April showers.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A root canal run.

It’s 3a.m. I’ve been in bed five hours and yet to sleep a wink. I’m on that difficult adjustment period between graveyard shifts and early morning shifts. After just one day off from night shift (8p.m. to 6a.m.) I have a short transition shift before jumping onto early shifts (6.a.m to 4p.m.). The body clock just doesn’t handle these rapid transitions well at all, hence the sleepless night. Despite not starting work until 2 p.m. today, my plan had been to get up at 6.a.m. and go for a run. Well, it had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now after no sleep at all I’m beginning to hate the idea, indeed the whole concept of running is just beginning to feel a little loathsome at that moment.

And then the sound of heavy, drumming rain on the roof makes my mind up for me. ‘To hell with it’ I tell myself. I turn off the alarm clock and roll over, intent on getting to sleep and sleeping in until some reasonable hour in the (late) morning. Instantly, it seems, as if I’d muttered some magical ‘open sesame’ phrase, I fall asleep.

However, a strange thing happens. At 5:45a.m. I am again wide awake, the rain has eased, and a little oddly, I get up and go for my run anyway.

Now I should qualify what I mean by ‘wide awake’. It’s like the worst of jet lag – not just chain mail weariness, but that awful feeling of having been run over by a bus, or beaten up by a gang of hoodlums using telephone directories. It’s weird, and it’s awful, but such is working life on rotating round-the-clock shift work.

And so I’m on the streets at 6a.m. We’re now well into autumn and it’s still pitch black. It’s quite warm however, and the overnight rain has made it very humid. My glasses steam up instantly and remain so throughout the run. It’s the first of the rush hours and the streets are busy with commuters arriving en masse at the multiple train station car parks; none of them inclined to give way to lunatic joggers, not even at the zebra crossings. Running thus becomes a game of Russian roulette with steamed up glasses adding to the thrill.

'Thrilling' it is not, except in a macabre, maniacal sense. Everything aches, nothing works (least of all the brain) and I have no idea at all why I’m out there. If there are low points to one’s running life, this is definitely one of them. This is not only massively difficult, it’s also totally unnecessary, if not actually pointless and counter-productive. However, I have it in my head that I need to test out the leg, which after an altercation with a tree was rendered hobblingly painful for several days and curtailed any running, and so I’m out here now, I may as well see what I can do, little though it will clearly be. Even if I only manage 15 minutes, it will be enough to check out the dodgy leg and add something to the running log.

Instead of my planned 8km run around the suburbs I’ve opted for a few laps around the train station which gives me several ‘out’ points which, feeling the way I do, is the only sensible decision I’ve made this morning. Well, perhaps not so sensible, with belligerent motorists making road crossings hazardous, and a million people at the bus stops making the footpaths all but impassable. This really is a shitty, miserable run.

I do somehow manage something more than a quarter hour, but after 25 minutes and a mere, painful four kilometres I’ve had enough. I limp home, glad at least to have accomplished something.

In my experience there are two types of bad run. There’s the unexpected bad run, which always leaves me deflated and which makes motivation for the next run much harder to find, and then there’s the fully anticipated bad run, such as this morning’s effort. It was pretty much as horrid as I expected it to be. The benefit of this is that it actually does the opposite to the other sort of bad run, in that it actually makes me glad to have got it out of the way, and with the knowledge that the next run must be better. And so it’s actually quite motivating. Like a root canal, once it’s over, you quite look forward to the next visit to the dentist as it will be comparatively blissful.

I’m not really painting a glowing picture of our sport, am I? Never mind, I blame the shift work.

The next run though is going to be beauty. Just you wait.

[marathondan]

'Tis better to have run badly, than never to have run at all.

Glad the leg is better. Here's to a decent sleep pattern and the next decent run.

[Charliecat5]

Thanks for posting such an honest blog... it makes me feel a lot better to know that you 'professional' runners have bad days as well.  I find it fascinating that such a simple thing as running can result in this amazing roller-coaster of pain and elation (physically and emotionally).  

At least you did it... at least you got out there.  And tomorrow, it can only get better.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Conditions were near-perfect this morning for a decent hit out and so I took off at 9.a.m. following a night of decent sleep in warm, pleasant conditions with the morning commuter and school rushes over and the streets pleasant and calm.

I won't lie, this was still a tough run, but I was determined to complete at least ten kilometres. The distance wasn't perhaps so onerous, but the hills were undeniably difficult. This wouldn't be such a concern except that my next two major running appointments are a ten kilometre race on April 19 that includes four brute hill climbs, and then a week later a scheduled climb in the vertiginous, savage mountains of the South Downs in Sussex with those two take-no-prisoners men-of-iron Sweder and CC5.

