Hey, remember six months ago when I was definitely definitely going to do it this time and then ended up almost doing that except it was the complete opposite of that and I didn’t even finish week 1?
Well I forget the exact reason but once again life got in the way and then the pandemic hit and life really REALLY got in the way. Despite that it’s been a pretty eventful time for us and somehow after inevitable delays we’ve managed to move house.
This is good in terms of work and school because we’re closer to both so if our boy ever actually goes back to school it’ll make our lives a little easier. The bad part is that I no longer get have my old running route which I really loved. However, we do have a nice long garden I can run up and down, and tonight I finally got to try it out.
This move has been ridiculous, it took months to do and when it finally started to happen we were plagued by all kinds of obstacles and what should have been a long weekend turned into a very frustrating, stressful and expensive month.
But we’re here, we have a million boxes we’re chipping away at and we’ve managed to uncover a significant part of our new home. Most importantly we got the TV and PS4 set up.
Apart from that this lockdown has been a very anxious time for me. Not the lockdown part itself, I’m antisocial as hell, I love that part. But I’m scared of the pandemic itself for me and my family. I try to be safe and shop online when I can but sometimes I have no choice but to go out there and for some reason people just DON’T KNOW HOW TO DISTANCE. Seriously, what is it with people? They charge towards me, crowd around me, no self awareness and ignorant to the fact that I am very clearly trying to keep my distance. I swear I’m going to snap in Asda sooner or later and strangle someone with my mask.
So it has brought me some very welcome relief to run around the garden. Sure, it’s overgrown and we can’t afford a lawnmower until next payday (and even then not really) but it’s our little safe outdoor space, as long as my neighbours don’t start sneezing over the fence.
I need it anyway. Apart from the odd anxious walk around the neighbourhood I’ve not really been getting exercise and I haven’t been eating well. This last month in particular has involved a lot of takeaways and drive-throughs and we’ve only just been able to start using our new kitchen to make proper meals again. I was already rocking a pretty bulbous dad bod before all this and now it looks like I’m expecting any day now.
The good news is I can still run and, despite my constant fear that I’ve maybe caught the virus and it’s just lying there waiting to strike, I got through it without being too out of breath. It may come for me one day but at least today is not that day.
I have a few go-to albums for running but I wanted something different this time so I went with Harry Nilsson because I seem to have become obsessed with him lately. I went for Nilsson Schmilsson, which incidentally is a good gateway album if you’re curious. I owe it all to Russian Doll, which was my favourite show last year and plays a certain song by him a lot.
So I got my running shoes out (they still fit at least), my combats (a little tight but workable), queued you my music and headed out the back to reacquaint myself with Jo Whiley. I’ve missed her. I had to wait until pretty late to go. My partner started this too today and decided to have a run while I cooked dinner, which inspired me to start it again. However I needed to wait a while after eating so ended up doing a late night run.
It was already dark and the garden is a little scary but luckily there are lights at the bottom so I wasn’t just running around in complete darkness. The good news is I settled right back into it so I guess I retained some muscle memory and, well, muscle from my previous attempts. I started walking up and down the garden as it got going, then went into the first run pretty comfortably.
During this run I realised a few things:
1. As the runs get longer, the garden may get boring and repetitive pretty quickly.
2. If we’re both running up and down here three times a week, we’re going to trample the hell out of this grass.
3. If I’m not careful I’m going to step on that snail crossing the path.
4. Some Harry Nilsson songs are really short.
5. This is easy! Wait, now it’s painful.
So I generally had a pretty easy time with it but that’s not to say it wasn’t challenging. I’m far from my fittest at the moment but it seems this ability never really left me.
Some of the middle runs did get a bit painful, especially around the chest and shoulders, but I’m no stranger to that kind of pain when running so I didn’t let it bother me. At times I did get slightly breathless but nothing I couldn’t recover from quickly during the walks.
Anyway I broke through that barrier and found myself going faster towards the end. The last run in particular felt pretty triumphant and I was feeling good so I went for it and sprinted a bit. It all flew by pretty quickly and ended on a high so I well good about it.
It’s nice to be back again and I hope, again, that I’ll finally finish it this time. My biggest fear is one or more of us getting this virus and it’s driving me crazy trying to shield. But if all goes well and we remain clear and safe, I think I have a good chance at doing this properly this time. However, I may need to venture out on the later runs for a bit of variety, but I’ll have to make sure there’s somewhere safe I can go in this area.
For now though the garden will do. It’s a good space and isolated from the real world. So in theory the next run should be on Saturday but if I don’t get a chance to run this weekend I may reset Week 1 on Monday and start from the top.
Whatever happens it’s good to be back and it’s a very welcome distraction.
Third time lucky...
Third Time Lucky
3 years on... 3rd time lucky!
After work, and fourth day in a row 
Restarting C25k - 3rd time round (lucky?)
