48 mins
4.79 miles
10m10s pace
After a relatively long time running – which is anything over ½ an hour for me – I get to the stage where the end is nigh, most of my energy is spent and the podcast’s finished. At this point this morning, I remembered I have hamstrings – I don’t use them much as a rule – but when they were added into the mix, I found an extra turn of speed.
It’s biomechanics, isn’t it and ignore them at your peril because they will keep you going in the long run
For example, remembering to keep your elbows tucked in to your sides to stop twisting, remembering to land mid-foot rather than on your heels, remembering to hold your phone in a manner which doesn’t trigger RSI.* (I failed on that score a couple of weeks ago in Whitstable and have been paying the price ever since)
But it does nothing for fat fingers – blood is centrifuged into my hands, making my digits increasingly sausagey the longer the run goes on. Same for the red face* – it’s why I never run at lunchtimes at work (well, it’s one reason, and the best I can come up with)
It seems amazing, considering all that, that someone who’s overweight, knock-kneed and middle aged can actually run. It’s not pretty, but I am running.
One other side effect no one told me about is that it makes my tinnitus, temporarily at least, borderline unbearable: is it the raised blood pressure? Is there raised blood pressure after running? (It's only temporary)
You talk to a (serious) runner and they will tell you they or someone they know, found running cured their depression, anxiety, all sorts of mental health issues. It’s great of course. For me – once the podcast finished and was hoping to get into this meditative state, I found myself over-thinking – ‘am I meditating here, am I thinking normally or am I getting into a meta rabbit hole and thinking about thinking?’ Whatever, I arrived back home with this list of ideas to jot down for the blog.
*I need one of these: Finburst running belt
**my face doesn’t go sausagey
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