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RE: Long March Rocket
Starry, starry night...
The full moon was shining brightly, low in the western sky. Below it, hanging like a drop earing was Jupiter or Venus - I don't know which - looking gorgeous against the dark of the night. Not looking gorgeous, and feeling even worse was myself, contemplating (as ever) why on earth I was out on the streets in my running kit at 4:30 a.m.
Well I knew why fundamentally I was there, which was to run a testing hill reps session. What I couldn't quite fathom was why my mind rejected that answer and kept screaming at me "No! Really, why...?"
Sighing inwardly, I turned right and got started on the first of what was to be six laps of my hilly course. As slight compensation, the weather was superb: cool, calm and without a hint of the stickiness that has made running so difficult in recent weeks, even at this early hour. As a result, there was a huge spike in non-driver human activity on the streets this morning, and I counted four walkers, two other runners and a cyclist during my 7.6km jaunt up and down the hills of my neighbourhood. The possum and fruit bat index was also substantially higher this morning, although unusually there were no rabbits to be seen. In Burgoyne Avenue the frogs were croaking happily again.
Speaking of Burgoyne Avenue, for the first time since I've been running this circuit (on and off for several years now) I had to stop and step off to the side of the road as a car came through on this dark, narrow and footpath-less road. Oddly, not only was this the first time I'd encountered a vehicle here, but literally just the previous evening Mrs MLCMM had questioned the wisdom of my running this road in the dark and I had countered that it was perfectly fine as I had never yet encountered a car there at this time of the day. Sometimes the world does work in extremely weird, synchronistic ways.
Hill session complete, I skulked back home and tried to feel good about it. I didn't though. It was slow and awkward and my knees hurt. No endorphins coursed through my veins and the feeling of smugness I usually enjoy as a result of this madness had vanished along with the rabbits. It is however, another tough little session in the running log and an important conditioning run prior to the hilly 10km fun run I have entered in ten or so days time. A kind of dull satisfaction is slowly seeping in as I write this, so I am still pleased to have completed it. Even these tough, non-stimulating sessions are worthwhile.
Yes, of course they are.
Run on, friends.
P.S. Oh, and remember Lucas Browne, the Aussie heavyweight boxing champion I wrote about a week or so ago? Well, he's just failed a drug test, his "A" sample returning a positive result for that old favourite performance enhancer, clenbuterol. And so once again the gloss fades from boxing's glamour. Damned shame. And to think he inspired me to get through a particularly tough run. Booooo!
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Long March Rocket
