Got the wrong email yesterday:
Not a very happy turn on otherwise a happy, productive day.
Ever the optimist, I had a look at the ‘good for speed’ qualification times.
My current marathon PB is 3:59.
Good for age for my age group at London Marathon is 3:02.
The olympics qualification criteria last time around was 2:14.
From my perspective, the probability of me posting a London marathon qualifying time is almost the same as me qualifying for Tokyo olympics marathon with Team GB :)
I planned the run in my head.
I got dressed in running gear.
I started the warm-up routine.
….
Then I felt too cold.
The head was full of excitement from a breakthrough in the morning’s work.
Chewie was still wrapped up in bed.
But mainly, I felt too cold.
…
So I chickened out of the run. I changed back into home clothes. And am now back at work.
Wuss, moi.
… turned 40.
The calendar dog celebrated with confetti.
The dog looks like a 1 year old Chewie with Dudley’s hair colour. Chewie was a master confetti creator at that age :)
… finished reading a book that I started reading more than 10 years ago.
It was worth it. I shouldn’t have taken that break for 9 years, 11 months.
… did a shit load of work.
It was one of my most productive weeks. Long hours + deep focus = lots of good, happy output.
… started seeing the autumn colours everywhere.
I missed carrying a camera on my runs. But I did get a few shots in on Chewie’s evening walk yesterday.
… ran nearly every day
Missed a run on Thursday due to bad weather in the morning, and Athletics world championships in the evening.
Yep, I didn’t run because I was busy watching better runners run :)
… ran 50 km in the week
It was my first 50km week since the marathon in April
… set a new high for running mileage in a year
My total running mileage for 2019 reached 1,213 km. Previous highest was 1,202 km in 2015.
… sat for an IQ test.
I scored 133.
The score is 12 points lower than what I remember scoring in my early 20s.
Still, apparently it suggests I’m ‘gifted’. Not sure in which way.
It was a good week.
Steps (target: 10000)
Floors (10)
Active minutes (500)
Sleep (8 hours)
Hydration (2800ml)
I get four of them frequently, it’s the sleep one that’s rare. Yesterday I slept so early that my ‘go to sleep’ reminder alarm at 21:30 woke me up 🙂
The long, deep sleep probably helped with today’s run. It was way faster than usual and with great form, specially on the ascents and descents.
I think watching the 5000m final (Athletics world championships) yesterday helped with the form.
The run also brought the week’s running total to above 50Km—the first one since the marathon in April.
Because…
Spoke to ma-pa yesterday.
Active user count for Todo.txt for Android touched a new high.
It’s freezing cold but sunny.
Weight didn’t increase despite yesterday’s gorging on chocolate and kaju katli. It dropped by 0.2kg.
I’m about to head out for a run.
(It was a wonderful 10K, half with boys who were half brown by the time we finished)
I saw KJT run the 100m hurdles. I think I’m in love with her :)
I’ve had an ur-productive day today.
I started work at 6:20 and stopped at 18:10. There were two breaks totalling 3 hours for loo, lunch and S4E6 of Peaky Blinders. Other than that it’s been full focus, highly productive deep work.
I didn’t open email, WordPress, or any other distractions.
I finished today what I’d planned to achieve in 2.5 days.
It’s been awesome!
Today is Autumn equinox, the traditional start of Autumn up here. The weather makers seem to be well informed of the dates.
We had beautifully sunny weather all of last week. Then yesterday it rained on most of our run. Now there’s a forecast of rain for this whole week.
It’s getting chilly in the night. I’ll take out one of my duvets this week.
It’s getting darker in the mornings. I can keep the south-facing window in front of my desk open all morning—seeing the slowly shades turn from black to dark blue black, then through various shades black and blue, into bright blue. Or if it’s cloudy, into a dull light blueish grey.
The leaves had already started turning colour. It’ll still be a month or more before the autumnal colours really shine but the shades are already visible occasionally.
The garden has noticed as well. There aren’t as many apples on the tree as before. The petunias are almost gone. Berries are fully ripe, which means they’ll soon start turning black and dry. The begonias are still thriving but the geraniums have reduced flowering. And the grass in the backyard never fully loses the moistness from the morning dew.
