Is This When it Gets Difficult?

Week 4 completed. Fourteen weeks to go.

Is this when it gets difficult? This week's long run of 15(.5) kilometres* (not quite 10 miles) was pretty hard. 

It was a beautiful day. You can't see the boats but there were loads of sails up on the Clontarf bay.

 Two weeks ago the grass was green. It hasn't rained in a month so things have got a bit crunchy. It didn't bother all the people chilling out on the grass, reading. I tried not to photograph any in case they wouldn't have liked that.

These two tracks up there have been created by runners and walkers, not cars. They are the reason I run there. Oh, and the sea breeze and wide open space.

I used to rent an apartment in that house. On the second floor where the big circular window is. It's 30m from water.

Time to turn around. It was low tide; the greenery you see there is not grass, it's seaweed. It all gets covered in water during high tide. During low tide, one can see people in their wellies digging for somethig. It may be mussels. I saw a dead dog there once, covered in seaweed. Maybe it was just seaweed shaped like a dog.

 

These flowers belong to the pea family, I believe. I found them right near the midpoint of my run. They don't seem to mind the lack of rain.

This route is there-and-back. I normally prefer a circular route where I don't have to double back but I am yet to find one that is not entirely pavement. The only issue with this particular route is that on the way out, the wind blows right in my face but on the way back it's from behind so it's not as cooling. I was seriously thirsty afterwards. I had brought a little 250ml bottle of water with me but I guess it was not enough.

The entire 15.5km took me 1h 40m. My last kilometres were all over 7min/km. It was just so hot

Weekend long runs get longer from now on and midweek longish runs will also lengthen. I am still injury-free and I have no new blisters. Once the heat is over my times may start to improve.

*kilometres are what the French call miles.