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A tale of two runs.
Tale #1 - Misty Mountain Hop
It's 3:45 a.m., and as I creep out the back door the yard sensor light flicks on. I immediately spare a thought for my son and his wife next door, into whose bedroom the light now shines. They've assured me many times that with the curtains closed they never notice it, but I always wonder. And if the light doesn't wake them I know the creak of the side gate as I head out for my run definitely does. No amount of grease or oil silences the hinges, and I'm resigned to one day pulling the gate down and either completely re-building it or buying a whole new one. One day...
Of more immediate concern is the weather - a drizzling misty rain that despite my cap immediately renders my glasses nearly opaque. Of equal concern is my lack of sleep - I managed only about two hours, and have been wide awake since a little after one a.m., and have now finally given up and headed out for my scheduled 10k highway run. I briefly consider extending it by a few kilometres, but my level of exhaustion and the weather quickly puts paid to such madness.
I'm into my fourth week of training for the Canberra Marathon and I'm determined to log 50km over my scheduled four runs this week. Two of them will have to be early morning efforts and I'd resolved that neither bad weather nor the lack of sleep would deter me. Well here we are, day one and I have both thrown at me already. I pull my cap down as low as it will comfortably go, shrug with resignation, start my Garmin and trudge off into the darkness.
Despite the early hour, there is a surprising amount of activity in Gordon this morning. Across the way a truck is emptying industrial waste bins - it must be an owner/driver because the serious doof doof emanating from the cab strongly suggests the installation of a subwoofer. Trucks, it seems are getting classier (or at least doofier), even rubbish trucks. Noisier still, as I cross the railway bridge and turn the corner onto the highway, is the local baker who has his music wound as high as it will go, only he's singing (badly) over the top of it and having a great old time. And just down the road the 24-hour MacDonalds is doing a roaring trade from passing truckies and taxi drivers.
All this I pass in the first kilometre, but then I'm out of Gordon and passing through quieter, residential areas and the quiet hamlet of Killara. I'm having serious trouble seeing anything much at all, but I plough on at a good clip, hoping the pavement has no unseen hazards to trip me up. I'm moving surprisingly well and think this is going to be a good run. I can't read my watch however so can't be sure just how well I'm travelling. It hardly matters - just being out here is the important thing.
The kilometres pass steadily, and I manage to stay on my feet without tripping or colliding with anything. The run feels like a good one, but in the dark they often do, so I push on steadily without wasting too much effort, the constant drizzle adding extra caution in any case.
I return home drenched but in good time and good spirits, clocking my 4th fastest time ever for this course and left wondering what time I might have run in good conditions and with a good night's sleep under my belt!
10.0km 54m50s.
Tale #2 - Beware the Bad Run!
Ironically, weather conditions for my second outing of the week were perfect. I say ironic because this was without doubt one of my worst runs ever. All I can say is that one of the problems with 4 a.m. runs is that you're up and out the door before being sufficiently awake to properly assess the body to see whether it is actually fit for running at that precise moment or not. 5km away from home is not the best time or place to discover that it isn't. I won't go into gory details; suffice to say this was an extremely unpleasant experience, and whilst I did eventually manage to cover a reasonable 9km, it was horribly slow and decidely uncomfortable. No injury or serious harm done however, which is the only positive I can take from it.
Now I have to bounce back from this. Actors talk about the one bad review in an otherwise clean sweep of positive reviews being the one they believe. The same is true for me - one bad run tends to kill my motivation and make me believe that the good runs were just a fluke. Ridiculous I know, but when the alarm rings in the middle of the night or that long run beckons on a hot, steamy day, it's hard to focus on anything other that last, awful outing.
Still, I'll give it my best shot. Just as soon as my internals settle down.
9.0km, 1h5m.
YTD: 92.9km
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Jumpin' Januarys ... it's 2013 already!
