Exercise in Unpleasantness

Unpleasant day for exercising today. A very nice day for sitting inside, snuggling under a doonah, sipping some wine or a coffee perhaps. Maybe a coffee followed by wine. Hmmm.... You get the idea though, very nice day to be doing almost anything other than going outside and running.

As I mentioned yesterday the programmed session for today was for a long run. When I say long run I mean a proper long one, 30km. When I woke up this morning though it was just nope, nope, nope. The wind was howling, the rain was falling. I had zero motivation to go outside and run for a couple of hours. Adding to the weather is the fact that I am currently up in Guilderton and I know from previous bitter experience that running up here is not easy. There is no flat ground here, if you are running you are either going up or down a hill. On top of that, running here is exposed, if there is a wind blowing (which there nearly always is) you will be running in it. Those factors made getting out for a run tough going.

Still I got myself out the door eventually. By mid afternoon the rain had eased a bit and the wind had dropped a bit and so I headed out. It still wasn't the most pleasant run I have ever had, there were definite character building moments, like at around the 18km mark running up hill along a dirt track into headwind driven rain. That one had me questioning my sanity. It was also the sort of session though that gives you confidence. It would have been just so easy to flag it. Too hard, too unpleasant, not going to get it done. Stepping out the door knowing that you were going to be running for the next 2 and a bit hours was just so hard. Pushing through this sort of session is the sort of 1%er that brings results. Knowing that gives you a certain glow.

Despite the various unpleasantnesses the actual running went well. The 30km passed surprisingly easily, particularly given the hilly, windy nature of where I was running. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised since I have done plenty of 2 hour runs and this isn't all that much further. But there is something about crossing that 30km barrier. Mentally I was expecting the run to be tougher. I had a brief, toilet induced break around the 9km mark, but other than that it was fairly continuous session done at a reasonable pace. I just found it quite easy to keep slogging forward, a result that I am very happy.

Now if you don't mind I have the sleep of the dead to be getting on with.