If I am brutally honest there is not a great deal I miss about the UK. Granted I have friends and family there and it is great to see them (although I didn't have time to visit everyone I wanted this visit) but on the other hand the country is small, wet and overpriced. Gas/petrol is now up to 1.10 pounds a litre which equates to around $8.50 per gallon and this high cost of living applies accross the board.
I was somewhat suprised then to find last week that the temperature was actually fairly mild, although it threatened to rain all week it stayed pretty dry and I did manage to have one particularly pleasant run. As I mentioned in my last blog it was a recovery week which was a good job as there were 3 days where I couldn't get in any training at all.
I managed to get to a swimming pool on Monday and started to follow one of Holden's swim workouts. After about 20 mins I was really starting to struggle and I asked the lady I was sharing a lane with how long the pool was. It turned out that the pool I was in was 33m long which when you are supposed to be doing 25yrd sprints makes a huge difference. Relieved that I was not as bad as I thought I was I adapted the workout accordingly and was glad to get out of the pool when finished.
At the other end of the scale I went for a swim on Friday in the pool at my Dad's gym. This was basically a 'fun' pool but they had roped off one small lane for laps. This pool was probably less than 20m in length and was really warm. I could get to the other end in only a few strokes and to make matters worse there was no warning that you were about to reach the end of the pool and I nearly went ploughing into the wall a few times. I will be glad to get back to my regular pool which, although I have cursed it many times, in a strange sort of 'Stockholm Syndrome' way I actually miss.
Back to that rather pleasant run I mentioned.
I spent the last couple of days of the trip with my parents, they live up in the middle of the country in a county called Shropshire. It is quite a rural county and has plenty of small villages and towns surrounded by countryside. By the Saturday I was aware that I had done very little training and although it was a recovery week I was supposed to do 2 hours endurance on a bike. With no bike I decided to subsitute the workout with a 1.5 hour run. I set out from my parents house and within 15 mins I found myself out in the countryside. I followed the twisty english country roads with only a rough idea of where I was going. I ran through several small villages with their stone walls, small churches and village shops and the sun would occassionally break through the heavy clouds warming me nicely. I even managed to get a begrudging hello out of a farmer stood watching his horses (it was quite an effort for him to remove his pipe to return my greeting).
After about an hour or so it was clear that I was a little lost and that I was not going to make it back to my starting point. I was not carrying any drink or food but I had a 20 pound note. I stopped at one of the small towns, bought a drink and with the change tried ringing my folks to try and get a lift home. Unfortunately they were out so I left a message asking for a lift, bought myself a paper (I do miss my English newsapers) and went and sat in the local pub. I finished my run with a couple of pints of guiness (hydration) and a packet of salted peanuts (sodium and protein). After about 45 minutes my Dad, who had heard my message, turned up to give me a lift, it was absolute heaven.
I am now back into my regular routine and am looking forward to my marathon in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately I think the pub recovery strategy was a one off and I am now back to my chocolate flavoured recovery drink.
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