Wind assisted tempo run

What an interesting morning for a run ... (!!!)

My program called for 14.8km with 7km @ 15km pace so despite the temptation to pike out due to the weather, I headed out at 6.05am in very, very windy conditions. I ran towards the Narrows for my warm up so that the tempo part of my run would be largely with the wind on the city side of the river. 4.2km warmup straight into the wind and then 6.73km (checked it on Map My Run) in 26.13 (3.53/km). The wind was gusty and it wasn't always behind me (particularly towards the end) so I am relatively pleased with this even though it was a little short distance-wise.

All up 14.8km in 67 minutes (4.31/km) which is pretty solid given that on the way back, the winds really reached their peak (about 125km/hr). At one stage, it was so strong that despite the fact that I had my head down and was working as hard as I could, I don't think I was much above normal walking pace if that. It was almost like running with a bungy cord attached to you pulling you backwards.

A bit of rain about but the only time I thought "this was a stupid idea" was when I was running under trees which were being blown nearly horizontal in spots where there have been some pretty big boughs blown down in the past.

Glad I got it in though as the alternative would have been doing it tonight after work. 21.5km medium long run tomorrow before taking it a little bit easier for the remainder of the week (12.8km easy run on Thursday instead of the usual 16km and obviously no Saturday long run) with the Relay Marathon on Sunday. The forecast is looking promising, just hope the wind is minimal.