Running

I am not the the fittest person jogging about the place but I have become accustomed to going for a jog in a bid to keep some kind of fitness level and to continue the struggle against middle aged spread.  The home town affords quite a few varied routes ranging from a full 16km to a rather brisk 3km, depending upon the mood.

When I am out and about, and my breathing has stabilised, I often take the time to think things through, often going through the latest bollocks going on at work, just thinking about future plans or reflecting on the past.  Sometimes, but not always, I pay attention to my surroundings and notice things that I had not on previous runs.

My runs take me along both urban and rural scenes, past rivers and through woods, I sometimes wonder what has happened here in the past, thinking about the two world wars and the bad things that happened back then.  One of the longer runs follows the course of the Demer river, I run along one side and then cross a bridge and run down the other side, a giant loop.

There are hazards, for a start pedestrians are the lowest of the low, there are cycle lanes and roads and not many footpaths.  Sometimes there are no cycle lanes either.  I have to have my wits about me to avoid being run over by cars and more especially by bicycles.  There is no quarter given and as I like to listen to music it is a bit more risky when I cannot here them coming.  I do dress in brightly coloured gear, this is so that they can clearly see me when they hit me!

My pace is hardly quick, I often get myself into a breathing rhythm of four beats with the right foot hitting the ground every other beat.  I try not to match the music otherwise the pace would be too much.  In fact I deliberately shorten my stride if I am on a long run just to keep my endurance.  There is no method in my madness, just determination to keep going.  Although interval training yields better results, so I am told, I have this psychological object of not breaking out of my jog, no matter how tired I feel.

I have now run the Antwerp 10 mile run 4 times and the last was particularly difficult, I think my training plan was all wrong.  I was doing a single 10 mile run each week up until the day.  In previous years I had done up to three short and one long distance run per week. Part of the problem is having the time to do the work, it is so easy to break out of the habit, especially with work commitments.

I have not yet enter the run this year, but I will get it done, it has become a bit of a habit now and gives me something to motivate me.  It will begin to get colder soon, with winter approaching I need to dig that bit deeper to keep going.