Another panting effort early this morning. The highlight was being sandwiched between two 4x4s in a narrow lane. We were all terribly English about the situation, and are lucky not to be there still, gesturing to each other to plea-ease go first. These early morning outings are almost surreal. You are of this world alright, but it’s a kind of meta-world in which you constantly question what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.… READ MORE.... …
Month: October 2005
Right, that’s it. In four years of running, this has been my worst period for inactivity, pessimism and lack of motivation. There are one or two flimsy excuses to snatch at, but even if I can persuade others to buy into them, it’s almost impossible to convince myself that they offer much justification for my lazy summer and stuttering autumn. Today offered yet another new beginning, and I’m trying to grab it before it drifts past again.… READ MORE.... …
If an evening with a Norwegian jazz trio was good endurance training, a couple of hours with a magician and illusionist would surely be good preparation for helping me set my targets for next spring’s races. So we went to see Geoffrey Durham perform in Maidenhead last night, and were well entertained. More mature readers may remember him as The Great Soprendo of our youth.… READ MORE.... …
Emotional training for next spring’s long races has begun in earnest, with last night’s concert by an avant garde Norwegian jazz trio in Basingstoke. Long before the end I was losing the will to go on, but knew I had somehow to dig deep, drawing on resources I didn’t know existed within, to see me through to the end. Bursting through the doors at the end, gulping lungfuls of fresh, rainwashed Hampshire air, was as big a relief, surely, as tottering over any marathon finish line.… READ MORE.... …
The heel is healing, but still annoyingly sore — sore enough not to risk running over the weekend, but not quite bad enough, mercifully, to prevent me wandering up the road to the Chinese takeaway and the off-licence last night. Plans for the coming months continue to simmer. The Reading and Silverstone Halfs on March 5 and 19 seem compulsory. Or did do, until 5 minutes ago.… READ MORE.... …
A day of hobbling round the office, cursing those famous slings and arrows. Frustrating. After a lethargic summer, I finally manage to heave myself off my backside and into my trainers, only to pick up some sort of injury, or at best, a painful, temporary shackle. No point in thinking about a run today, and it might even be next week or beyond when I get out again.… READ MORE.... …
When is a pain an injury? I went for another mild run through the Berkshire twilight this evening, intent on blasting a path through a headful of Visual Basic cul de sacs. That part of the outing went pretty well. I won’t know till tomorrow if I’ve solved anything, but I’ve come up with some new angles from which to attack the fiends in my code.… READ MORE.... …
It’s that time of year… There’s something about autumn that makes runners turn their thoughts to the racing year ahead. As I said recently, I want to stop treating races as running’s raison d’être, but it’s undeniable that for most of us, they add meaning and structure to what otherwise might sometimes seem to be a curiously pointless activity. And a useful foil for the puzzled derision of non-runners.… READ MORE.... …