......probably rain

This Saturday, Vinny, Richard G and I met up at the NSC at 8. The weather was as miserable as ever with intermittent rain being driven by strong winds from the south west. Weather like this seems to have become the 'norm' at the moment and it makes training a little bit tedious. A glimmer of hope was offered by a TV weatherman on Friday who suggested that after today, Monday, (gales, rain, wintry showers etc......) the weather would become more like that 'of a normal February.' Upon mentioning this gem of forecasting to Vinny, he reminded me that February's normal version of the weather is rain. So, not much of a change then other than the rain being vertical rather than horizontal.
Training in this sort of weather is always a juggling act of trying to keep warm and dry whilst not over dressing and becoming too warm. It is all too easy to go one way or the other: we have all seen people walking along the road with a hi vis jacket tied around their waist. Conversely, when you get too cold we are more susceptible to muscle injuries.
Looking for a different route than the usual ones, we headed west on Braddan road and out to Crosby via Mount Rule into the prevailing wind and rain. On this road, I was glad I had had the forethought to wear skins rather than shorts as the wind and rain was pretty ferocious and in combination with the cold air temperature was making it a struggle to get and stay warm. We got a few minutes of respite when this road turns down towards the crossroads on Peel Road and we were no longer exposed to the elements.
The rain remained intermittent as we headed south  until we reached the Orrisdale Road south of Saint Marks. We took this road and then followed the Parish Walk route backwards towards Douglas. To add a couple of more miles, we went along Marine Drive. So although it was a fairly uneventful walk of 19 miles, I was glad to get home to thaw out in the shower!
We saw very few others out training but given the hideousness of the weather, that wasn't surprising. We probably got some odd looks from passing motorists as we trudged through the soggy Manx countryside but I didn't notice as I was focussing on avoiding the next puddle.
On Mondays,  our son Stephen goes to racewalk training on the track at the NSC. While he was busy, I took opportunity to run a few steady laps around the perimeter road which is exactly 0.5 miles. It was raining.
In July this year (19th I think), the Millennium Way Relay is being resurrected and I fancy having a go at one of the 4 legs so I plan to do a bit of cross training as the Parish mileage starts to ramp up. This will improve my general fitness and I know of other walkers who also do some running as an aid to general fitness.
The long range forecast for this event is......