One Run, Two Run

I haven't been running as much lately.  If it is not raining, it is cold.  Either way, autumn is not the best time for running early in the morning.  I can only imagine what will happen in winter.  I don't think I will have the courage to go out in the cold.

I ran along Old Northern Road the other weekend.  Ardi had pointed out that the Stockland run was 5k and not 5.4k as previously stated.  He had clicked on google maps and seen that although the route was 2.7k by car, it was 2.5k walking. 

There were a lot of things on my mind that day.  I was unable to run the whole length of my usual route.  I walked part of the way. 

For that particular run, I concluded that "TIRED CAN ALSO BE A STATE OF MIND."

If you tell yourself that you are tired and you can't do things, you will convince yourself that you are tired and that you can't do things.  Corollary to that, if you tell yourself that you CAN do things, you will convince yourself that you CAN and you WILL.  

Personally, I like the corollary better.

Last Saturday, after a long  break from running, I decided to 'just do it.'  I was going to put my corollary to the test.  I opted to run along Old Northern Road although I wasn't sure at which point I would turn back.   I pushed myself to get all the way to Olive Street because that would be the 2.5k mark.  

Going back, I just kept plodding on -- one foot in front of the other, one landmark after another.  The house is four bus stops after Tafe.  When I reached Tafe, I contemplated walking but then told myself that I wanted to be able to say that I had ran 5k again.  So I jogged along slowly; one bus stop after another, until I reached home.

I made it.  (Of course my legs were sore until yesterday.)

Running With An Umbrella

Running with an umbrella?  So not cool.

But what is one to do when one wants to catch the mass yet does not want to catch a cold?

Happy Feast Day!

Rain, The Great Motivator

It is First Saturday today.  I put on a decent shirt and jogging pants then wore my new running shoes.  I brisk walked  to church to catch the 8:00 AM mass.  (The brisk walking was driven more by necessity than by the desire to get exercise.  I was running late  because I decided to start a load of laundry before leaving.)

The weather was nice and cool although it was somewhat cloudy.

After the mass, I was excited to start running.  I left the church compound and headed for the main road.  By the time I got to the sidewalk, it started to drizzle!

That set me off.  I needed to run home because I didn't have an umbrella on me.  All I had were my house keys and my rosary bracelet.

Let me tell you, I got home in record time.

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.

Time is Relative

Five minutes running takes much longer than five minutes walking.

The corollary to that is -- Five minutes walking goes much faster than five minutes running.