Your skin is waterproof!

What a glorious feeling!

Our group training session is on a Monday night and so last night we met at the normal time of 6.30pm in various states of dress. What should you wear when it's raining? The general consensus was shorts and t shirt because we figured we were going to get soaked to the skin anyway and so more would definitely be more in terms of carrying weight. Those extra layers may be light when they're dry but add in the moisture and they soon start to feel heavy and uncomfortable and so it was that we carried out our session of 8 minutes tempo followed by 6 X 2 mins fast in minimum clothing with the rain tumbling down - and it was a lot of fun splashing through the puddles!

The group has a wide range of abilities and fitness levels and so I wondered if the weather would affect some more than others. Would the runners moving more slowly find it any more difficult in the conditions or would those who were hammering round at the front find it difficult to take the corners in the wet and feel frustrated at slowing down or slip? The original plan had been for a session of running drills and shorter efforts but this was abandoned because of the conditions.

The session went well and was great fun. Everyone seemed to find the rain refreshing. We were all completely soaked at the end (with rain rather than sweat which makes a change from how training has been over the last few weeks) and we seem to have received an equal amount of rain. When I was a teenager I did a milk round and the milkman used to tell me that, if I got wet in the rain, it was because I wasn't running fast enough. Apparently Billy Whizz from the Beano avoids rain drops because he runs so fast! I found this calculator when I got home.  You can work out how wet you will get when running in the rain! It's a bit of fun if nothing else!

No one was cold after the session but we avoided hanging around to chat or stretch so that everyone could get home and dry with no danger of feeling chilly. As I peeled myself out of my clothes when I got back I smiled as I thought of the amount of wet kit that washing machines around Manchester would be dealing with in the morning....it's no better today either so tonight is going to feel like deja vu!