I’ve been a little quiet lately but the good news is I haven’t stopped running, I just didn’t have the mental energy to write about the last ones, especially after my last epic saga of the mundane was lost to the depths of my iPhone last week.
So anyway I ran on Saturday after a chain of unexceptional but time consuming events prevented me from running on the Friday as planned. Then I finished Week 2 on Monday and it went well. I spent the last minute sprinting so it ended on a high, although I definitely felt it after.
Anyway today it was time to begin Week 3 and it’s interesting how we progress through this because at the start of all this and the subsequent restarts, I wouldn’t have been able to run for three minutes straight, at least not without some difficulty and I wouldn’t have been able to follow it up with the rest of the running blocks to complete the session.
But just a few weeks in I can get up, get out and get on with it with minimal difficulty but just the right amount of effort required for it to still be a challenge. I look ahead to the coming weeks and think that’s way too long, I can’t run for 8 minutes!
But I’ve been here before and I’ve done it and I know that when that time rolls around, I will be more than ready. I’m looking forward to being able to do that again and more.
I’m getting ahead of myself though, today it was all about the three minutes and it honestly flew by, much like the plane from the nearby army barracks that made me start formulating an escape plan in case it crash landed in my garden. Would the army have to pay for damages if it did or can they pretty much do whatever? Probably best if I never have to find out.
So it was another late run, which seems to be how it has to be for the foreseeable, otherwise I don’t think I can fit it around work and family. But that’s ok, night runs in the garden are fine, we’ve got lights at the bottom so I’m not running in complete darkness. I wouldn’t venture further than that at night though, we’re on a main road and it’s not the nicest area. But I’ll explore at some point. If I get really desperate I’ll drive back to where we used to live and run around the paths there that I’m nostalgic for.
I actually quite like the sound of that...
Anyway I really needed this run, my workday didn’t end quite as well as it should’ve. Technically, it’s still going as I try to fix my error.
So we’ve changed to an updated system that works a little differently and in one particular procedure there is a little box you need to untick before continuing because if you don’t, you will send an email to literally everyone in the company, and we’re a global company.
Too late I realise what I’ve done as at 16:50 my inbox is flooded with hundreds of annoyed and confused people wondering what this is about, why it’s come to them, what they’re meant to do with it, how there mean to do it. I’m still pasting the same generic response explaining my error as they roll in.
This of course means I emailed my manager, who will see what I’ve done early tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to it!
Ugh.
So we got the kids to bed, watched a bit of tv until I was happy enough time had passed since we’d eaten and then I headed out. Once again, my running music of choice was Blondie on shuffle. All the Blondie.
I’m still very deep into this latest Blondie phase and I’ve made the decision to officially bump them up to the position of my third favourite band. Sorry Blue Oyster Cult, it was very close and I’m still Burnin’ for You but you’ll have to settle for number four.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, RUNNING. So I got Blondie, I got Jo Whiley and I got started.
The good news is I finally got a lawnmower and the cord stretches... *some of the way* so I mowed one end and because we have a plug socket at the end of the garden I mowed that end too, which means I have a mostly mowed garden with a long bit in the middle until I get an extension cord so that’s a weekend project.
Despite that, it’s not looking too bad and it’s definitely easier to run around now. However it’s also a really bumpy garden so I think I need to invest in a roller or something before I put a foot wrong and break my ankle. Do rollers even work? Has anyone used one since the 1950s? I only know they exist from reading old Beano books. Apparently in the 1980s it was normal to beat naughty children with a slipper. Like it was a normal enough thing for “whacking slipper” to be a phrase and a punchline in a children’s comic. I always liked the Bash Street Kids best anyway.
Wait, they got the cane...
Anyway, RUNNING.
I did get a little bit concerned because the warmup walk seemed a little harder than usual and I did feel a little tired from it so wasn’t sure how the rest of this would go but I think I just needed a little jump start because when the first 90 second run started I powered through it pretty comfortably.
After that came the first 3 minute run and by that point I was a bit warm and puffing along but feeling good and ready to i threw myself into it, but carefully because I still had a little way to go.
It was a jump up from 90 seconds but a small one and I settled right in. I made it through reasonably easily but I definitely felt the difference and I was very grateful for the longer walking break halfway through.
It turns out that was the hardest part so I must have adapted to this longer run pretty quickly. It probably helps that I’ve done these early ones twice before. I guess it never really leaves you. The next 90 second run set me up and then when the final three minutes arrived I made it through with no difficulties.
I didn’t sprint this time, I didn’t quite have the energy for that but hopefully by the end of Week 3 I’ll be able to do that a little. But as it was I feel good about it. It’s a promising start to the week and a reassuring one. However you break it down, I’m perfectly capable of 9 minutes and it’s nice to know I can still do that.
Hardest run yet! But feeling good!
W3R1 - time is a funny thing. 
Week 6 run 2 my hardest yet!
Celebrating W3R1 with my first post
On the run! W3R1 