So, whilst I completed 10.5 kilometres, it was a rather modest time (1h08m) and the hills definitely had me nearly weeping. It was a beautiful day for running however and I'm mighty glad I covered the intended distance. I hear a couple more hill sessions a-calling my name for the coming days. Let's see how well I respond.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

OK, so yesterday I went to the doctor for my usual roughly annual check-up. Now, both he and Mrs MLCMM thought it would be a good idea whilst there for me to have a flu vaccination. In the past I've steadfastly refused to have these annual jabs on the basis that (i) I haven't had influenza since I was a teenager, (ii) it seems to me that people who do have flu jabs are more prone to illness than everyone else and (iii) during the bird and swine flu pandemics of recent years I failed to succumb to either despite close and repeated contact with infected persons. However, despite this rock solid logic both wifey and doc were quite insistent so I caved in and had the damn thing.

At 3.a.m. I awoke coughing and sneezing with sore joints, achey muscles, a head full of snot and brain turned to mush - I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, that's why I didn't go out for my 4 a.m. hill reps this morning.

 

[marathondan]

Yep, never seemed like a good idea to me. Apparently this year it's been even more ineffectual than usual over here. Hope you're better soon.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Good God. Ten days since my last run. What is going on here? Well, truth to tell, I have been fighting off snuffly, phlegmy hay fever for much of the time, but even so ... ten days? And me with a race on Sunday? Gads.

Oh well, it was out the door and let's see what I can still maybe just about do in the way of a plod. It wasn't pretty as you'd expect, but I did cover a little over 8km with a few hilly bits. It was painfully slow though, and I certainly won't be setting any PB on Sunday.

Ah well.

[marathondan]

Getting out the door was the important step. Hopefully on Sunday you'll enjoy being out in a big group of runners and you'll pick up a bit of mojo. Sounds like the race will be tough going... but you won't be alone out there.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

2015 Lindfield 10km Fun Run Race Report

Steady rain had started falling the previous evening, and with a high probability of rain forecast for race day, I had gone to bed looking at the likelihood of a wet race, or possibly even no race at all. However dawn was cool and dry with little to no sign of rain and so we headed to the course expecting a good outing. I say 'we' because also running again this year was my sister-in-law Carol who also gave me a lift to the course and hosted Mrs MLCMM and I for breakfast afterwards. Arriving in good time and it being still quite cool we sat in her Lexus for a while* discussing race plans, future running goals and general chit chat about running, she resplendent in her elite race number 30 (although she was at pains to point out that she only received such a great number because she registered very early), and I in my cool number '111', not the lowest race number I've ever had (that was 106 for a race way back in 2004) but one which now looks great on my man-cave wall. Soon though it was time to head to the starting line and so we parted ways and took our respective places in the pack - she nearer the front (being the better runner) and myself in my rightful place at the very back.

My race plan was again quite simple. Given the shallowness of my training for this race my intention was to treat it as another training run and just run this at a normal training pace. Despite being a fun run this is a brute of a course, comprising two laps of a 5km circuit with each lap containing two brutal hills and three or so lesser ones. This is not a race for the faint-hearted nor for someone running a 10km event for the first time.

Starting at the back was of course eminently sensible. Unlike the last time I ran this race when I regrettably started at the front and was pushed out way too fast, this time I ran a gentle, consistent training pace the whole way. That said, the hills were still very punishing. None of them were easy and at the end of the first lap, the thought of doing it all again was almost enough to make me chuck in the towel and scuttle off home.

I didn't scuttle off home of course, and perhaps for the first time (this being my third running of the event) I found all the hills still brutal but with a vague familiarity which made them slightly more manageable. As well as managing my pace quite well, I also focused well on the task at hand (all too frequently the attention of that focus being the damned hills) and plodded on OK even when it was rough going. This is also the first time I've run this race and not spoken with any of the other runners or marshals. Usually there's a fair amount of banter - the usual jokes about hills and 'when do we get to the fun bit?' kind of thing, but this year I refrained completely.

And the result? Actually, not too bad. I was thinking something around 65 minutes would be acceptable, but came home in just shy of 63 and a half minutes.

And as I've done after each of these events previously, at the end I swore 'never again'. If you're going to bust your lungs open on brutish hills that's all well and good out in the country with some magnificent scenery and pristine  mountain air, but around suburban streets it's more than just a little insane. That said, as we munched on scrambled eggs and bacon and mugs of steaming coffee afterwards, Carol and I both agreed that for reasons we can't begin to explain to ourselves, let alone anyone else, we'll probably line up and do it all again next year.