One of the good bits about autumn—apart from the beautiful colours and dark mornings—is that it’s my favourite running weather again. I don’t need to care about the warm and hot days. It’s the season of running in cool fresh air, with an occasional shower and often lots of mud. The runs will be harder—summer’s hard ground provides better support than the muddy or boggy autumnal trails. But the runs will also be far more pleasant. Continue reading Welcome Autumn
Chewie is my favourite running partner. Runs with him are, on an average, 274% better than runs without him. Just watching him run—along or ahead—gives me an extra 50W of power. Chantries is our favourite running ground. We both love running up and down those trails, specially the sections through the dense trees where few people walk.
I took Chewie for a few Parkruns years ago. His competitive spirit, and my inability to run like the wind meant I had a torrid time. He used to drag me around for the first couple of Km. Then we’d run together for the next Km. And I’d have to drag his sorry, tired ass around for the final 2K. He didn’t know how to pace himself when there were other dogs to catch and beat. I didn’t know how to run at his blitzing pace.
There was also the matter of his loud howling and crying with excitement as everyone lined up for the start.
I took pity on both of us and stopped taking him along. He enjoys lazy Saturday morning cuddling up with R in bed till 10 or 11. I get to run at my own pace.
A has been asking me if we should take Dudley for a Parkrun. Dudley is lot more people friendly than Chewie, and has a more tempered approach to life (and running). It may be easier to run with him.
I’ve been strangely non-committal. The reason is that Parkrun is my time to mingle with all the other dogs—Jasper, Danny, Lizzie, Archie, and all the other lovely 4-pawed lovies. It’s the one time of the week I’m openly unfaithful to Chewie and Dudley, and give undivided attention and love to my other friends.
Taking Dudley might shift my friends’ focus from me to him. Dudley (and Chewie even more so) may not be so amenable to them meeting me as usual—Jasper jumps up and hugs me on my shoulders, then rubs his sides on me, then sits down between my legs, my hand in his mouth, and begs for belly rubs.
My dogs may not take kindly to my unfaithful actions :)
When I went for Parkrun yesterday, I hadn’t run much all week and still was feeling sluggish. I also hadn’t eaten anything all of Friday. So, I planned to keep it steady and hoped to finish in around 25 mins.
I felt good on the warmup jog, so by the time the run started, was hoping to finish under 25 mins.
When the timers announced the time after the first lap, I was surprised to hear 11:35. That was unexpectedly fast! Maybe I’d gone too fast on the first lap. I’d probably suffer on the second lap and run it in maybe 12:30. I was hoping I’d make it 12:24 on the second, and scrape in under 24 mins. I hadn’t run sub-24 since late June, so getting a time starting with 23 would be a good boost.
I finished the run, met the dogs and the humans, and went for the cool-down jog. When we were back at the car, I tried to estimate my actual run time by subtracting the warm-up and cool-down times. It seemed to be about 23:23, two seconds faster than my fastest time this year. However I’d been late starting my watch so I didn’t know what the official recorded time was.
When I got the official result a few hours later, it said 23:30.
It was my second fastest time at Guildford Parkrun this year, and the 3rd fastest ever. So I am surprised to discover that I was disappointed at that result!
I went in planning to finish in around ~25 mins. After warm-up, I reset that expectation to sub-25. After first lap, I was hoping to sneak in under 24 mins. I finished in 23:30, and was disappointed because I wasn’t another 6 seconds faster :/
How quickly and easily does our brain reset expectations?!
Yesterday I was happy. I ran. I had both the boys with me, and both were in a happy, loving mood. I did a lot of work. Good work. I’d finished reading my 36th book of the year, and started a new one. I saw the final episode of season two of ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘. I went to sleep, happy.
Today is not as good.
Boy threw up in the night. Then again a few moments ago. This means there’s no running for him (today), or me (this morning).
What’s worse is that I felt a sense of relief on realising that I don’t have to run this morning. This is not a good sign. It’s a very bad sign.
The morning started bad when I drank yesterday’s leftover coffee instead of making a new one today. Then I topped up my blood caffeine levels with a tea. Both of them before 07:30.
At 08:30, I am feeling the too-much-caffeine unease and the boy is feeling post-throwing-up unease. And yet, we aren’t hugging and laying in the bed. I’m working (except for the break to write this status update), and he’s sleeping behind me on the carpet.
Hopefully the pendulum will swing again and we’ll both be on the up by the evening. Paws crossed!
