Rad Road Reps South-West Side

(There were lots more whippets than this)

You wouldn't want to be suffering from seasonal affective disorder this year, that's for sure. Well into May and the sun's disappeared again. When I got up and saw another cold, rainy, windy, grey day I could have spat. Not enjoying the new ice age in the least.

I grumpily did some stuff I had to do on the computer. When Peter surfaced the question of what and where to run arose. We'd thought about going to the Pentlands but the thought of going out there in this unwelcoming cold didn't appeal.

I remembered seeing a girl doing reps on the easy side of the rad road a few weeks ago. First of all I thought "LOSER that's the easy side!" Then on further reflection I realised it was quite a good idea. The SW side of the rad road has a much nicer angle than the NE.

So today's plan was to run round Arthur's Seat the usual way but instead of coming home when we got round the top road we were to do 5 reps of the easy side of the rad road. Peter thought he might do 6. In the event I think he actually did 7. But I did take a bit of time out to take my long sleeved top off as things heated up.

The first one was the quickest but probably felt the worst. Within a few seconds my legs were feeling empty and I was having to blow out hard to get enough oxygen back into my lungs to keep my legs moving. I've taken to wearing my Polar HRM on my left wrist with my Garmin on the right. I got some ECG gel for the chest strap and it's giving me consistent and believable readings which I'm finding ever so reassuring. I tried putting on my Garmin HRM before coming out today as this would cut down on the need for gadgets but the numbers were flicking around all over the place. I put the Polar one on and got nice steady understandable readings. I don't know why this should be. Anyway, at last I'm seeing numbers that I can relate to. On the uphills my HR was rising to 167 which used to be about average for a park run - so I figured 5K effort is good enough and it stopped me giving myself a hard time for running slowly.

I don't really want to say this in case it turns out not to be true, but lately I've been feeling like I'm getting better. I feel more like an ordinary unfit runner than someone who has something wrong with them. Fingers crossed.

After the reps we were both in better fettle than before. It's amazing what a shot of self-induced suffering can do for your mood. We jogged back via Hunter's Bog. There was a woman there with what appeared to be a herd of whippets, all with bells on. It seemed unlikely but we both saw it so I guess it was probably real.