I ran from my new office in Liverpool Street to Finchley Road station. It's was really nice. It usually is nice when it's a new route. This one saw me run for quite a long time next to the canal running through London near Camden. I ran with my laptop. I wanted to see what the route would be like if I ran this route after work.

I must admit that running in the city is a lot more fun than running in the country. This is partly because there is so little lighting in the country and in the city it's busier and livelier. Also you can run when it's dark because it's never really dark on the streets with all the ships, businesses and traffic. Some people wouldn't like that but personally having run for the past year on country roads, I'm happy to be back running in the city.

And running with my laptop wasn't that bad at all, in fact it was painful as I thought it might be. I thought my back would be under a lot of stress but it wasn't. I think this is partly down to the fact that it was suitably strapped down. Because, if I'm going to on a train to work in the morning, then I'd like to use my laptop, kinda means I need to take it home with me. This was a good exercise.

I got lost a few times, but I just had to retrace my steps to rejoin the route. All in all,  it took me 1h over 1km. As I said, wasn't particularly hard but then again I couldn't run hard with the route and laptop.

I ran into the office on Friday and it was a good run. I decided not to hit the gym for some reason(something like ‘I was tired’ sounded like a good reason). And I was tired, but I’m not sure why. I went to gym today and it was very easy and I’m wondering if this is because I reduced by gym days by one this week, not withstanding that I ran into the office the previous day. Its also getting harder to get up in the morning but this is not it – I can always get up but if my mind is not with me on what lies ahead – what’s the point, honestly.

Anyway, as per usual I’ve documented my long run here:

Not as good as my ‘bad’ run last week but I don’t have blisters this time and that's a much better result.

About the run

I can always talk about a run because I know how I feel throughout it. This was a very well paced effort, I intentionally tried to not push myself because even though that makes the times better, it also makes the run tougher and less enjoyable. I used my Mio Link HR band to check when I was in the red. I’d then back off the pace so that I could more easily maintain the rest of the run. This is quite novel. The band blinks green, amber, orange, pink,purple and finally red depending on my heart rate. Interestingly enough there were times that I was in the red but didn’t feel like it. Other times it was obvious, like climbing up the hill.

I decided not to continue with my premium membership of strava beause I didn’t feel like I really got much out of it, especially the heart rate analysis features. Those features are easily accessible anyway from the suunto movescount website anyway. Basically this run had a average BPM of 161 which goes as high as 192(which is where my Mio Link goes absolutely red…with rage!). Is quite a useful tool that Mio Link.

This stat is quite interesting. It says the longer I run, the more efficient I become at pumping the required amount blood efficiently throughout my body because my heart rate goes down the longer I run.

You can see the stats here

I’m still not running as much as I used to and I suspect why. I’m getting bored with the routes. Thankfully this looks like its going to change in the new year.

Running is tough. Especially first thing in the morning when your body is still dog tired and stiff. And so, this is how it feels.

There are a few phases of running I've found. First is the one starting. I find its my abs and inner thighs that strain initially. Your ankles hold their breaths. But this is also where you say to yourself, "c'mon lets get at it!". The second is the stiff but gradual easing acclimatisation to beginning as you start pushing forward - here you also start getting used to the cold. At this point you're one your way.