Today my run back from the gym was much more relaxed than usual, I guess that's because I wasn’t particularly late or exactly on time – I was a bit early in my schedule, also I knew that my next run would be 15 minutes later than usual – I’ve recalculated my starting run times so that I catch the bus in good time without waiting too long.

So usually I’m around 4:30/km but I was about 5:00/km today. It was a good run. it marked the 705th KM run in my pegasus shoes. Well done chaps, you’re doing great!

Speaking of catching the bus, I for some reason ‘uped’ the pace here – perhaps I thought ‘dont miss the buss, dont miss the buss…’ though I should’ve had lots of time – hence me starting 15 minutes earlier. The pace was the usual 4:30/km and in terms of pace distribution, I was in Z5/6(V02Max/Anaerobic) for most of the time – more than half of the time funny enough. Apparently I suffered a bit, with a ‘suffer score’ of 22. For the last couple of days I’ve seen only my own footprints on the overhead bridges that cross over the roundabout which is kinda cool. Its like I was seeing my past self and past self’s effort. Today their wasn’t enough cold/mist/front to make out footprints.

Then moving on from when I got off at the bus stop which was also much faster at a pace of 4:14/km:

So this week, so far, 9 km have been covered – last week it was 45km.

I’m actually really tired today. I went to the gym this morning and it didn’t open up. That's not cool. I decided to take a run around the block and come back to see if the gym had opened. Nope. That sucks.

So I decided to go for a run down to the other one. It opened and the run was actually kinda tough but my pace was OK at 4:37 and my body is pretty stubborn, like me…

That's because I’m not been running to the gym in the mornings like I did today. I’d just run back. So today I did and its cool. And the run up looked liked this:

And as part of my new route, I’m running from home and catching the bus about 3km ahead at around the 2nd bus stop:

My timings are not right and I end up sitting a lot longer at the bus stop after my run and I get cold., so I’ll need to perhaps leave about 15 minutes later.And I decided to get off one stop sooner and run the rest of the way to work:

This last leg was actually quite interesting because I felt at times like I could not feel any discomfort from effort, my legs were just turning and turning, almost instinctively-like.

Trying to be above average is hard.

I’ve still got a week left on my return to Uxbridge bus ticket and I must say having found this new bus service is brilliant. I started taking it because I’d stopped running into the office due to a physical defect in my calf(that sounds cool) but now having run in yesterday, its better now so I can go back to my daily routine. However I still got a week left on my alternative route into work  which is via a weekly bus ticket.

So this morning I had a dilemma, ditch the paid for ticket and take the usual route and pay for the route and get my run in, or take the bus and forgo the run in. I carried this dilemma with me until I started brushing my teeth which is the last thing I do before walking out the door. Then, just as I was standing there, I figured it out: I’ll take the bus route as I’ve paid for it but I’ll run ahead about 15 minutes to a bus  stop and then take the bus. Simple!

So that’s what I did:

Which is longer than the usual run from Ruislip tube station to West Ruislip station. Its double the way actually. 1.3/km vs 3km.

: My previous route:

See usually, what I’d do is the following to get into work:

I take the tube from Uxbridge to Ruislip which involves two Oyster touch-ins- not sure how much that costs but I imagine its about £1. Then I run up the West Ruislip for about 5 mins and depending take a train to Gerrards Cross which costs about £6 return or £4 one way. So adding up the costs, I’d usually only take a return on a Tuesday and Thursday (run in all the way to work on the other days). So add that up and you get (2 * £6) = £12 + (3 * £4) =£12 which is already £24 because I run in the morning but take the train back) and then I’d run from West Ruislip to Ruislip and touch in again with my oyster(probably £1). So you’re looking at about a £26 a week and the new bus service I take costs £20 a week and is super fast. So might stick to the busses and ditch the trains…

And what's so great about running? It makes me feel like I’ve qualified to be alive for the day.

Oh and today is my birthday…happy birthday to me!