Friday, January 06, 2006

Work to home, home to work

Yesterday was the first day back at work after the New Year break (taken by the whole country, including garbage collectors). As is tradition, though I'd forgotten about it, our office had a bit of a party in the afternoon with sushi, pizza, beer and various other 'health' foods. I had brought my running gear and planned to run home, and nothing was going to stop me. So with a belly full of food and three cans of beer under the belt, I set off for the run home. I took it easy, and apart from a stitch early on and quite a few gaseous eruptions, made it home in just a bit slower than normal time. While I'd rather run on an empty stomach, I think it is good to know that the body is resilient enough to handle something like that. Maybe I could do ultras with that kind of constitution?

So with work gear left at work, I turned around and ran back to work this morning. Stopped at Gaien (a 1325-m loop basically uninterrrupted by roads) and stashed my bag and stripped off a layer of clothes to run some 1200-m intervals with 2-min recovery. Well, it really was cold...probably around zero degrees. Even though I had gloves on, my hands were stinging after the first rep. I was pleased with the fact that I stuck it out for four reps in total, but the times were not so pleasing: 4:41, 4:37, 4:41, and 4:42. In fact they kind of suck ass, as Eric Cartman would say. Well, at least they were reasonably even I suppose, but a good 10 to 15 seconds slower than where I was at about a month ago. Never mind. Have to start somewhere and this is certainly not starting at the bottom. I just wonder if I can get near half-marathon PB shape by the start of February?  The encouraging thing was that this is not a bad running option in that it offers some quality within a run to work...and does not require a 5:00 am start. The logistics of towels, undies, socks, etc etc is a bit of a pain though. There is really no substitute for just getting up and getting out the door and getting the run over with before the day even starts. So, roll on spring...

3 comments:

Tesso said...

If there is a Beer Mile in the CR Blogging Team Challenge I know who is going to represent Team J :-)

runlady said...

:) drink-running is fun!

Clairie said...

I am so glad that I get the opportunity to live in this climate.
I can get up early and run and still get ready for work on time.

Living 20km from the city I don't think I would like to run to work very often, also the only path is along the motorway and that sux for a runner.

I have to say that for a brief second I wished it was 0 degrees (it is so bloody hot here) but then I recalled wearing gloves and my fingers hurting and there is no way I want to bring that on any sooner than necessary. Plus I get the gloves out at 15degrees - not zero!!!!!!

BTW, I don't think your efforts were very bad at all. Consistency on a freezing morning needs to be applauded.
Will be interesting to see how you improve over the next few weeks with this one.