Observations of an occasional runner
It feels like the end of the summer… and also that my head needed a clear out from all the critical priorities juggling for position.
The morning was bright and still, with a vague mist forming in places to hint at the approaching change in season.
Just under 2 miles around the block in just under 20 minutes… 10.17/mile out and 9.37/mile back… 9.56/mile average.
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 🙂
I woke up too early this morning, with a head full of work.
Early enough to do my yoga set, then sit in the teahouse with a coffee, reading an old copy of New Scientist, and then sit playing my guitar whilst drinking a second cup.
All of which was a huge diversion tactic to put off going for a run.
Cognitively kicking & screaming, I eventually ventured out of the door.
I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for it to be a particularly fulfilling run, so instead it was just hard graft (which you can see from the pic below).
Mind you, I did at least notice that it was a lovely warm day… and that a whole series of people returned my passing greeting 🙂
1.97 miles in 20 minutes (I’m still not sure how the same route can vary in distance by so much from one week to the next!) and still back before 8am.
Reminder of some reasons not to run:
Don’t have time, don’t feel like it.
And of some reasons to run:
Sleep better,, lower resting heart rate, more positive, more alert, think both more clearly and more creatively, cognitive input from the local neighbourhood, more to write about, better able to run next time.
Today’s run was slow and hard work, but in a comfortable way… that is, I wasn’t gasping for air at any point!
2.01 miles in 20.48 🙂
My work is often intense, with a seemingly constant flow of overlapping messy problems to break down. Most people will be aware that I love messy problems, but in the same way that hoisting too many juggling balls airborne makes it likely that they will all fall to the floor, there is a threshold where even a series of enjoyable cognitive pressures turn into uncomfortable stress.
Right now I feel as if I have four juggling balls in the air (which I can only manage for a short time, and then only as two pairs) and whilst I relish the challenge, I seem to be working in that place where just one more pressure will bring everything to the floor.
Outside of work hours I’m currently pretty brain-dead and whilst I know that running helps my mind to work more effectively, the motivation is often lacking.
My work colleague Chris gave my mind a gentle jog yesterday when he went out for a run at lunchtime, before making good use of the showers that hide somewhere in our labyrinthine building. It seems that I’m not the only one struggling to keep the running neurons in play by trying to weave in the occasional short run.
At a mile in 9.34 on the running machine this morning, my run was shorter and way less interesting than his, but I feel glad that I stepped up.
Now to cool down & shower before I get back to the extreme cognitive exercise that is my work day!
No, that’s not a typo, just poor word play 🙂
One of the challenges of the current remote-working zeitgeist is the potential growth of reluctance to venture out.
This was my feeling ahead of a barn dance last weekend and on one level I would happily have stayed home. However, the draw of seeing my best friends, en masse, won the day and I had a really fun evening.
Randomly flinging myself around is a good description of my normal dancing and it was nice to be on a dance floor where others had little more body control than me… and where that uncoordinated mess of misdirected human limbs was not just accepted, but was also being enjoyed! Oh my!… how we laughed!
A subsequent decrease in resting heart rate suggested that it was generally good for my health, although the exertion could easily have resulted in a heart attack, methinks!
Fast forward to this morning. Although I felt equally reluctant to go for a run, I had cleared the space around the running machine (yes, again, for those of you eagle-eyed readers who know that I did this only recently) and had just enough time to run and cool down before my meetings started at 9am.
A quick mile took just under 9:30 and I felt much better for it 🙂
As normal, the more time that elapses from my previous run, the harder it is to get out to do the next one. But it was a beautiful spring morning and this just tipped the balance 🙂
The grass-cutters have been out (a mix of local authority and locals, I suspect, given the attention to detail) and the area really had that well-heeled look that I remember from the first time I came to look at the house, more than 15 years ago now.
I think that people in government must underestimate the power of the simple things that directly affect the people who they hope will vote for them. Long-term readers will know that grass verges are a subject that I often return to, but potholes are a particular challenge at the moment. There’s nothing quite like a daily commute along a third-world road, dodging potholes that would kill a tyre if you weren’t paying attention, to give people the impression that the quality of local services generally is falling.
Having not run fro four weeks, I took it really gently, especially as my knees were initially a little grumpy. Beyond this though my fitness wasn’t quite as bad as I had feared and I really enjoyed my run in the sun.
So, a little slower, but still okay, with two miles covered in 19.46 and a reasonably even split in the pace, despite the gradient in the first half.
Spring is definitely on the way 🙂
I had put the running machine down, ready for a run this morning, but I woke up super-early to a beautiful sunny day. It was chilly enough for longs and a long-sleeved top, but I only had shorts and t-shirt to hand so I went with that… albeit with hat & gloves!
It was lovely being outside, though there was a point on the hill where I had a slight memory lapse… I didn’t remember it being quite that steep (it’s not!).
The return leg was at that same 9.35 pace that I keep seeing on this stretch, but I must have got up the hill faster than normal (including that steep bit!) because the overall time for the almost 2-mile circuit was 19 minutes & 9 seconds, faster than I’ve completed it in months.
There’s already pervasive cloud cover across the sky so it seems that I really made the most of the sun this morning 🙂
I wasn’t super-enthusiastic about running this morning, but I had put the running machine ready last night and I couldn’t think of any compelling reasons not to get on it.
The feelings of coldness and stiff muscles soon evaporated when I started to run and my brain kicked in to dwell on some work challenges that I’m trying to solve.
One mile in just under ten minutes… and much warmer than when I started!
