Driech Day

53 min
Start 8.30
This morning I almost literally had to drag myself out the door. The weather is grey and driech and miserable now after all the weeks of sparkly winter wonderland stuff and I felt sluggish and still half asleep and the last thing in the world I felt like doing was going out running. But. (Elma's Pep Talk # 487 coming up now.)

I'd set out my stuff the evening before, all ready to put on in the right order. My water bottles were filled (with a mix of dead cola and fruit juice, my latest fad). I pulled it all on on autopilot, every item I donned was taking me further from what I really wanted to do (go back to bed). It's a question of gaining momentum, getting past the moment of no return. To use a tired old Nike advertising slogan - Just Do It.

The start of the run was heavy going. My lungs seemed to be objecting to the whole daft running idea (I should perhaps resurrect my asthma drugs for damp misty days but it was too much bother to go back and get them and it wasn't thAt bad). I plodded on, walking occasionally where bits of the paths were still covered in bits of hardpacked snow/ice. I looked at my watch and wondered if I'd ever reach the 50 minutes I'd promised myself I'd get done. At 15 minutes I ate the banana I'd taken with me (another thing I dislike about morning runs is not eating first so the banana is another motivational tool). I tried a 'fast' 6 minute circuit but had to abandon it as the downhill bit of the path was too treacherous to run on. But this at least got my speed up a wee bit.

Changed from talking to music podcasts and things improved even more. My lungs seemed to decide that it was no use moaning, as I wasn't going to stop and got their act together to supply me with more air. (I see them as lots of tiny balloons which just need to get properly inflated first and then they can do their job.) Next time I looked at my watch I was past 30 minutes and felt a lot better. And of course when I got home I was glad I'd went out after all.

The moral of the story is: your morning run actually starts the night before when you lay your clothes and other essentials out. Without this preparation there's a good chance the morning run won't happen at all.