So week two and the end of another summer holiday, time to get the brochures for next year….ok, I mean get on ‘tinterweb….when’s the last time you looked at a brochure! Seems an eternity since you trooped off to the travel agent and scooped up as many brochures as you could carry without incurring a slipped disc. Still, there was something purposeful about a pot of coffee and a kitchen table covered in holiday brochures. Now you have to endure being stalked across the web by a hotel you merely ‘glanced’ at online that you probably didn’t even like and discounted before you even got started on trip advisor.

Having a room on a hillside means I’ve been hill climbing and stair training all week. Even the hubster has remarked that his calves hurt. So as I’ve had 2 recent physio sessions for a torn calf incurred around a month ago, maybe this is great rehab. I’m hoping this will all make the Great North Run seem less hilly. Just out of the main hotel building is ‘heartbreak hill’ it’s funny watching people almost come to a natural standstill while trying to walk up it and coming back down in your heels is a real challenge. At the end of my run I’ve tried to sprint up and down it a couple of times. It leaves my backside screaming so I know it’s doing the job!

Heartbreak Hill up on the left, its waaaaaay steeper than it looks here!

I managed three runs each week, same as at home. Not enough to mitigate the gradually increasing damage of an all inclusive bonanza but enough to ensure my legs remember that they belong to a runner and will be expected to run a half marathon as close to 2 hours as possible in 9 days time ! The race photos will be different, my belly will be flabbier and my legs will be browner. I could have probably got a better effect with two weeks intensive ab training and a bottle of San Tropez!

Funny things though 2 week holidays, you take them for a break in routine and what do you do but settle into a new routine that’s just slower paced.

Run, shower, breakfast, coffee on the terrace, yoga by the beach or under the palm trees in the garden, ‘shade bathe’ ……I’m not good in full sun, sea swim, dry off, lunch, cards, shade bathing and kindle reading, cocktail, swim, dry off and cruise into the evening…..actually now I read that back it sounds lovely, can I stay another week or two?

I finished my running on a 10km along the cost to Kardamena, the nearest small town. We’d been for a family visit on the local bus just for a change of scenery, an ice cream and a chance for my daughters to fleece me for ‘designer’ handbags of extremely dubious provenance ( they look pretty convincing though). Always fun to see who the poor ripped off designer of the season is, this year it’s poor old Micheal Kors that’s keeping the fraudsters busy.

I had already run to the start of Kardamena on an earlier run without realising it, just another half mile along the water front took me to the centre.The humidity is right down this week but the wind is blowing a gale instead, it means no more sweaty knees. In all my time running, it’s never been so humid that my already ugly knees have sent rivers of sweat running down my shins.

I just wanted a Kardamena selfie to take back and boast to the fam that I’d run to where we had caught a bus. Sadly all I got are the usual hoots of laughter that I can’t take selfies and have to watch as they do impressions of ‘middle aged’ selfie taking and texting……ok so I text with my index finger, not thumbs……who’s with me !

A middle aged selfie in Kardamena, Kos

This last 10km was a tough one. It’s a long distance to go pre breakfast. I made sure I had pasta for dinner ( well that was just my starter) so I figured I’m probably eating enough to fuel a daily marathon. Just a swig of water and off I went. I’m well beyond the ‘crutch’ of a water bottle, I carry water under duress. Yes it’s warmer and more humid than I’m used to but I’m out 1 hour and then I know water is plentiful. It’s a good way to train your body. If you occasionally run (6 times then in my case ) in a ‘fasted’ state, so that would be before brekkie, your body has to learn to fuel the run from harder to reach stores and it should help you become a better fat burning machine. Hhhmmmm looking at me last day in my bikini I think my body needs to try a bit harder!

I solved the ‘chub rub’ issue making the extra distance possible. I couldn’t find the Vaseline lip balm in the early morning but scanning the messy apocathery that has been created in the bathroom, I did find coconut hair oil. Sssssshhhhh it’s a secret, the teenmonsters don’t know I’ve been spreading a bit of this between my thighs of a morning. But seeing as I know they’d never read these middle aged ramblings, my secret is safe with you! It did the job a treat and smelled lovely. Maybe I didn’t need to order ‘body glide’ after all.

I’m proud of the amount of sea swimming I’ve done, twice a day, every day. I rarely sea swim, I grew up with Jaws for gods sake. But here, it’s so clear, so warm and so inviting, I’ve loved it. I never put my head in though, I can’t swim like I would in the pool, I can’t stand the salt water, I just don’t know how all these people do it, throwing themselves headlong in. I’d never be an open water sea swimmer. I deliberately didn’t go to see the new film ‘The Shallows’ before I came ! I’ll miss the sea so much as Nottingham is so land locked, any coastline is a treat. But this one is gorgeous.

My blogging hideaway

Right, I’ve a plane to catch, an iconic half marathon to get my head round and real life to zone back into. Ciao for now X

Categories: Holiday running, Ladies of a Certain Age Running (LCA)

Tags: beach running, heatwave, Kardamena, Kos