Snoozy tromping

When I started my last company, I would quite often feel tired during the day and developed the knack of having forty winks, sitting upright at my desk with my back to the office.  My staff quickly cottoned on to what I was doing and used to fire elastic bands at my head, but they were either too scared or too poor a shot to ever hit me!  Ten or twenty minutes would usually suffice to take the edge off a heavy-eyelid moment and I could then work on with a clear head.

This ability was very useful when commuting on busy trains as I could quickly escape from the journey and I was even able to zone out when standing up.

Thinking my alarm was about to go off, I leapt out of bed an hour early this morning and have been heavy-lidded ever since.  Even running!

My nose took me out around the south-west of the town this morning, running on gravel paths and largely baked-hard mud.  Despite the surface making for a more efficient run, my tiredness made it harder work and I merely tromped along and kept a steady pace.  At the half hour mark I emerged onto a deserted road and had to walk for five minutes, my heart not being completely in it.

From there, rather than be intrepid, I ran straight back through the middle of town, probably scaring the early morning commuters half to death in my shorts.  Despite inclement weather and a more than slight disinterest in running, it was an interesting run as I was able to look at all the lovely houses along the route.

I got back in 52 minutes, a few minutes before the torrential rain started and whilst normally the rain wouldn’t bother me, this morning I was glad… it would have just about finished me off!  I dozed my way through a couple of pieces of toast and a cup of tea and then measured my progress on the map.  6.1 miles.

It really is amazing how you get used to recording slow times when you run cross-country a lot… and surprising when you get back onto a hard surface.  Even including the very slow five minute walk, I managed an average speed of 7mph.  Take the walk out and I had run at 7.7mph.  And I had only been tromping.

No wonder I had to have a snooze at my desk before I started writing this!