This morning’s run was fairly tough. Its always tough to be fair. Though its usually the same kind of tough. I’ve been off for the last 6 days.

That means I’ve not run at all during that time – it was kinda like a break from running and seeing that this was a normal tough run this morning – I’d say things are back to how they always were.

Three changes however. First is that I didn’t sleep well and that made no difference at all. It was the strangest thing. I watched the clock from 21:30 all the way to 3:30 then I fell asleep and then the alarm went off. Typical. Second was that I stopped at my newly/temporarily christened official stopping point: the petrol station. I got myself a drink of water there and then decided that I’d stop at any point if I felt like it. So I did, I stopped when my chest felt like it was going to explode. I stopped when it felt like my ribs were dislodging from my sides. I stopped when I was just plain tired. And you know what? That was pretty a good way of doing things – I enjoyed the run because of it. However I did learn one thing, don't stop too long else you’re body don’t start very well. You kinda have to persuade your legs that this was only a temporary thing and it don’t come easy. They be like, “what we just stopped you want us to go again? What is this!”. So you got to be very temporality in pausing from near passing out(I’m exaggerating, I wasn’t near passing out). 

My watch has been on 0% battery for the last week or so. I’m very impressed so a shout out to my main main, Suunto Ambit – a great piece of equipment which doesn’t break. 

So here is the results of my first run since my leave from running:

Sure, it wasn’t fast but it was enjoyable. I did have a slight lower back niggle however but since I don’t run on my heels, this wasn’t a problem – I didn’t even feel it going up the hill which is 23m elevation, so its not critical at all. Its actually only noticeable when I sit down and lean over – like when I put on my socks.  Its slight but its noticeable.

So we’re on average at 04:37/km which is pretty much as usual. GPS was all messed up but I think thats because my poor little watch was at 0% battery which is understandable and that it even recorded stuff is impressive.

I’m thinking of putting my heart rate monitor back on because I’ve not put it on for a while but maybe I wont.

Well this morning’s run was very nice. It was both tough and easy and very stable mix of effort. That’s the kind of run I like. Some stretches felt like I was heavy and sluggish while others felt like I was running on a feather. Its totally because I rested. Its a typical after-the-weekend run.

I thought perhaps I ran faster than I did, but in the end it was a usual run, no PRs but that’s ok. In other news I watched Legends of the Fall this weekend for the 2nd time this year. Its a pretty interesting film. So I figured I’d just use that as today’s title.

Thursdays have a few things going for it. First and foremost is that they are the day before Friday. That’s a great reputation to have. Also Thursdays are easy-going for me, I don’t give it hell for leather because frankly, I can’t – I’m just too tired by this time of the week.

An interesting feeling I was thinking about while running this morning was that this midweek feeling which I call stamina mode can mostly be described as an average pain, a steady-state not absolutely tough but a determined sort of thing. It was a fine run, and I enjoyed it. That's what's its all about.

My Spotify crashed on my Android phone this morning which makes me think i should go back to my iPhone which is real sturdy.I’m not too sure I have the patience for Android. But this is only day 2.