It’s real

I got to thinking after xmas. My nephew brought a virtual reality headset with him on boxing day and it started me thinking about reality. I can see the use of VR in education – you can fire pupil’s imaginations like nothing else with it. But what concerns me is the disconnect from the real world and actually experiencing things.

I thought about this while running this morning, it was still semi dark, the wind was howling and then it started to hammer down rain too. And as I ran through it all I thought about how although some may consider it a miserable experience to me me it wasn’t. I could feel the lash of the rain on my face, feel the water running down my face and mingling with sweat and stinging my eyes. I could feel the salt in my mouth as I sucked in air. I could smell the wet earth beneath my feet, the aroma of wet grass. I could sense the freshness of the storm, the wind blasting over and around me, pushing me this way and that, making me drive into it.

I looked down to see Murphy trotting alongside me, as usual when i transfer attention to him he looks up at me and seems to grin. I know deep down it’s just the way we percieve and anthropomorphalise animals but it seems like he grins and smiles at me, sometimes its almost as if he looks up to agree how utterly ridiculous the situation is, why are we running ankle deep through streams of water into a biting wind anyway? Not that he cares because I know at that moment he feels alive, no matter the weather he is out doing something he loves with someone he loves – and so am I. Because right now we are alive.

And can VR give this? Of course not. But corporations will tell you it can. Because they want to sell it to you. And all the attendant “experiences” they can sell you too. They want you at home, sat in your lounge where you are comfortable, malleable and ready to part with cash. How can they sell things to someone stood ankle deep in mud in a field? So they will tell you be comfortable. There is no need to leave your home. Be safe. We can bring the world to you.

I say no thanks, I’d rather be cold, wet, tired … and alive.

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  A foggy morning at the beach, like running through a world of cotton wool

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  A wet dog happy and about to negotiate a pool that wasn’t there yesterday

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  Give me food – you have food, give it to me

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  A find – I ran for miles carrying this

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  You can’t simulate happiness

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  What gets wet must get dry

Monsoon

Decided to get out for a run last Sunday despite the torrential rain. I wanted a long run but wasn’t going to happen in these conditions.  To be fair the seven miles I did were made harder by slogging through fields turned into streams. More resistance training. I look back and laugh now but at the time up to my calves in freezing cold water I certainly wasn’t laughing then

The first inkling I might get wetter than usual

Definitely been raining

Errr ok so this is one Ive never seen before here

Starfish are like buses – You don’t see one forever and then 2 come along in a week 

Of course the regular waterfall was showing off 

Fields of joy!

 

Whats 2 minutes a mile between friends?

I’ve never actually run with someone else apart from racing and that’s been what half a dozen times.  But if someone wants to get fit by running through mist, rain and mud who am I to argue.  And you know what I didn’t mind it.  It was sort of a run/walk (uphills) but the odd thing is that she appears to have 2 paces – walk and flat out. And by flat out I mean 7 min/mile pace and less which was quite the shock to my usual 8 or 9 min paced legs.

It was essentially fartleks determined by the terrain.  To be honest I needed to change a few things anyway as with the hill sprints in the week I don’t think just slamming in high mileages week after week is probably the most effective way to train so some hill & speedwork isn’t going to hurt (until I deck it somewhere)

One of “those” days

 

A bit of water never hurt anyone

Being cold, wet and tired is an acquired taste it seems.  No point in avoiding water on days like this after overnight monsoons. Just get ready to splash! The feet do freeze at first but then the water in the shoes warms up a bit and adds to the warmth – I tell myself this anyway it makes the whole thing seem a little saner

Field/pond number one

Gentle stream leaing to beach

There was no stream here yesterday – getting down to it was fun too – mainly half skiing down the slope with so much mud on the soles braking becomes a luxury

Pooh sticks! Which one won you reckon?

Errr neither as it turns out they both got stuck in eddies and disappeared

Who builds a stile in a stream?

Oh so that the path right?  I as quite relieved as the “dead sheep” was actually a buildup of foam

Cold and wet = Gear testing

It was cold, windy and raining when I got home on Wednesday and I was actually happy about It! I got the chance to try out the rain jacket I had to buy for the kit requirements at the preseli beast five months ago. Seriously it’s wales and I haven’t needed once – I carried it at the roseland ultra too so I figured it had done 56 miles without being worn.

It’s a ronhill jacket (not sure of type) which is fully waterproof with taped seams to pass kit inspections and its actually great to wear, I thought it might get a bit hot but was just perfect, I was a little damp afterwards from sweat but not excessively so and it was so worth it to keep out the cold and wind which it did a brilliant job at.

I also wore full length running tights for the first time. They were actually an impulse purchase as we have a “designer outlet” near work which have some good running shops selling last years lines (I guess) and one of these is an Asics shop which does fantastic sales. I picked up the tights for £7 and have picked up loads of shirts for around a fiver and being asics (I like their clothing) its all great quality.

