The Blustery Day

OK, the really blustery day was yesterday, when the evening brought gale-force winds to our part of the world and in our living room we could hardly hear anything over the noise of the wind and rain, but this morning I still experienced a fair bit of a breeze on my run and started thinking about running in the wind: How much does it affect your performance? I know that a blustery day is probably my least favourite condition to run in - give me a downpour any day over running against a stiff breeze. Of course, it's ok if you are running with the wind, but when you are against it and your clothes are flapping around, your hair blowing in your face and the resistance is making you work harder for your mileage it's not good.

Unfortunately my favoured routes for long(ish) distances are all along the waterfront, where the wind is most severe. When I heard the gales last night I initially thought I might put off my run today, but this morning was bright and clear and the only trees I could see from my window didn't seem to be thrashing about too wildly, so I set off for my 10 miles and it was only when I crossed the bridge over the river that the full extent of the bluster became apparent. Although it's a terrible picture above, you might just be able to see how much the wind was moving the water about. I did a pretty lousy time for this run, my longest distance since Athens, and have decided the wind is a good excuse for it feeling so hard.