I ran a 10k race today. It was 28 degrees on the course and by about 3k I knew I’d have no hope of shaving 6 mins of my PB of 56 minutes.

By 4k, and after having watched the elite men nearly finished at 7.5k on the other side of the road, I was happy just to finish. I’m not sure I can say I enjoyed any of it which is a first for me.

I actually turned in a 59 minute time which is pretty okay. I was gutted initially but then realised about two thousand people didn’t even finish and decided to be less hard on myself. Frustratingly, I was on target and reached 7k at 38 minutes but the lack of shade and high temperatures finally got to me. It took me 21 minutes to do that final 3k. It was also pretty sweet to run part of the Olympic road race course and head up the Pall to finish with all the union jacks up.

Still, now I have a week off – boyfriend’s orders – and a chance to train up to the Run to the Beat half in late October. It might well rain for that one but I’ll be grateful to not be running in such high temperatures for a while.

Big kudos to my fellow running partners Soraya and Jo. We’ll smash the next one ladies!

I’m loving the mix of textures in both of these and especially like the irreverent mix of bird print sweatshirts with smart tweed and a cute belt that Burberry pulled off. Gorgeous.

Images from Style.com

Images from Style.com

Full on, puddle making, cold, in your face rain. Grim as. I suppose it makes up for the light and sunny sprint session on Thursday morning.

I got chilly, my face got sore and my legs got wet. On the plus side, I got to test out the waterproof-ness of my Casall running vest and it passed with flying colours.

I need to get used to the idea that when I actually race, it might be in the rain. In fact, in May and October, it’s more than likely it will be raining. So all good preparation really.

A few things I learnt:

• You don’t need a fancy waterproof bag or waistpack for your phone or ipod. A freezer bag with a well placed hole for headphones works just as well.
• Get some kind of hat or visor. Rain in your eyes is actually pretty distracting.
• You’ll be colder than you think. Wear a thin, sweat wicking, long sleeved top rather than a t-shirt.
• If you avoid proper puddles, your feet won’t get wet.
• Get in the shower asap and bundle on the sweats. You need to get back to warmth asap.

My GPS tracking seemed to fail at about 35 mins in so it was more difficult to keep pace but, all in all, a 7.4km tempo run in the rain isn’t too bad. Happy Sunday!

Clements Ribeiro

Images from Style.com

Mulberry

Images from Style.com

I’m one of those people who love every season. Apart from when it rains – that makes me miserable. Luckily, it hasn’t rained much yet.

This week, without even realising, I’ve made that shift in my head. So far I’ve:

• Moved over from summer berries, muesli and yogurt breakfasts to cinnamon and date porridge. I’m eating it with apple, hazelnuts and almonds too.
• Got me some Adventure tea from Yumchaa. It’s a gorgeous caffeine free red tea blend of rooibos, rose hips, apple, almond, kiwi, hibiscus, caramel and spices.
• Moved over to red wine. The rosé and white are done for a while.
• Put the window insulation up. I have two sets of french doors in my room so they need some work to help keep me toasty.
• Turned the heating on.
• Put away the summer sandals and short sleeve blouses and bought out the thermals and heavy duty knits.
• Started wearing knee socks, leggings and a sweatshirt to bed.
• Well and truly killed off my plants. I was rubbish at looking after them anyway but now the cold snap has finished them off.
• Started thinking about making Christmas chutney. It needs some time to get better so I’ll do this soon.

Bring on winter! Mulled wine, ginger and orange tea and ice skating. Amazing.