Last week I began the leading the Learn to Run clinic at The Running Room. Like any new endeavour, I pretty much bounced off the wall until the first session, then settled down. Today I took a small group out for the Sunday runs. One set of members, a married couple, even brought a jogging stroller for their toddler son. I rediscovered something not felt in a long time-fun. I had fun today. I managed to go front, to middle, to the back, and up again.
Part of my problem involved getting my speed down. I either go too fast or too slow, never a sense of when to use what speed. Basically I try to feel the internal gear shift to speed up at the right time rather than burning up early making the rest of the run one.long.ordeal. We now sit at one minute running, one minute walking, or as I like to call it ‘the oasis period’. The minutes will go up from here on out, but I think we will do just fine.
The hard part comes in getting other practice times in. Someone I manged to book my week. (D’oh!) I may have to do the unthinkable, but completely doable:
Wake up early morning to get it in.
It’s unthinkable since it involves setting my alarm clock for an earlier hour. I have done it in the past. When I trained for the Hypothermic Half, a lovely name for an annual event in February, I did get up depending on what time I started work at the book store. I have fond memories of the moment. The neighbourhood slowly woke from its own slumber with some houses showing a couple of lights, others still dark, and the odd time I see the weather channel or the news playing in a an open window. A few times people nodded their good mornings, a cup of coffee in hand, as their dog performed its morning business. I also saw toddlers slumped in their strollers as parents pushed towards the bus for day care. To the writer in me, it’s the perfect time to hone observation.
Tomorrow it’s the show talk given by the Running Room staff. A few people did buy themselves some new shoes and noticed their aches and pains went away. Now I will try to wind myself down to bed. First, watch a little of The Town with Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner.
Unpaused Life 