Far From Flabby February

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Adventures of a Night Runner


It is 25 degrees Celsius, the humidity is sitting at 80% and it is 3:30 in the morning. I am in my running kit, standing outside my house glugging water and telling myself to get on with it. Well, in truth, it didn't take too much self talk to see me heading off into the night. I had actually been looking forward to the testing six kilometre hill repeats session I had scheduled myself for this morning. Any hesitation was merely the result of the unexpected warmth and humidity, and perhaps just a slight nervousness about the toughness of the challenge.

Five laps of the circuit I call "Burgoyne" after one of the streets on the 1.3 km loop circuit from my house shouldn't present too much of a challenge if I'm fit and had done some hill work. While it is true that I am a lot fitter now than a few weeks ago, I have not done a lot of hill work, and I'm up at 3:30 because I haven't slept properly since waking at 1 a.m. and had finally given up trying, albeit just fifteen minutes before my alarm would have woken me anyway to get this run done in time to catch the 5:09 to work.

Each lap has two hills, a short one of just 120 metres or so from my house up to Park Avenue, and a longer, tougher one of 280 metres about half way around. They're tough, honest enough hills at the best of times, but this morning, in warm, muggy conditions and with me unwisely wearing one of my warmer running tops, it makes for tough going. I do complete my five laps, but I return home sweating a waterfall and being very grateful for the extra few minutes my earlier rising allows to recover sufficiently before getting ready and catching my train. There can be no doubt however that this has been a honest little session, and I commute into the city feeling very pleased with my night time exertions. Ten hills, six kilometres and one smug middle aged bloke runner. Not a bad way to start a working day.

Two days prior had been a far more modest short, easy run of no great note other than it kept my schedule intact. I now have just one more run for the month to come, the 16 kilometre long slow effort on Sunday morning. This will necessarily be another early outing as I again have to work, though nowhere near as early as today, so hitting the road around dawn will work just fine. Whilst it will be long and slow it won't however be an easy run as I've already set my mind on a tough, hilly street circuit that I ran frequently in the past but which hasn't seen my footfall for a little over three years now. It will be an interesting, and possibly slightly terrifying reunion.

The body is feeling good (touch wood) ... the cautious approach is paying off.