Into August now, but no-one seems to have told the weather, although to be fair today’s been OK. I’m happy with the cooler temperatures, but could do without the torrential rain. Even Ninja cat, who normally lives in the garden in the summer, has taken to staying indoors for extended periods.
On Wednesday we had the annual-ish club “Run-Bike-Run” event, which thanks to a combination of bad timing and a pandemic break I’ve never actually done before. It basically involves a 6.2 mile bike ride sandwiched between two runs of around 1.5 and 2.4 miles, followed by some food and drink. The twist is that there’s a set finish time, and the “winner” is the last person to set off and still make it back before the cut-off. I decided to ride to Felixstowe, which added 11 or so miles beforehand, and arrived soaked to the skin. Fortunately the rain eased off for the event itself, and despite thinking I’d started a bit too late I was a couple of minutes inside the cutoff (but so were plenty of people who’d started later!)
At some point I managed to pick up a slow puncture, and after finishing the run realised that my back tyre was flat. I couldn’t locate either the puncture or anything sticking through the tyre, so fitted a spare tube and attempted to pump it up, only to realise that the brand new tube had a hole in it ?. Fortunately I managed to scrounge a lift home with my bike in the back of Nicola’s car.
On Friday night a few of us went to see Band of Mold, a local covers band, based on Robin and Jo vaguely knowing the guitarist. They were entertaining enough, although there was hardly anyone there, and we had enough beer to make getting up for parkrun more of a chore than usual.
No racing this weekend, so a chance for a proper long slow run (well, not that long) on Sunday. This time I met up with Holly, which made it much less boring than running alone for a couple of hours. I ended up giving myself the short straw by planning a route that came back into her side of town, leaving me around three miles to plod home on my own, for a total of 15 miles.