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Running on the downs

After weeks of micro-training (if we can agree to call it that for ease?) I finally got out for a run with Daren this morning.

It almost didn’t happen, because one of us had a moment of reluctance yesterday! This could have easily been either of us, but fortunately the other one had been looking forward to the run sufficiently to be able to tip the balance of the decision.

We decided not to do the loop, but rather to simply go from the Windmills to Ditchling Beacon (and on to the bottom of the next hill), and back… walking the ups and only running the downs.

Our accompanying conversation typically has the essence of a game about it, which reminds me of squash. In squash it’s important to dominate the T, in the centre of the court, in order to make your opponent (actually, it always used to be me) run round more and tire themselves out, while you’re able to serenely pick your shots and think about what’s going on. In our conversational game there is no opponent, but a well-timed open question means that you get to be pulled up the hill by the other’s answer, rather than gasping for breath and cognitive bandwidth yourself.

There was a slight disagreement about the distance. Daren’s watch claimed 4.5 miles, whereas Strava reckoned it was 4.99 miles, and dropping pins onto Google maps suggests maybe 4.8 miles. Whatever the number, we were moving for 84 minutes… so we’re well into the super-slow category in either case, which suggests that we need to do more running!

While I’m on the subject of running more, whilst the conversation only had two participants, we did actually have a third compatriot with us…. little Lyra. She ran circles around us the whole way (easily twice our distance), and looked like she was ready to go again when we returned!

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Running nowhere, slowly

On 14sep, Daren called to invite me to do the double downhill loop, after a long absence. I did actually have a plausible reason for not being able to go, but what terrified me was that I was so out of shape, given a decline in motivation to even climb aboard the running machine, that the loop might actually have finished me off!

When we’re completely stuck like that, it pays to find a way to do something rather than nothing, and something which is simple enough that you can do it regularly.

My simple something was essentially ‘running for coffee’.

My hob-top quadspresso machine takes just under 4 minutes to brew and for many years I have used that time in the morning to do some simple qigong breathing and stretching exercises, along with a tiny bit of yoga, before sitting to enjoy the coffee.

But I often have one or two more cups when I’m working at home, and it struck me that I could use that time to gently run on the spot. I reasoned that this was about as friction-free as it’s possible to get, in terms of exercise… and that if I couldn’t manage something this simple, then there was likely to be a more fundamental problem!

I started that day with two cups of coffee, and have managed to keep it up across the intervening 7 weeks, sometimes setting a timer for four minutes when I didn’t fancy a coffee. However, I’ve not been slavish about doing it every day as, for example, it’s not so easy to do in front of other people when I’m on campus.

Using my dodgy mental arithmetic, I reckon that 63 stationary runs equates to around 3 hours of running… not bad considering that I would otherwise simply be waiting for my coffee!

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Guest appearance

It’s been a while, but house guests often stimulate the neural links to spark new ideas, or forgotten habits. So, with thanks to my temporary house guests Nigel and particularly Kristin, I have done both yoga and a one-mile run on the machine this morning.

Regular readers will already know that running tends to lower my resting heart rate and help me think more clearly, both of which would be useful at the moment given a range of really interesting cognitive challenges… ones which are largely positive in nature, but gnarly nevertheless 🙂

While I have your attention, I’d also like to report that I had a short mental break last night. It had been raining most of the day, and I’d had my head buried in my work, so I stuck my head out of the window to get some fresh air before bed and realised that it was really calm and warm outside.

So I went to sit in the teahouse for a while, with the sweet fragrance of the honeysuckle drifting across from time to time, and a short rain shower pattering gently on the roof for added effect. The photo below makes it look quite light, but by the time I headed back to the house it was difficult to see in the darkness. Overall, very calming 🙂

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Under duress

I feel sure that you know the kind of night that I woke up from… one where your mind has been whirring clunkily and your body seems incapable of settling into a comfortable position… it has become a regular occurrence for me, and almost always on a Monday night.

It’s little comfort that the person who provokes this regular storm in my mind is probably also having a sleepless night. I think that we’re both good at our jobs (although on a Monday night I generally end up reasoning that I’m really not), but we somehow find it impossible to work constructively together… and trust me, it’s not for the want of trying over the last year and a half.

If you are experiencing something analogous to this in your own life, then I send you positive vibes 🙂 Most times it’s worth pushing through the pain in order to find a solution, and we generally grow as humans through the process, irrespective of the outcome.

However, sometimes we need to know when to move on… as the running machine keeps subtly telling me.

My work is about crafting solutions to human problems, so it’s doubly frustrating that I can’t solve my own challenge, but what keeps me going is the belief that relief is just around the corner.

I took a run on the machine this morning (under duress, from the perspective of mind and body) with the aim of getting to that mythical corner a little faster. Of course, you will immediately spot the irony here, given that I’m effectively running on the spot, and thus going nowhere!

Happy running… and keep pushing on through the pain 🙂

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Run four

Recently I’ve been experiencing the Monday night blues due to a meeting that I regularly have at the start of the week. The effect of this has lessened over time, and yet it still surprises me when I reflect back on a Tuesday morning.

Exercise is often an antidote to low moods and my hope was that by having a run this morning I would get my mojo back for the rest of the week… we’ll see if it works.

In the meantime I feel happy that I’ve managed a run each week this month. albeit short and on the machine.

Sending you positive vibes to help you get past your low points 🙂

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Run three

I woke up early this morning and have been reading whilst drinking two quadspressos. This involved dipping into a few of my books, and reviewing some of my teaching slides, in order to help connect my head to ideas around an interesting work challenge.

I had already planned to go for a short run so it was easy to get on the machine and go. Nothing spectacular, but it has been nice to see my resting heart rate come tumbling down over the last couple of weeks, since my first run this year, and I’m keen to help it stay relatively low.

The morning was cold and overcast, but the sun has now come out… I don’t have answers to my challenge, per se, but I do feel in a better frame of mind to be able to collaborate and help work the problem 🙂

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Second run

Okay, so I’ve managed to get back on the running machine 🙂

Despite the lack of runs, I have been feeling generally fitter lately than maybe last year. One small indicator of this is that I park my car at the top of a hill at work, such that I get exercise when I’m going home. When I started parking in this location last year my legs were often burning by the time I reached the car, but lately I’ve been able to power up the hill with relative ease.

Small things 🙂

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Dawn raid

Kim was out super-early to a meeting up-country this morning. I remember that my Dad used to regularly drive to Rugby from the south coast, to do a day’s work, before driving home again in the evening. Bizarrely, I suspect that it was probably an easier journey back then, even without the M25 to zoom (?) around.

I had been needing another run, so it seemed like a good opportunity to capitalise on, though I almost had second thoughts to just run on the machine… or relax into a third quadspresso! My mind did at least (sensibly) stop me from setting out in the dark!

Just under 2 miles around the block in just under 20 minutes. The first mile up the hill (66 foot of height gain) at 10.07/mile and the return at 9.35/mile, which I seem to have seen regularly before.

Obviously quite focused as I forgot to take any photos 🙁