Day 258 - cold to the core

Type - Steady run

Distance - 11 miles

Time - 1 hour 32 minutes and 14 seconds

Sunday. A day of rest? Not for the next sixteen weeks as I devote Sunday mornings to my long run. It makes sense to concentrate these on a Sunday - at least then the body will be used to being put through its paces on the seventh day, and will not complain as much when it is forced around a 26.2 mile course of central London three months hence.

I headed into central London for today's run (map). My neck of the woods is still completely snow and, more dangerously, ice bound, and I was pretty certain that the river run would be free of the worst of the snow. I was right. Apart from the distinctly Siberian wind chill from a stiff easterly wind you would not be able to tell that the UK was in the grip of its worst winter for decades from the clear pavements of Holborn. But it is still cold. Very cold. Literally freezing, and, as I put on my winter clothing I think that this just isn't enough. I have two tops, a shortsleeve base layer and a long sleeved top over that. I have my compression shorts and socks which pretty much cover my legs but for an inch gap on the knee, with a pair of normal shorts over that. Gloves and a forehead warmer finish off the look, and that is about the extent of my winter clothing.

And for the most part it seemed that this was exactly the right balance of clothing. But by the end of the run my legs felt frozen solid and my private parts had become very private indeed by receding almost completely inside my body. It did seem to adversely affect my performance for the last four miles of the run - my legs were a dull, leaden heaviness different from the normal tired or pained feeling.

Other than that the run went well. I was running at a slower pace than the pre-training training, averaging between 8.5 and 9 minutes per mile. I did feel like I could have gone on after the end of the run.