Today was always going to be a bit of a rush. Up with the @6am club and trying to squeeze a 5mile recovery run in before a 8:50 train to London may have been optimistic given my late interval session at the gym yesterday (they were locking the doors behind me) and me not feeling 100% nor sleeping well this week. But the only other option would have been to scratch my streak and well, I don't think I am going to enjoy telling people that I ALMOST ran every day in the year we hosted the Olympics. It's a bit like saying Paula Radcliffe almost won an Olympic medal....
Well I certainly know that Paula will do her absolute best to take the Olympic gold and I know that I need to do my best to keep my streak alive.
Anyway, I digress.
So bag packed I decided to drive to the gym, do a loop around then I could shower, change and drop the car home before walking to the station. The fact that we currently don't have a bathroom (bad time of year for DIY I know!) makes the gym leg of this plan a necessity. Otherwise I'm sure I'll upset a few of my fellow astronomers when I take my seat at Astrofest later today. Perfect I thought. A little late out the door but arriving at the gym at around 6:45 I estimated that I could probably get a hours run in and still get back for around 8:15; plenty of time to walk to the station!
The white stuff that had appeared over night wasn't going to deter me from executing my perfect plan...and anyway it was easily cleared of the car and the drizzle that was now precipitating would take care of the rest.
It was whilst stuffing my locker with my change of clothes that I realised flaw number one in my plan. No Garmin. Not a major issue some might say, except if you want to demonstrate beyond all doubt to the naysayers that you did indeed run every day! The failure to pick up this much loved bit of kit was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that I was wearing the quick release strap firmly around the outside of my running jacket. A bizarrely minimalistic accessory that was somewhat devoid of and useful function.
I was going to have to run home. Not a massive inconvenience, but would certainly add some interest to the mix explaining to MHW what a numpty I had been!
But worse than that I would probably run it too fast because I was ever so slightly nervous going out with a time piece.
Needless to say the run itself was fairly uneventful and after a 30sec pit stop back home I was able to complete another 4 miles to make up the early morning 5. It wasn't anywhere nearly as cold as it had been and so although there was some drizzle, some icy rain that stung my cheeks and some confident looking snowflakes, I was wet but not as chilled as previous runs had left me.
So imaging my feelings when I got back to the gym and saw the signs declaring "NO HOT WATER"...gutted to say the least. But then somewhat philosophical. I was obviously meant to have a cold shower...and anyway surely that would suit my Spartan regime. In fact I started to convince myself so completely that this would in fact be the equivalent to the endurance pros and their ice baths that I was positively disappointed when it was its usual piping hot.
Great recovery, it was 8:15 when I left the gym so I'd managed to get my 5 miles in and just needed to swap out my rucksack contents and I'd be on my way.
Not being one who uses the car a great deal I obviously hadn't counted upon what is termed 'Rush Hour' traffic (although it didn't exactly seem as though many people were rushing)
Still I was almost home, in fact in the very next parallel street working around our one-way system when I noticed the flashing lights ahead. They were orange. Now whilst this might seem good that there were no emergencies being tended to, it became apparent that I wasn't going to be moving anywhere soon. At least until the lorry that was displaying these amber beacons had successfully of loaded the delivery of building materials it has just started to crane off. 8min wasn't going to be long enough...I needed to change my plan.
So, having noticed a parking spot a few cars back I switched on my hazard lights and slowly reversed, hoping that the line of vehicles behind me would do the same. Thankfully they complied and I was able to ditch the car (quite possibly my worse parking effort ever!) and run around the corner on foot.
Well thankfully the rest of the journey has gone to plan so far. I'm comfortably tucked away at the rear of the quiet coach supping my latte and writing this blog.
The weekend isn't going to be a high mileage one as we're catching up with some of our best friends and want to spend some time with them rather than out on my own. However I will be running my first parkrun with them at the original Bushy Park, so that should be fun and if the snow is around still a long run with Bernie on the bike may be called for. We'll see...but whatever happens I'm sure it will energise me a little and have me ready to pound out a few longer ones next week.
Oh I almost forgot...there were no Geese of any variety to be seen out this morning...they're obviously fair weather fowl and/or are too busy terrorising my friend John up in York. Check out the link to his blog in my profile (who I'm following) and you'll find many a fowl fact follows.
Keep on running all you #2012in2012 folks!
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