Nooooooooooo!vember

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A ripper run these evening, albeit at the cost of ruining my alternate-day running strategy. Today was supposed to be a rest day, but as I start night shift tomorrow (the scheduled run day) meaning a late morning wake up, and with the weather forecast being for hot weather it seemed prudent to run tonight after I got home from work. And so I headed out in very pleasant conditions at 10:15 p.m. This was my first late evening run for aeons, and it was really great fun. I used to run late in the evening a lot when I lived in Adelaide, it frequently being far too hot there to run during the day, and I got to really love it, but since leaving the state of South Australia the early morning run has become the norm for me in recent years.

I'm pleased to report the first semblance of that old 'running fitness' feeling returned this evening, with legs, body and mind feeling relatively strong, and the enjoyment levels were right up there, and brought back memories of those glad days when I ran much longer distances at a much faster pace and did so with ease. I am certainly not up there yet, but tonight I think I jumped up a notch or two on the fitness scale. It's a great feeling.

And no problems with traffic this evening, either, the streets being pretty much empty. I much prefer it when I have the streets to myself and so 6.6km were covered in a much improved pace, with enough hills thrown in to keep it honest.

Happy!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

No run today. Night shift, 37 degrees C and bushfire emergencies make it all too much. This photo was taken in South Australia, where fires killed two people, thirteen hospitalised and sixteen homes destroyed. The fire front was travelling at 80kmh, giving people little time to get to safety. Many farm animals were lost.

And it's not even summer.

[Sweder]

Thats horrible, albeit a fantastic photograph.
Whenever all hell breaks loose in Europe, as it surely has now, I feel envious of friends Down Under (and further afield generally). A timely reminder that not only is the grass not always greener, sometimes it can be scorched black. Stay safe.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The weather is truly weird. Following the horrific heat and murderous bush fires of two days ago, a cold change blew in from the south bringing rain and snow (for God's sake!) to the southern regions and mountains. Here in Sydney it wasn't quite so cold, but a pleasant, cool 20C for my midday run today. This was a midday outing because I'm in the middle of the dreaded night shifts, which normally would mean no running at all, but just at the moment I'm inspired and so made the effort for a short, definitely leaden-legged, but important run.

These runs, albeit not difficult nor particularly long, are making the world of difference, and I'm feeling just great. The weight is falling off and all is right with the world (well, obviously not, but my response to it is significantly better). Running on alternate days is an inspired training method (thanks go to my physio for this idea), giving the body plenty of rest days in which to adapt to the training, and not being taxing mentally. And without the pressure of a race goal (yet) it is genuinely pleasurable.

Oh yes, I am enjoying this.