So I had one of those runs today where everything just somehow falls into place. Well, almost, a few people got in my way but they were more of an irritation than a significant hindrance. I say irritation, it makes me genuinely angry when my run is interrupted. I’m on a timer here, people!
Anyway I’ve thrown preparation out the window because I have no idea just when these runs will happen. My life is chaotic right now so my runs will follow suit and on a good day like today it just won’t matter.
So I sort of slept ok last night (broken but added up to around 6 hours, maybe even more), I had an ok day at work that was sort of productive. Sure, I was massively behind at the start of the day and I certainly was at the end of it but dammit I dented that mountain! A little bit!
I was a little delayed getting out but managed to get away around 5.30 so I was in a pretty good mood and I had a ham sandwich like 5 hours earlier so... that’s sort of fuel isn’t it? I hadn’t had my usual afternoon drowsiness at work anyway so that was a good sign. I was as ready as I’d ever be for this.
So today’s music of choice was David Bowie. I was going to shuffle literally everything by him but I thought, let’s keep it simple, and put the best of 1969-74 on. There’s a time and a place to dance to Earthling and it’s at a rave in 1997.
I got started with the warm up walk and since it was dark I had to stick to the path. Soon enough I had my first disturbance. The problem with residential areas is that when you go out at 5.30, you have to deal with everyone getting home from work. In this case, that involved nearly getting hit by a white van that came out of nowhere and didn’t slow down at all as it glided towards its driveway.
I don’t appreciate nearly being hit by idiots who don’t bother to slow down or check for pedestrians but I really hate my walk being interrupted. Wha made it more awkward was that the van had to reverse again to let someone else come out. I refused to stop my walk so I crossed the road and kept my speed constant.
I finished the walk and it ready to run, but slowly. I learned from my mistakes last time and didn’t want to burn out too quickly so I maintained a very slow pace for the first 3 minutes. It flew by.
I did the same for the 5 minutes and, yeah, I was feeling it in my legs a little but only slightly and in a good way that feels like progress. Halfway through I was feeling good, I was feeling strong, I was feeling like it could turn around and kick my ass at any moment but I was loving it.
There was another interruption, a much less dangerous but way more annoying interruption. I was running along the pavement by the houses when I saw a car pull up ahead. That’s fine, someone’s home, I can work around that, even though the spaces are narrow where the cars are parked, I can do this with good timing. A man got out of the car. Ok. He took some luggage out of the boot. Right. He started to trundle along with the luggage in tow. Ok that’s just awkward. But I was NOT stopping so I ran in the road and tried to find a gap between cars to get back I front of him but he kept getting in the way! I had no choice but to speed up to get ahead of him enough without looking too pushy. Ugh.
Then before I knew it, it was time for the final 5 minute run. I was tired but I was ready! I’d paced myself well and still had enough energy for this so I did most of it at a careful pace but when the final minute rolled around I decided to go for it and sped up.
So I ended the (running) week on a high and it’s left me feeling optimistic about week 5. I’m also scared because in theory exactly a week from now I’ll be running a solid 20 minutes. How am I nearly there already?
Anyway, for now I’m kicking ass so I’ll focus on that.
Week 7 Run 3, best run so far! 
W4R3 COMPLETED
My journey so far
