute run on Whitesands beach we both got sunburnt on every patch of bare skin the sun could get its rays on.
Face, neck, arms, shoulders, back of knees, calves - the whole lot.

This isn't a major problem unless, like us, you are staying in a tiny cut-price tent where there is no room to swing a cat.
After three nights of tip-toeing around each others' burnt patches we finally came to the end of our tether and came home.

But not before the crows had attacked our tent... but that's another story.