The Lull – How Do I Stop This Thing? – The “Yes” Man
…pretty much sums up the frequency of my runs recently. And my blogs, for that matter. Although, I have a far more balanced exercise regime now. After struggling to fit in the training for the Royal Parks Half Marathon and the subsequent 13.1 miles, I was left with some unusual aches, pains and chafing – the result of altering my running style so I could actually feel my left leg below the knee during the race. In fact I’ve only managed 2 runs since – both of which were my “Sunday Morning Special” of about 6 and a half miles. I still have an ache in my right thigh which is noticeable when I start to run but soon disappears after a mile or so, so I don’t think it is too much to worry about.
But, I have been able to get some free weights sessions done – a happy by product of not wanting to run too much and also getting back home at a reasonable time at night for 1 week.
This week will be low not only on running but free-weights too -although there will be cycling as I am house-sitting and freelancing (conveniently) about 2 and half miles away from where I am staying. So Sunday evening, I packed up a weeks worth of stuff into my bag and cycled to the train station for the first part of my journey. I wanted to try out the fixed gear bike that I have cobbled together from bits out of a neighbours skip and various bargains on e-bay, so what better way than to use it for a week of commuting through the streets of London. Riding a fixie is a very different experience from riding a normal mountain or road bike. As the rear cog is fixed to the hub (i.e it does not rotate independently) it means that if the wheel is rotating, the pedals have to, too.
It takes a bit of concentration as the temptation to free-wheel up to a junction or traffic lights is a hard habit to break, but once you get used to pre-empting the stopping and using the pedals to help slow you down, it is a fun way of riding. The transmission is almost silent and the response from pushing on the pedal to the back wheel turning is instant. I never realised how much delay there is with a derailleur until I rode a bike without one!
Then, a 7 mile cycle from Kings Cross to my “home” for next 7 days, in the dark, with a weeks worth of clothing, a washbag, books, mp3 player etc strapped to my back was a bit of a trial by fire for the bike and I but it was fun… even if you do need to get up out of the saddle to get the thing moving from a standing start!
So, I am looking forward to catching up on a number of things that have been neglected over the past few weeks and months as I now have an extra 2 and a half hours in my day that is saved by my commute only being 15-20 mins each way. Unfortunately, freelancing means that I constantly have to say yes to everything. Not knowing where or when the next job is going to spring from, every offer is pounced upon.
“Do you want to spend over 3 hours commuting every day?” – Yes!!
“Do you want to do a job that you could do with your eyes closed for 8 hours every day” – Yes!!!! Yes!!!!
“Do you want to to accept a much lower wage than was agreed because Mr Weasel, the boss, thinks he can pay you less than was offered because you’re freelance and he thinks you must be desperate”… er, no, actually. Which is why I left a 2 week contract after 3 days. And I didn’t get paid for the 3 days I did work. And those are the downsides.
The upsides are that you get to work places that you wouldn’t normally, doing different parts of the same job, picking up different skills and meeting some fine people along the way. I swear I’ve learnt more in the past 3 months than I have in the previous 3 years so things could be a lot, lot worse.
So I’ve another week and a bit of this (back home at the weekend to see the familly for a big Halloween Night Out, my Sunday Morning Special and some time to chill out before coming back next Sunday evening for a couple of days). And then it’s back to the 3 hour round trip commute and trying to get a few quality training sessions in before the Willow 10k towards the end of November.
Sorry there’s not been much about running, but there’s not been a lot of running to blog about. C’est La Vie.
Soundtrack to this post: Radioactivity – Kraftwerk