My enthusiastic embracing of the '3 weeks hard, 1 week easy' training philosophy has overshot the mark a bit. It seems to have evolved into '3 weeks hard, 1 week easy, and 1 week of not doing very much at all.' I blame the weather.
I was awake at 1am, listening to winds of over 75mph hurl snow and hail at the windows. I tossed and turned until 3am, when I remembered that I had some earplugs with me. I gave them a try, but quickly took them out again as feeling the house shake without any sound attached to the movement was extremely disturbing. I fell back asleep around 5, but was woken at 6.30 by the roofers in the flat below shouting at each other. They probably had to shout to be heard over the wind.
C gave me a lift to work at 9 - no way was I going to attempt to walk in that storm! By noon, when I had wearied of watching the snow squalls descend then lift then descend again, I phoned the leisure centre to cancel my induction for tonight. Another bone-chilling trek into a headwind through the darkness did not appeal to me at all; I know my limits.
It will come as no surprise, then, to hear that by the time I left work at 5, the wind had died down, the skies had cleared, and it was an absolutely gorgeous crisp winter's evening, complete with a half-full moon shining over the water. If the pavements hadn't been covered with ice and snow, it would have been the perfect night for a run.
I need to do something so that this break in training doesn't happen again; I did think about not coming back to Shetland until after the marathon in April, but decided that that might possibly be an overreaction. A quick search online turned up Yaktrax, which would have allowed me to run tonight. And this past week has shown why I really do need a Gore winter running jacket. (Hurrah! I knew I'd find a reason eventually.) A quick gym induction session on my next visit here in January, and I'll have all the bases covered.
They say that it's a poor workman who blames his (or her) tools but, sometimes, the right tools make all the difference. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.
I've had my Yaktrax for 4 years now... I wouldn't be out in the winter without them. Just had snow tires fitted to my car, in the vain hope that the the gods of unnecessary spending will be watching and make sure it doesn't snow!
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