Back home, I’m so not loving it.

74 days to go

Circumstances forced me to take an early morning run today. Much as I should be doing more of these to get accustomed to the time of day, (as this is when most races happen) I’m a much happier evening runner. Also, to be fair, most races don’t start at 5.30am. But I was off and doing one of my more familiar routes. The route, which I’ve nicknamed ‘reward’ starts off at my house and winds (I’ve mentioned that I like starting off with a few turns before right?) around the neighbourhood for about 2km. The next two kilometres are a steady drag, with one drastic climb at the start and one short drop at the end. I then head left into a flat for about 700m before doing a drastic (easily 30 degree) climb for 400m. At this point I’ve done 5k with only climbing. And the reason I call the route ‘Reward’?

Because after all that climbing, this is what I get to see. Picture pending but I get the most fantastic view of the city, stretching all the way from Blouberg to Muizenberg It’s like I’ve pounded my way all over the city and get to look back at it with impunity. No, really, I marvel, every time. I’ll never regret living here. “I love this city tonight. I love this city always.”

So? The nitty gritty? Reward can be run quick or slow. I can drop immediately after the view for a close of little over 7km or I can drag it out and go back through the neighbourhood for 10km. Today I compromised because I was concerned about time. I’d guess the distance to be 8km. And my time was 35 minutes, still very very slow. Ideally I should run 8k’s in an even 30, well, between 30-32. Back to the speed work drawing board. I was right a couple of days ago about the flats being too easy. The 12k’s there felt much easier than the 8k’s here.

Anyhoo, I clearly have work to be done. Next run will be a timed 5k for speed, looking forward and dreading it all at the same time.