The tights at first felt a bit weird but by the ed of the run (around 7 miles) I was sold.  They kept the legs warm and did away with the annoying “drag and swish” of wider tracksuit bottoms (If youve ever run in them you know what I mean) plus they dont hold water like tracksuits.

So ok Ive now worn lycra shorts and full length tights …. Im guess im sold on this running thing. Luckily I gave up on careing what I looked like many moons ago!

Met some wet looking buddies too!

 

Rainy day greens

So the holidays started officially yesterday and so I ran despite the torrential rain. I mean it was stair-rod stuff, cats n dogs, pissing it down. You know the drill. So I only did the beach and back as by the time I got there I was like a drowned rat and didn’t fancy dying of hypothermia running along the exposed beach despite it being july – its still Wales!

Wait whats that in the distance braving the storm

#spottedthehelicopter – A chinook in fact. Just noticed you can see the rain falling in the photos

The path to the beach becomes a river but everythings so so so green!

Waterfalls

So after saturdays cut short run it looks like just a blip caused by some sort of bug. I wasn’t going to run on sunday but really wanted to get a few miles in purely as I knew I’d feel better after it. So a quick 4 miles around the cliffs and I’m happy to report that the snot levels seems to indicate some sort of cold. This has been backed up by a feeling of general blurgh today. So a few days rest is called for, give the old bits n pieces time to rejuice.

I took it easy on sunday and stopped to take some photos of the waterfalls in the woods which normally I hammer past on a downhill.

Waterfalls

Old watermill next to waterfalls

As you can see from the stream we had some serious rain overnight which made it a nice muddy, squalchy run.

When the paths are streams its time to SPLASH

Thats spring weather for ya

Started tonights run in bright sunshine

But wait .. what is this ominarse looking cloud

Hey look at the bottom of the ominarse cloud, its got little rain showers out at sea

Hey look its getting closer!

At this point the light went super weird and the rain started piling down. Which wasn’t too bad as it was kind of warm anyway. The beach looked really cool but it was impossible to caputure the feeling on a camera but I tried

Best I could do!

Since I’ve grown my hair out again this is the view I get when it rains and the hair sticks to my face. Note the visibility enhancing parting.

As I was running back the sun came out so I knew it was ….. rainbow time!

4 weeks of weather all rolled into 4 miles

Old runs, new faces

Misty,rainy morning run to the beach as much to just stretch the legs as anything else as I knew the tide was on its way in.  Had a good play around the immediate area though, some hill repeats during which I found this new face

Then a hop down to the beach to get some swifter rock running in to satisfy the need to bounce around a bit.

Pausing to check on the rockfall removal process

Result – tide needs to work harder

Found a fossil for Mawil1

Looks like the remains of a big ammonite

Then off looking for a christmas tree – at the beach ofc.  It now seems to be a tradition (if a 2 year thing can be a tradition) to find my tree at the beach. I wasn’t blogging last christmas so I don’t think last years tree made it here, I’ll have to see if I can find a photo.

But here is this years effort!

I am officially the worlds worst tree decorator (to be fair thats all I have to decorate it with) but considering I ran nearly 3 miles with the very heavy and unweidly thing I ofc love it

 

Free Stuff! Not for you … for me!

Registered today for the Hoka Trail Half so I can have an extra half hour in bed tomorrow. It’s only a half hour drive so no rush anyway but it settled a few nerves anyway. By now you’ll know (as I’ve been banging on about it forever it seems) it’s my first event of any description so now it’s real.

The bad news is the utterly atrocious Welsh weather – What, did we think we would get away with a trail half marathon in Wales in February without getting wet? it’s not only raining it’s positively evil out there a solid wall of drizzle and gusting winds too.

I signed my name on the dotted line (I exaggerate – the guy crossed me off his list with a highlighter pen) picked up my goodie bag and strolled back off into the rain. Inside my bag was a t-shirt and sun visor! Yes indeed they will come in handy tomorrow!  Nah only joking, I didn’t expect anything at all so it’s a nice touch by Hoka.

Yay for free stuff!

The event itself is at Margam Park which I haven’t been to for many years (maybe since our sixth form party ended in a riot over 20 years ago) so it was nice to have a quick look around.

Margam Castle itself is quite pretty (But not what i’d call a castle to be honest – Where’s the battlements, arrow slits and murder holes?)  Spot the mist hanging above it …

 

That mist is hiding the forested hills of the park itself which i’m going to be going up and over tomorrow!

Oh and of course I nearly forgot my bib number!  So if you happen to be freezing to death at Margam park tomorrow and see number 656 then give me some encouragement – I think i’ll need it!

Will catch you on the flipside tomorrow for celebrations (I hope)