I was working from home again today, I try to do this every Friday. I got up early intending (honestly) to start my day with a run. But I sat down with my first-thing-in-the-morning coffee and started watching the recordings of the World Athletics Championships that have been clogging up my Sky+ hard drive, and that was that.

It's been quite a week work-wise and the longer the day went on, the less keen I became on the whole idea of running. The weather going all schizo didn't help, either. Bright blue skies with gale force winds (which decimated my roses, goddammit), greyness with not a breath of wind. I couldn't work it out at all. What I do know is I'm no good with a headwind.

I cycled into work yesterday and then got the bus home because the wind was blowing the wrong way. Seriously. What's so utterly unfair is that having a wind behind you doesn't make cycling or running easier by the same margin that a wind in your face slows you down. Particularly when I got onto the seafront there was a significant wind this evening. It kept all the...let's call them detritus... off the beach and was on my back on the outward journey. I hit 5k in 26 minutes, which was quite good.

And then I turned around to come back. The 6th and 7th kilometres, back along the seafront into the wind (it really was windy, there were windsurfers and people dangling from huge great parachutes and yachts and everything) were, frankly, hellish. My pace slipped to way over 6 minutes per kilometre, almost 7 for a while. People I was embarrassed to be overtaken by were overtaking me.

Then I left the seafront proper and the wind somehow was coming from the left for a bit, and then as I headed North for the final couple of k home, IT WAS IN MY FACE AGAIN! How is this possible? I'm not svelte, but I hardly think I'm of the size to generate my own personal microclimate.

Anyway, the last 2k I managed to find something from somewhere, because this turned out to be a fairly decent 10k lasting 54 minutes and 50 seconds. Not exactly Earth shattering, but I nearly didn't bother at all, so I am feeling quietly chuffed.

It's the Shoreham Airshow this weekend, which basically means we can't drive anywhere. This will either mean some cycling to the shops and things, or a full on vegetative state. I'm committing myself to nothing and the only target I have set myself for tomorrow is to remember to do the lottery. There are, after all, limits and this is supposed to be fun. Have a great weekend.