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RE: April Fuel 2014
Thank you all for your good wishes and comments! I can't tell you how motivating it is to know the RC gang is there with me. Sometimes, especially on those really early runs, it's only the knowledge that there's a whole bunch of you willing me to do well that keeps me going. Which brings me neatly to this morning's run...
... it is 4 a.m. on Werona Avenue, and I’m standing outside my house at the bottom of the hill. It is unsurprisingly very dark and very quiet. I am desperately tired, having awoken just a few short minutes ago and now finding myself standing alone in shorts and singlet, contemplating the road ahead and struggling with the question … “why”? But unfortunately I don’t have time for deep contemplation. Instead I hit start on my Garmin and wearily head off into the darkness.
This is my first 4 a.m. run since … God, when? Ages! It’s probably been about a year.* This however is not my old 10km out-and-back Pacific Highway sprint. This is a completely new and shorter route for me – a loop containing two hills; one modest, one tough, and this is my first “range finding” test of the circuit. But I don’t have much time, having only roughly thirty minutes before I have to be back home to be ready to catch the 5:09 train to work. It’s a bit … frantic.
At least it isn’t cold. In fact it’s quite mild, and I’m thankful for that at least. There is no-one else around at all, and it’s a weird feeling of dark, sweaty solitude in this normally busy area near the major commuter train station of Gordon. But with the first train still thirty minutes away I have (for a short time at least) the whole place to myself. I’m thinking three or possibly four circuits of this new route would be fine for a test run, and in any case it is all I have time for. And the reason for the early start is in fact pretty straight forward. I can run after work, and lately have been doing so, but to do these hill reps requires running normally very busy roads, so the best time is early in the morning. And I also prefer to enjoy the benefit one gets from an early run – despite the gruesome reality of getting out of bed at such an unholy hour, it provides a boost that lasts nearly all day, so it’s a simple choice really. However that doesn’t prevent the nagging, sometimes overwhelming doubt that swamps me as soon as the alarm sounds at 3:50 a.m. and which drowns out all the motivation, inspiration and determination that I had for the run when going to bed the night before.
That doubt however is soon swept away as lungfuls of clean, cool air clear my head and let me at least pretend that I’m really enjoying the exercise. Later, when I have finished, I know for sure that it will have been worthwhile so I put my head down and just get on with it. This morning I manage to complete three full circuits and some tacked-on warm-up and cool-down sections for a nice little 5km run with enough hills to know I’ve completed a decent work-out, despite it being only a half hour trot.
Then it’s the zombie-like home – shower – train – work commuter routine I could just about do in my sleep. The early morning run is a pattern I grew accustomed to a while back, but then it fell into disuse as my shifts changed at work and I began starting earlier and finishing earlier. The late afternoon run became the norm on work days, but to be honest there was always that little masochistic angel on my shoulder telling me I really did love those 4 a.m. runs. And it's true that an afternoon run rarely yields the same buzz that an early jog gives.
The real test of course will be when the weather turns cold and wet. Then we’ll see the truth of the matter, but for now, onward I plunge.
*In fact 22nd January 2013. Over 14 months ago.
Track du jour: This will get you going in the morning ...
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April Fuel 2014
