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Wind in my Sails

February 9, 2020 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
The cross country meet this morning was canceled on account of 20mph sustained winds with up to 50-60mph gusts. Personally I don't think I ever experienced any gusts nearly that strong, but the wind was a constant force to be reckoned with. Or harnessed. I chose the latter. Given how comprehensive public transit is here, why both running all the way back? So I headed the north and west with the wind at my tail. Most of the time it simply felt like there was no air in front of me, like the atmosphere had miraculously become frictionless. But at certain moments, I savored the feeling of being pushed along. I kept up at sub-7 pace in two of the initial 3 warm-up miles, the 7:40ish pace for the next 6 as I'd intended, and then 6:30-6:40 for much of the next 7 miles with a couple of slower exceptions. I finally reached my goal, Epping Forest, just in time to begin the final 3 miles at marathon pace. By this time, however, my body was pretty beat. The ground was surprisingly firm, but it was hillier than I'd been used to and the cushioning effects of dirt compared to concrete made my muscles have to work more. I went from 6:10 to 6:30 to 6:50, but I'm still proud of how hard I pushed. Finally, when my watch said 19 miles I stagged over to fence post and stood there gasping for a minute, my first time all run not in motion. I then began a very slow and plodding 3 miles back to the nearest commuter rail station. Mercifully, I forgot to restart my watch, so I'll never know just how slow that last part was. It was into the wind as well, but I was mostly on forest trails so the trees shielded me from it.

I should have gone home at this point, but then I remembered that today is the Sunday Market on Brick Lane where you can get ALL THE FOODS. With all the trips I have planned between now and my return to the States in mid-April, I have only a few Sundays in London left so I decided the chance to eat Jamaican and Burmese food side-by-side was too good to pass up. The temperature had been in the 50s when I started so I was only wearing a cotton T-shirt and shorts. The light drizzle that persisted throughout the first 2 hours had turned to an intense downpour as I was finishing the cooldown, leaving me thoroughly soaked. How long till the cold set in? We would see.

I got off the train in the East End and ran the final mile to Brick Lane where I took shelter in Beigel Bake, London's oldest bagel shop. In addition to a plain bagel with salt beef, their specialty, I ordered a cup of hot soup which helped warm me. It occurred to me I hadn't eaten yet today. I then made my way through the market, stopping and buying hot meals at the Korean, Lithuanian, Singaporean, and Somoli street food stands, plus a plate of vegan mac and cheese (out of curiosity, I'm not vegetarian), some Portuguese pastries, a Montreal-NYC-hybrid-style bagel run by Scotsman, chocolate cake, Turkish delights, a vegan brownie (again, surprisingly good). Plus a couple bottles of water. You see why I had to come here, right? Even if, as I made my way home by Lime bike in rain, I had to clench my jaw to keep my teeth for loudly chattering? The rest of the afternoon was spent doing abs, showers, running logs, and gnoshing.