Running

Today I ran four kilometres, after walking fifteen kilometres yesterday and my legs felt tired. They felt heavy and I thought that I wouldn’t make it to the target distance. I did, but it was a game of will.

Usually I go for a run, and then I walk. Today I did the opposite. I went for a walk, and then I went running. Part of the reason I felt tired is that I ran across a grassy field uphill. Grassy fields are fine if you’re used to them. It’s hard work. You have to work to keep your feet stable, to avoid sliding, and to make more effort.

This morning I decided to go for a run, rather than studying or doing other things. I ran along one of my usual routes thinking that it would be quiet but it wasn’t. Groups of people walking two to three abreast, or more were blocking different roads so I deviated through fields, turned around or rerouted.

Out of pandemic I would have spent weekends doing things with people so I would have been one of those people doing something with others. In pandemic I do things alone. I have been doing things alone for five years now. One year because I had no car, the second because of a broken arm, and for three years because of the pandemic. Three or four years ago I lost the ability to walk by couples or groups of people without feeling deep sadness, so I found routes that made it possible to avoid people. With the pandemic I had an excuse to do that openly.

Normally I walk from village to village. My walks can take me through four to six villages per walk. I walk from village to village in part because I live in the middle of a landscape where walking from village to village is easy.

I had doubts about today’s run because I can feel various parts of my legs. I can feel that they are under a different strain than usual, due to the running. I felt fine when I was running, but after sitting I could feel ligaments and tendons. I find myself considering taking proper rest days where I don’t walk at least ten thousand steps as I think that running and walking puts a lot of strain on my body. It could simply be that I need to perfect my running technique.

I am going for a run and a walk three times a week at the moment. The run is set by the Garmin Coach and the walk is set by the route I have chosen to use on that specific day. By running the first part of my daily walk I increase my fitness, according to Strava, Sports Tracker and one or two other apps.

At the same time by running, rather than walking these routes I am saving time. A walk that would usually take ten minutes per kilometre is cut down to seven, or less. The runs have gone from 1.6 km, to 2.4 to 3.2 and more. As the runs get longer so the distance I cover increases, and so the daily walk distance takes less time, as it is run instead. The aim is still to run 5km comfortably, not to increase the distance beyond 5k, for now.

Since the start of the year I have been running regularly. Yesterday I went for a run and I found it easiser than other runs. It might be thanks to the audiobook, on the one hand, and to consistent training on the other. I am not pushing hard. The training program is a 5k programme over twelve weeks. I don’t need twelve weeks for this. I was a runner before. I don’t care about beating distance records or other things.

At the start of this year I started running again. This wasn’t a new year’s resolution. I just decided that I wanted to start running, so I did. For five years I have been walking around in circles. Some take me above the A1 motorway and others take me below it. The walks are all familiar and I do them so regularly that I see the changes from week to week.

I am getting back into running at the moment. I have run several times recently, irregularly enough not to feel pain in my knees or other articulations so this is a good sign. The advantage of running, over other sports, is that it’s easy to catch a bus, car, train, parapente or other form of transport and start running. The second advantage is that it is twice as fast as walking.

Despite having a frosty morning today I still decided to go for a run in the morning rather than the afternoon. I mention the frost because I noticed that one velux had the usual frost fractals but the others were clear. This is curious.

Frost fractals on a velux

I wore a thermal layer, a fleece, a t-shirt and some running shoes that were not waterproof. I would have run one route but a couple took the entire width of the road so I ran along the side of the road, and in the grass by the side of the road. Due to my wearing different shoes my feet and socks got wet and I could feel the dampness, a feeling that I usually do not get.

Today I began playing with Garmin Coach. I decided to try one of the running programs. It’s the first of January, first day of the year, and I have already been for two walks and a run. The run was a calibration run so I ran too fast and too hard so I burned out on the first task. I ran at 16km/h and 230 steps per minute for a short burst before tiring and slowing a bit.

Over the last week or two I decided to run and to swim. These are two sports that are easy to do if you have access either to a pool, or the right shoes. Swimming was in 14°c water for 17 and ten minutes. The first time my hands and feet were cold so I wore gloves. It’s a way of enjoying a different sport than usual. It’s a way of using different muscle groups too.