My training plan says that today’s long run should be ‘80-90 minutes jog with walking breaks’. I reckon that constitutes a run of about eight miles so the first thing I do today is go out in the car and drive four miles west out of town. And then four miles back home again. It’s another cold but beautifully clear day as I set out on my initial jog to the ‘stretch zone’, a little area up the hill with a low wall onto which I can raise my legs to stretch the hamstrings and calves like some comedy ballerina; less Darcy Bussell, more Roly Poly.
I’m determined to break the 60 minute non-stop barrier today so start off very slowly, ignoring the ‘pedestrian-passing principle’ whenever possible. Why is it that I seem to be able to reduce the distance between far off pedestrians at a seemingly consistent rate but at the point when I actually catch up to them it seems to take forever to overtake them? Do they hear my footfalls pounding the pavement behind them and start to panic in a “Oh f#ck, it’s just like Jurassic Park!” type of way? Or do they throw in a sneaky hop ‘n a skip to speed up and mess with my head? Or is it like when a police car passes you and the siren changes tone and pitch? Isn’t that Einstein’s theory? My speed relative to their speed multiplied by itself equals E? (For the record, this is exactly the kind of crap that fills my head when I’m out running. Is it just me?)
Being a Sunday and such a beautiful day, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of people out taking exercise. Usually when I run in the daylight there’s a lot of teeth-gritting and pavement-staring going on but today, for the first time, I raised my head and noticed there’s actually a lot of mutual appreciation going on between human beings undertaking common activities. Who knew?
The Woman
As I reached the main part of town, a woman who I’d estimate at 60+ years old was jogging in the opposite direction. As we passed each other, she smiled and nodded at me as if to say “we pensioners can really show ‘em, eh?” So sincere was her smile that I didn’t have the heart to steal her water bottle.
The (Other) Saggy-Assed Jogger
This guy was running in the same direction as me on the other side of the road and I’m sure he speeded up as he passed, despite wearing saggy-assed cotton jogging pants that looked ten times heavier than mine. He glanced over and nodded with a slightly contemptuous “seriously dude, that’s as fast as you can go?” which made me think he was in hurry to check whether a seagull had crapped all over his BMW so I retorted with a nod that said, “usually I’m quite a competitive person but I so don’t want to be you… oh and it wasn’t a bird that crapped on your BMW, it was me. Have a nice day.”
The Kid
On the other side of town I saw a little kid of no more than 10 years old sprinting towards me in a blur like he was trying to catch a bus or was late for a Sunny D convention. As he approached me at great speed I could see he had little earphones in his little ears and his little shoes were proper running shoes and here, to my amazement, was a kid out running for the pure enjoyment of getting exercise. I braced myself for a torrent of youthful abuse but instead he looked up at me and beamed a genuine smile of such warmth that I nearly asked the next woman I passed if she’d mind having my babies. Strangely, she declined.
The Lance Armstrongs
Once I was out of town and heading into the countryside, a group of cyclists approached me all dressed the same in their bright yellow wind jackets and wraparound sunglasses. As they passed me, they were beginning to climb a slight gradient and as they rose out of their seats to begin the ascent, everything seemed to turn into slow motion. I looked at each in turn trying to gauge the effort going on behind the shades and finally, the guy at the back of the pack looked at me and nodded his head with the slightest of forward bows, not unlike that big majestic flying beast thing in the Harry Potter movies. I took this as quite a reverential gesture that said, “if you’re running out here in the countryside, then you’re doing something serious so good on you,” however he may just have been trying to shake a bug off his visor.
Anyway, I broke the 60 minute non-stop barrier today with 62 mins followed by a good stretching session and then an easy 30 minute jog home. Favourite iPod moment of the day was Coldplay singing “Fix You.”
I’m determined to break the 60 minute non-stop barrier today so start off very slowly, ignoring the ‘pedestrian-passing principle’ whenever possible. Why is it that I seem to be able to reduce the distance between far off pedestrians at a seemingly consistent rate but at the point when I actually catch up to them it seems to take forever to overtake them? Do they hear my footfalls pounding the pavement behind them and start to panic in a “Oh f#ck, it’s just like Jurassic Park!” type of way? Or do they throw in a sneaky hop ‘n a skip to speed up and mess with my head? Or is it like when a police car passes you and the siren changes tone and pitch? Isn’t that Einstein’s theory? My speed relative to their speed multiplied by itself equals E? (For the record, this is exactly the kind of crap that fills my head when I’m out running. Is it just me?)
Being a Sunday and such a beautiful day, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of people out taking exercise. Usually when I run in the daylight there’s a lot of teeth-gritting and pavement-staring going on but today, for the first time, I raised my head and noticed there’s actually a lot of mutual appreciation going on between human beings undertaking common activities. Who knew?
The Woman
As I reached the main part of town, a woman who I’d estimate at 60+ years old was jogging in the opposite direction. As we passed each other, she smiled and nodded at me as if to say “we pensioners can really show ‘em, eh?” So sincere was her smile that I didn’t have the heart to steal her water bottle.
The (Other) Saggy-Assed Jogger
This guy was running in the same direction as me on the other side of the road and I’m sure he speeded up as he passed, despite wearing saggy-assed cotton jogging pants that looked ten times heavier than mine. He glanced over and nodded with a slightly contemptuous “seriously dude, that’s as fast as you can go?” which made me think he was in hurry to check whether a seagull had crapped all over his BMW so I retorted with a nod that said, “usually I’m quite a competitive person but I so don’t want to be you… oh and it wasn’t a bird that crapped on your BMW, it was me. Have a nice day.”
The Kid
On the other side of town I saw a little kid of no more than 10 years old sprinting towards me in a blur like he was trying to catch a bus or was late for a Sunny D convention. As he approached me at great speed I could see he had little earphones in his little ears and his little shoes were proper running shoes and here, to my amazement, was a kid out running for the pure enjoyment of getting exercise. I braced myself for a torrent of youthful abuse but instead he looked up at me and beamed a genuine smile of such warmth that I nearly asked the next woman I passed if she’d mind having my babies. Strangely, she declined.
The Lance Armstrongs
Once I was out of town and heading into the countryside, a group of cyclists approached me all dressed the same in their bright yellow wind jackets and wraparound sunglasses. As they passed me, they were beginning to climb a slight gradient and as they rose out of their seats to begin the ascent, everything seemed to turn into slow motion. I looked at each in turn trying to gauge the effort going on behind the shades and finally, the guy at the back of the pack looked at me and nodded his head with the slightest of forward bows, not unlike that big majestic flying beast thing in the Harry Potter movies. I took this as quite a reverential gesture that said, “if you’re running out here in the countryside, then you’re doing something serious so good on you,” however he may just have been trying to shake a bug off his visor.
Anyway, I broke the 60 minute non-stop barrier today with 62 mins followed by a good stretching session and then an easy 30 minute jog home. Favourite iPod moment of the day was Coldplay singing “Fix You.”
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