Uphill, Downhill

To make up for my 'two steps back' yesterday, I made sure to go out this morning even if it was COLD.  I am sticking to my two rounds of the Parsonage - Coolong - Parsonage loops just so that I have a semblance of consistency in my route.  

I think I have figured out why I seemed to have gotten around the loops much faster the other day as compared to the first time I did a 25-minute jog.  When I went out the first time, aside from taking the Southleigh loop, I also used the pedestrian path on the side of the park which sort of winds up and down.  This made it a longer route than if I had ran (jogged) along the road.

I made it to twenty-five minutes again today.  There were times when I tried to increase my stride a bit so that I could progress from a jogger to a runner.  This is a result of my watching a TV ad showing a runner bump into unlisted home (if you are not listed, you are invisible -- it was an ad for home rentals).  The guy was seriously running.  Each step got him quite a distance from his initial position.  I said to myself, "now THAT is what I call running."   Well, as mentioned, I tried to RUN rather than JOG but ... it was tiring!  So I would eventually revert to my steady (short distance) jog.

After my first round, I was already huffing and puffing.  I considered stopping and walking but then decided that the downhill stretch towards Parsonage would provide some rest so I persevered.  True enough, the downhill was a good breather.  If I had stopped when I first wanted to, I wouldn't have made it to twenty-five minutes.

So by and large, I enjoy running my chosen route.  There is a bit of an uphill at the onset along Parsonage then as one approaches Coolong the road is flat.  There is another uphill stretch as one turns into Coolong then when the road curves turning towards Parsonage, one finds the (long awaited) long downhill.

When I am along the road going uphill and I see someone running in the opposite direction, in between huffs and puffs I envy the guy since he is running downhill.  But then I think, hey, I'll get a downhill run too, and when that happens, the other guy will be going uphill instead.

So it is all good.