The lunacy of running is strong with this one.





*Which made me think of EG of course ... hi EG!



 

[Charliecat5]

In preparation for next weekend, I thought I'd better check that dear old Blackcap was in a fit state to receive your good self.  I can report all is in good shape.  Only 6 more sleeps!

   

[marathondan]

Nice work, MLCMM. A good hard workout and a sense of a job well done. And you finished faster than you expected, which I knew you would . Sounds like a springboard kind of a run to me.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Thanks guys - I also have son #1 Chris locked in for a mid-week run around his borough (Kingston-upon-Thames), so should be in reasonable form for the Downs. We fly out in a few hours for the big adventure.

See you soon!

[El Gordo]

*Which made me think of EG of course ... hi EG!

-------

G'day

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The first run of our overseas adventure was a simple, short but significant one. Our eldest, Chris and his wife live in Kingston-upon-Thames, and this first outing of the holiday was a short 5km out and back along the river front from their digs to the lock at Teddington.  

The running was of no significance – just a gentle, uneventful plod which rather tested Chris’s patience. He has done this 5.2km outing in 18 minutes, however today we took a little over 30, but he was reasonably good-natured about it. I very much enjoyed it; a gentle pace and quintessential English riverside running. The real excitement though was at the turnaround point at Teddington lock. I’d only fully appreciated the significance of this locale the previous day, when from the boat on which we were cruising to Richmond for a sensational lunch at the White Cross pub (first floor balcony overlooking the river on a beautiful day, feasting on haddock, chips and mushy peas all washed down with local ales and chatting with the locals – brilliant!) I had spied a small blue plaque on one of the smaller dock buildings which piqued my curiosity. On zooming into the spot on my camera the true significance of the place was revealed as being the location for the shooting of that most hilarious of Monty Python sketches, the Fish Slapping Dance. The fact that it just happened to also be the turnaround point for one of Chris’s regular runs only made it all the more memorable.

So the first run of the holiday campaign was both brilliant and memorable – may the rest be likewise.

[El Gordo]

Wandering home from school, through Ealing, one late afternoon in 1972 or 1973, I came across a BBC camera crew and the Monty Python team, filming Climbing the North Face of the Uxbridge Road. Despite the title, I'm pretty sure it was North Ealing Road, or possibly South Ealing Road -- it was a long time ago.

I just rewatched the sketch for the first time in 44 years or so. Worth 1 minute 48 of anyone's time -- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U0tDU37q2M

Edited -- just noticed the comments under the video -- South Ealing Road, apparently.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Encamped at Chez Sweder we awoke to grey, misty mizzle and cool conditions. At times the rain was moderately heavy and looking decidedly unpleasant for running. The rain radar suggested that it would pass quite soon however and by the time Duncan (CharlieCat5) knocked on the door at precisely 9a.m. for our running appointment in the Downs, the rain had indeed stopped and the worst we had to contend with was a persistent mist.

Heading into the hills with CC5, Sweder and the two lurchers Murphy and Ripley I was fairly quickly reminded of my general lack of running, but in particular lack of hill running over the last 12 months. Notwithstanding a reasonable outing at the 10km Lindfield Fun Run last Sunday, I found this tough going and my lack of hill strength a little embarrassing. But persistence pays dividends and all too soon we arrived at our destination, the legendary Black Cap, where CC5 brightened the day and soothed our tired legs with a surprise in the form of a bottle of Harveys which emerged from his back pack and went down a treat.

The run down was notable mainly for the amount of horse and sheep pooh which required deft side-stepping at times, and for the fact that the mist of course quickly vanished once we returned home.

A 10km outing completed in about 65 minutes, and despite seeing virtually nothing of the landscape through which we ran, was memorable of course for being in the company of RC friends Sweder and CC5. Memorable also was the superlative post-race breakfast prepared by Mrs Sweder which really hit the spot.

A great run in great company, and you can’t ask for more than that from this sport of ours!

[El Gordo]

Well, after that early flurry of posts about the first couple of days in Blighty, I thought we could look forward to more updates as the Aussies meander through bits of the ex-Soviet empire and Scandinavia, before (if I recall right) Portugal and Almeria.

Or has a hastily constructed patio mysteriously appeared recently chez Sweder...?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

It's all on facebook! Plenty of updates there, albeit not of the running variety.