My Journey With Health And Fitness – A Good Day For A Run

I saw something yesterday that really annoyed me. I was doing a short run and as I was coming up to a controlled crosswalk when I saw a man jaywalking. Here is what really bothered me about this, he was only about 15 feet from the controlled crosswalk! I rant a lot about pedestrian safety but a 60ish year old man couldn’t walk those few feet to keep himself and quite frankly the approaching drivers safe? This is shameful in my opinion and I ask that if you are a pedestrian you only cross streets at the appropriate locations.

I had checked the weather last night and it looked like if I went for an early morning run I could avoid most of the rain. So, I got up at the usual 4am and headed out the door at 5am. I will note, because it was really dark I was fully equipped with my flashing vest. I started with walking just over a kilometer before I embarked on a 7.5km run. It was a bit breezy but fairly mild. The only time it was a bit of a challenge was running along the pier because the wind was quite strong and heading directly at me but otherwise it was quite comfortable.

At about the 1/2 way point I thought, this is a good day for a run. It was early so not many people on the promenade but I was really comfortable. I was keeping my pace nice and steady but still getting a pretty good workout. I also decided since the west beach portion of our promenade is unlit that while I was heading back I ran through the parking lot which has lights. I know the weather is not necessarily going to be conducive to outdoor running the next 1 1/2 months before I head back to Mexico so I am really glad I got up early to get this run in.

But I realized something in the last kilometer of the 7.5km run, I was quite getting in to the book I was listening to (I wasn’t really enjoying it at first). Why is that important? Because I suddenly realized I wasn’t thinking about the fact I was running at all. Instead, I was focusing on the book rather than saying mantras in my head to stop myself from thinking about how much I hate running. Rather, I thought, I am liking this quiet morning listening to a book doing a good run. I don’t know why this has changed from when I was running a year and a half ago but it has and now I am looking forward to planning at least 3 runs next week. Planning because of course I have to figure out which days when the weather is cooperating.

I had another thought, I don’t want to give this up again. Even if I don’t get back to the endurance I had before, I’m comfortable with just getting back up to a nice easy 10km run. As a matter of fact, I think I will try a 10km next weekend, weather permitting of course.