Running Through My Mind

 

What happened after

Running! Easy! Easier than squats and intense exercise sets, presumably not needing much mental power to calculate and follow programs, the internet and its dog say it burns the most calories, healthiest for health, all of that.

But it could be boring. Not for everyone.

Not for Tara and I! We decided to stick to a realistic plan of doing a long slow run together at the weekends, and during the week to carry on with our training the best we could, amongst other commitments. We see each other as flexible and motivated (how else, if it is to get this thing done!). Rain did not stop us, so juggling life would not stop us either.

Well, the initial runs were different, to say the least.

What on paper was a 3km jog, in practice it felt like a 10 km sprint whilst breathing in a paper bag.  I was also very consciour of being visible.  I sabotaged many of those first runs speeding up seemingly nonchalantly when I felt seen, especially along the pavement by other runners, or, truth be told for I am only human, even by attractive (to me)  people crossing ways with me.

To my defense, there is such a phenomena in which someone that is running  can be distracted by the pace of other runners around them, and not do their planned up game-plan. So yeah, if my kids could describe what I was doing plodding on on the pavements, it would probably be that I was a mutant cross between a giraffe and a hippo, having at go at being a gazelle.

The weekends runs together were another cattle of fish, as Tara goes on slowly and steadily, for absolute ages. Going slowly  is a prerequisite or marathon training, and it also means I can keep up with her. She has an inbuilt engine, I am sure she is talented, one of those lucky ones. Otherwise how can she run with such ease having given birth less than a year ago, and having such a busy life?. Only once, during a short run, did I ever hear her say 'babe lets wrap it up otherwise I think I might die'. 

At any rate, I at least have learnt a bunch of stuff that I was oblivious to before, during this time frame of October 2021- March 2022. Things like

1.  All those people who have done marathons and have given advice seem to be right, there is a solid consensus outthere about what to do, what to expect, what will ache and why will it be great.

2.   Time goes fast whilst you're having fun. We are now roughly halfway through the training year and we need to get more  specific. 

3.  Uninstall the shopping apps for running gear paraphernalia.

4. Endurance exercise is a different animal than power HIIT exercise. 

5. There is a lot to learn about runing technique, as ideally we would like to not bust out our creaky joints whilst we are still considering ourselves moderately spring chicken.

6. Peeing on the go whilst -literally- running is a done thing by master athletes and everyone else, when loos are km away, and we will be learning from the masters all the skills we can. Incidentally, peeing on oneself whilst no toilets around, in a freezing overcast January run, whislt on empty residential streets with no one to see, is liberating and provides some warmth, and overall not a bad expericence, provided one can jump into shower fairly soon. Yeah, I did have to put my shoes in the wash as well.