Normal service… is resuming. Slowly.
I had the day to myself today, and was able to enjoy the luxury of a daylight run. Early this morning the sun shone brightly, leading to two erroneous assumptions: a) that it would continue to shine all day, and b) that it must be warm outside.
Somewhere in mid-morning the sun died and guess what? The rain began again. When can we expect a break from this? Apart from the day of the 15 mile run, more than two weeks ago, when I thought we’d broken the back of winter, it seems to have been at it for weeks on end.
Around lunchtime a few glimmers of sunshine reappeared and I decided to take my chances instead of eating. Needless to say, by the time I’d changed into my running gear the sun was gone again, and once again the heavens were dribbling. But I wasn’t pulling out now, so I grabbed my snorkel and left the house.
Having had 3 days away from running, I initially found it strangely unfamiliar. Or does it always feel like that? In which case it could have felt familiarly unfamiliar, or unfamiliarly familiar. This was too weighty a conundrum to bear in the circumstances, so I concentrated instead on things feet. Blisters, new shoes, running style (as mentioned yesterday).
The shoes are perhaps marginally heavier than I’m accustomed to but I’ve not found any other negatives. The true test will of course be the longer runs. Let’s hope these puppies go supersonic past 10 miles.
I tried to be more conscious of my running style but it’s a bit like being conscious of your breathing. Once you become aware of it, and start to examine and analyse how it’s done, it becomes strangely difficult and awkward to do at all. For a while I tried sort of rolling forward from my heels to my toes rather than (apparently) landing on midsole and toes. But in the end I managed to put it out of my mind, and felt more comfortable for it.
Lots of people walk around the streets with dogs the size of small cars during the day, I discover. Not being willing to run the gauntlet of canine testosterone, I find myself constantly crossing the road to avoid being killed and eaten.
Apart from that it was a pleasant enough jaunt, partly because there was no firm plan for the distance. Three 3 miles was the nominal aim but it would depend on how my feet held up. The first two miles were comfortable, and took me to a junction where I had to decide whether to head back home or take a detour that would add another couple of miles at least. I took the latter and ran the longer route. Halfway through this added stretch the sun came out again and even radiated a little warmth. A good reward.
Much of the run was spent considering the charity question. I had an encouraging mail today from QPR, with some useful suggestions, and offering me some programme/website space. It was good to get some feedback from somewhere. I’ve tried getting in touch with various organisations connected with the club and the local community recently but no one has shown much interest. Perhaps collecting money for charity is passé these days. Or perhaps, as seems more likely from corroborating evidence, they are just miserable buggers in the first place. The club itself was the least likely source of interest I’d thought, so it was a pleasant surprise, and I’m grateful to them.
A more pertinent question is whether I have enough time to make it a worthwhile effort for April 14th. Which raises other possibilities. I’ve hinted a couple of times in this journal that I might enter the Chicago Marathon in October if London didn’t work out. The reality is that I’ve assumed all along that I’d be going to Chicago. In fact I’ve already booked a hotel. Which raises the possibility of fund-raising for a double marathon…
Ended up doing 5.5 miles today which was fine. Friday’s supposed to be a rest day so if I do a longish run instead, I’ll have clawed back some of this week’s missed mileage and still have a rest day before the very long run on Sunday.
For all my blister correspondents, the following bulletin was released at 22:40 hours. “Steady progress continues to be made. Today’s exertions have not caused significant deterioration, and the prognosis remains reasonably good. End”
