Gut bust August.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

It's another cold winter's morning. It's not exactly freezing, but in the colder pockets around the area there is ice on the windscreens of cars, so it is definitely cooler than it has been of late. I am up an hour earlier than I need to be thanks to my old pal, insomnia. It is in fact 4:30 a.m. and I'm half-way through my scheduled 5km plod and therefore nicely warmed up. My speed is slow however as the cold air has made me wheeze, causing me to curse my lack of forethought in not using my asthma inhaler before heading off.  My resultant shallow, wheezy breathing has caused almost continuous side stitches which aren't yielding to the usual remedies. The run is not too taxing however so I just take my time and try to enjoy the serenity of the quiet suburban streets.

It's almost a relief to be running in the middle of the night again. In recent years these early hours have become easily my favourite ones in which to run. I simply love the solitude of the otherwise normally busy streets of my local suburbs, and the endorphins and general feel-good smugness of completing an early run certainly sets me up for the day ahead. In recent weeks it has been all about the night shfit which curtailed these early jogs completely. I've finished with the graveyard stints for a month or so though, and so the early run is well and truly back on the training agenda.

With this year's Point To Pinnacle now definitely off the calendar I am free to run for the simple health-giving goodness of it without the pressure of a training regime to complete, so these early runs are a positive joy just now, even at these ridiculously early hours. Hopefully with the return of decent, overall fitness my insomnia wil also clear up somewhat and I can return to a relatively sane, properly rested lifestyle again. Time alone will tell in that regard.

So just a modest, slow, wheezy and stitch-addled 5.3km completed this morning, but what a joy to be back on the sterets again. The inconvenience of the early cold starts are as nothing compared to the uplifting mood it gives me. Even now, tired and yawning at the other end of the day, I feel bloody glad to have made the effort once again.

Of course, the Rio Olympics currently add another layer of motivation. They may be a whole cosmos away from me in terms of talent and ability, but there's still some incentive to be gained by watching athletes achieve what most of us can hardly dream of. Now if I could just triple my speed and octuple my distance, I could be right up there, mixing it with the Kenyans in the marathon...

Meh, who needs it. My morning plods are enough for now.