I’ve spoken many times about motivation in this blog (across 14 years… yikes!) but it’s worth reiterating here.
A simple aim drove me back in 2007, relating to running and writing, where one drove the other in a virtuous cycle. Preparation for the occasional race or longer run (or even fast walk, as in the Tour du Mont Blanc in September 2011) helped me to push to increase the mileage in some years. More recently there has been a health aspect, where I really need the aerobic exercise. But the other thread that has, er, run through this blog is my desire to be fit enough to run with friends. The one-mile runs on the machine are fairly minimalistic, but the fact that I’m running means that I’m at least able to run.
That’s the theory, at least.
It was nice to be able to test the theory yesterday with a run with Daren on the Downs. I must confess that I felt some trepidation, given that even when I’m fit I find it hard to walk for a couple of days after our very hilly 6-mile circuit. But Daren had a plan, which started with us meeting downstairs (for any new readers, downstairs = Clayton rec, at the bottom of the Downs, by comparison to upstairs = the Windmills at the top of the hill).
We ran along the lane, deep in conversation, to the bottom of the Tank Tracks, the half mile track that goes directly up the 500 ft scarp slope. We love this hill (I once ran up and down it seven times in one go, for fun) but there was a point last year where I could no longer run up it. However, the runs on the machine had clearly had at least some effect and we managed to run to the top without stopping… and even managed a bit of a sprint across the grass at the top 🙂
I know when I’m exhausted at this point in our runs because it’s hard to run down the hill to the Windmills, but that was not the case here. We had already decided that the run would be half of the normal circuit, but we put an extra short loop along the lane and back before dropping down the steep hill back to the cars.
Finishing without being in a state of exhaustion was a real result and the combination of shorter run and base fitness meant that I could still walk the morning after. Even when I’m fit, it can be sometimes difficult to walk on the second morning, but last year my legs were stiffening later on the same day as the run, making walking difficult for a couple of days!
So 3.2 miles and 600 ft height gain in 38 minutes… not fast by the Bok’s standards (he ran 6.7 miles with 445 ft height gain yesterday in 52 minutes) but fast enough for a moving conversation 🙂
