Juneathon 11 - Half time
Okay, I got my long run. It wasn't the long run I'd been planning, but it was a long run all the same.
And, for most of it's length, it felt rubbish.
I woke up cranky today, as opposed to the past week where I've just gone to bed cranky. I slept way later than I was planning and as usual that completely hoofed my Plan A for the day. Reverting to Plan B would have meant sitting on the sofa with the other half of last night's dinner and vegging out until 6pm when I'd acknowledge that I still needed to do my run for the day and stumbling out for an hour or so, arriving back still cranky and no better off and feeling guilty about it. It's an awkward situation where mind, mood and motivation seem to all be in the doldrums, maybe because of the distance I've already run this month or just because it's the weekend and I'm feeling a bit flat.
The solution was to stick some music on and just walk out of the front door, start the tracker, and see where I ended up, one junction at a time. Set off onto something familiar, that way your legs know where you're headed without your brain intervening. At each split, a quick decision - left or right? Right. Okay, go - without any thought to the distance, the incline, the route. Go for what looks interesting, investigate what you haven't done before, go home when you feel like it, when you get bored. Not the greatest methodology, to be honest, but a fairly successful one.
I got back to the house having stomped, gurned, sworn and plodded 20km. That made me grin a little, so like the last run of Janathon, I made myself go for another slow jog round the block to make it a half marathon. That made me grin a little more. The grumpy bear that went out has started to become slightly less grumpy, and more just a tired. Once he has been fed and watered and had a hot bath (and maybe even a beer...) he might be back to normal. At least, until tomorrow morning...
And, for most of it's length, it felt rubbish.
I woke up cranky today, as opposed to the past week where I've just gone to bed cranky. I slept way later than I was planning and as usual that completely hoofed my Plan A for the day. Reverting to Plan B would have meant sitting on the sofa with the other half of last night's dinner and vegging out until 6pm when I'd acknowledge that I still needed to do my run for the day and stumbling out for an hour or so, arriving back still cranky and no better off and feeling guilty about it. It's an awkward situation where mind, mood and motivation seem to all be in the doldrums, maybe because of the distance I've already run this month or just because it's the weekend and I'm feeling a bit flat.
The solution was to stick some music on and just walk out of the front door, start the tracker, and see where I ended up, one junction at a time. Set off onto something familiar, that way your legs know where you're headed without your brain intervening. At each split, a quick decision - left or right? Right. Okay, go - without any thought to the distance, the incline, the route. Go for what looks interesting, investigate what you haven't done before, go home when you feel like it, when you get bored. Not the greatest methodology, to be honest, but a fairly successful one.
I got back to the house having stomped, gurned, sworn and plodded 20km. That made me grin a little, so like the last run of Janathon, I made myself go for another slow jog round the block to make it a half marathon. That made me grin a little more. The grumpy bear that went out has started to become slightly less grumpy, and more just a tired. Once he has been fed and watered and had a hot bath (and maybe even a beer...) he might be back to normal. At least, until tomorrow morning...
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