One way to have a run that exactly matches how far you want to go is to do an out and back. You simply run away from your house for 1/2 the distance you want, turn around and run home. I remember when starting running doing this a lot. As I increased the distance I could cover in a run, I could go further before turning back. Along one particular road I can tell you precisely the 3 mile, 4 mile and 5 mile points. Of course, this was before the age of the GPS watch and the distances were pre measured by driving my car and setting the trip odometer!
Today things are different and it doesn’t really count as a run unless it’s recorded on your GPS watch and uploaded to Strava or other fitness app!
This morning at 5:00 AM I really didn’t want to go out. I was tired and It was chucking it down with rain (as it is most mornings these days) but I knew I would be home late so didn’t have much choice. I chose an old out and back which takes me down to the canal by an approx 5K route and then run back. in the end, once I got going it didn’t feel too bad. This is what I find about early morning running, sometimes you really don’t want to do it but afterwards you are glad you did.
The really positive thing today is that it’s not even half way through the month and I have run 100 miles. Chuffed with that!
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Colossians 3:23-24 NIVUK
Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church. To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.
I live in a former mining area of West Yorkshire. Many of the country parks and nature reserves round here are what remains of “deep drop” and opencast coal mines. Now this might conjure images of pubs where if you enter, everything goes quiet and some chap in a flat cap gives you a stern look and says “yer not from ‘raaand these parts are ye” (even though you’ve been a regular of the pub for over 40 years). However, full of character this place may be, it certainly isn’t like that. The area where I live is known as the Rhubarb Triangle because most of the UK production of rhubarb comes from round here and it is famous for “forced” rhubarb; a process involving taking the plant into dark warm sheds, thus developing a distinctive flavour.
Most runners know all about DNF (Did Not Finish) and DNS (Did Not Start, where you pull out before the race even begins) but I’ve got a new one for you: DNE, or Did Not Enter! This is reserved for the most mind-bogglingly incompetent numpty who turns up at a race, to realise that he hadn’t submitted the entry after all and worse, all the entry-on-the-day places have been sold out!
Marathon Mann 