Recently I’ve been experiencing the Monday night blues due to a meeting that I regularly have at the start of the week. The effect of this has lessened over time, and yet it still surprises me when I reflect back on a Tuesday morning.
Exercise is often an antidote to low moods and my hope was that by having a run this morning I would get my mojo back for the rest of the week… we’ll see if it works.
In the meantime I feel happy that I’ve managed a run each week this month. albeit short and on the machine.
Sending you positive vibes to help you get past your low points 🙂
I woke up early this morning and have been reading whilst drinking two quadspressos. This involved dipping into a few of my books, and reviewing some of my teaching slides, in order to help connect my head to ideas around an interesting work challenge.
I had already planned to go for a short run so it was easy to get on the machine and go. Nothing spectacular, but it has been nice to see my resting heart rate come tumbling down over the last couple of weeks, since my first run this year, and I’m keen to help it stay relatively low.
The morning was cold and overcast, but the sun has now come out… I don’t have answers to my challenge, per se, but I do feel in a better frame of mind to be able to collaborate and help work the problem 🙂
Okay, so I’ve managed to get back on the running machine 🙂
Despite the lack of runs, I have been feeling generally fitter lately than maybe last year. One small indicator of this is that I park my car at the top of a hill at work, such that I get exercise when I’m going home. When I started parking in this location last year my legs were often burning by the time I reached the car, but lately I’ve been able to power up the hill with relative ease.
Kim was out super-early to a meeting up-country this morning. I remember that my Dad used to regularly drive to Rugby from the south coast, to do a day’s work, before driving home again in the evening. Bizarrely, I suspect that it was probably an easier journey back then, even without the M25 to zoom (?) around.
I had been needing another run, so it seemed like a good opportunity to capitalise on, though I almost had second thoughts to just run on the machine… or relax into a third quadspresso! My mind did at least (sensibly) stop me from setting out in the dark!
Just under 2 miles around the block in just under 20 minutes. The first mile up the hill (66 foot of height gain) at 10.07/mile and the return at 9.35/mile, which I seem to have seen regularly before.
Obviously quite focused as I forgot to take any photos 🙁
It seemed like a good idea at the time that I packed my runners for trip to Dubai.
However, I think it might have been better to have got out earlier in the morning to actually use them, before the temperature had risen to 35 degrees. I have great respect for Mister Broom, on all sorts of levels, but not least that he often runs (rather quickly) in the searing heat of Dubai!
By comparison I merely jogged out and down to the marina, then followed the curvy path past the myriad skyscrapers (including the one topped by our two-storey penthouse for the week), before seeking the shade on the beach side… at which point I relented and walked back!
Okay, so I was running around the local ‘hood again, and not deep in the woods at all.
But the neurons in my head have been firing up nicely recently, to first compose a piece of guitar music that even the amazing Lucas Cook might approve of, and to then put some half-decent words to it (my first new song lyrics since the beginning of 2022).
The words reference a place on the western edge of Washington State called La Push where lush rainforest gives way to a bright beach that takes the full force of the Pacific and regularly collects the remnants of waterlogged trees the size of articulated lorries.
Deep in the woods at the edge of the world
There’s a place where the waves come thundering in
Some that are blue, some that are tall
And some that come crashing to the surprise of us all
et al, la, la
My head has been full of other stuff too, recently, so I really needed a run this morning. It really wasn’t an appealing thought, as I sat in the teahouse with my coffee, but the sun was out in full force and I pushed on out the door.
I stuck to the short circuit so I could get back to my desk, but just over 2 miles in 19:31, 9.42 mins/mile, is a really good pace for me 🙂
Sitting in the teahouse this morning was really lovely, quadspresso in hand, listening to the waterfall gently splishing.
Running has been on my mind recently, for all of the reasons I mentioned a few weeks ago and this morning the planets aligned to actually make it happen.
My now-normal short circuit is just sufficient to keep me exercised, but today I added a short exploratory loop which marginally increased the distance… breaking a cognitively-limiting pattern.
In other news, I’ve lost count of the age of my running shoes, but they are still surprisingly comfortable, despite the slowly deconstructing inners and the only-distant memory of splodge. However, the guys at Run would not approve and I really must visit them soon to confess my sins & make amends 🙂
2.25 miles in 22:23 , 9.55 mins/mile, is not a bad pace for me, and I even look as if I’m enjoying it more than last time 🙂