Yasso's 800 and why you shouldn't run when sunburnt

My body has been feeling out of whack ever since I got burnt. I'm lethargic, grumpy, lazy, and in pain. So it was with much effort that I dragged myself to the stretch of road near my home to do a few laps yesterday evening.

I haven't done anything for four days. No cycling, no walking, no running, and there was the freakish long run this weekend looming over me like a curse. I squeezed into my sports clothes -- I hate running bras even more when I'm burnt -- brought a bottle of water, and tried out Yasso's 800. (Yasso's 800 is a pretty nifty way of training for the marathon. Basically you want to train to be able to do ten 800m in the same "time" as you want to do for the marathon, for example a 4:30hr requires you to do it 4:30mins.)

I chose a straight stretch with a short hill at the end of it, and I estimated 800m to be two laps of that stretch. So I started running... and felt weird straight away. My muscles weren't co-ordinated and I felt like I couldn't sweat properly. I thought I had just lost muscle mass and fitness because of the last four days so I perservered. First lap 4:55; Second lap 4:42; Third lap 5:07. I was pooped and my shoulders were stinging.

And then I noticed them. Hundreds of water-filled bumps all over my arm, my shoulder, and the back of my legs. The sweat had collected under my burnt skin and was unable to get out! The skin was slimy to the touch.. horrible! So I went home immediately, got into the shower and scrubbed myself with a wash-cloth, which left me looking like a multi-layer scratch-and-guess-what-colour-you-get-for-a-prize card.

(I have a picture of the bumps, but to keep this blog from becoming a compendium of awful pictures of skin abnormalities, I'm refraining from posting it.)

(I've changed my mind because I am more macabre than I am vain. For the foolhardy...



Sweat bubbles under burnt skin.


I am multi-coloured, are you?


see the pictures here!)