The Peloton Road to Half Marathon collection is 10 weeks long, but I did a 10k course first as a sort of "Couch to Half Marathon" (Andy's term, not mine). I started training in around June.
I would run at around 5:15am, in the glorious Welsh summer sun that comes up at 4:30 (it's not warm, it's just... light)
In August I started my runs around 5:30, and in September I've moved to 6am (as the mornings got darker).
This morning, I woke up at 5:30 and got ready for my 6am run (45 minute progression) and it was still dark outside.
I don't like running in the dark. It's weird that 6am dark feels creepy and bad and 6am light feels exciting and fun.
Even though I live in a generally really safe area of a generally really safe country, I still get icked by running in dark or running by myself in the hills.
For instance - my long run on Sunday:
See that line that goes to the left and stops? That's because there was a car parked on a gravel path, right before the road I was trying to get to. I didn't want to run past weird car parked in the woods, so I turned around and ran the other way.
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| I ran along this quarry for a while, which did not bother me at all |
It's 6:45 now, and it's about the level of light I would like to start a run.
I felt rather annoyed this morning, after my 5:30 wake up and coffee, running clothes on, staring out the window at the darkness.
It seems exceptionally silly to be mad at the darkness. I did a 20 minute Yin Yoga instead.
Schedule thoughts:
- I can do runs during my lunch break, on days I work from home.
- I need to schedule these in by the week, in my personal planner and work calendar
- I can use the morning for other things I'm not doing, like blogging, yoga, stretching, strength, peloton cycling, life admin like budget and photo albums... Or more sleeping
- I need to actually *do* my mid day runs (which can only be monday thru thursday)
- I need to make sure I've eaten breakfast or a good snack before the lunch run so I'm not ravenous at run time
The shorter days and the time change were the bane of my existence in my running days. It is SO CREEPY/unsafe to run in the dark. By unsafe I don't mean people so much as I mean the risk of falling, which I did a few times before banishing myself to the treadmill on dark mornings. That solved the safety issue but multiplied the blerg issue.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a solution, I just wanted to let you know that I see you and I feel your pain. Enjoy your 45 minute progression run!
I've heard enough scary stories to NOT run in the dark. I had a scary incident walking home after dark in university and now am extra cautious. But it really is a bummer to have to work around daylight hours.
ReplyDeleteI'm also careful where I run even in the daylight. I used to run a fairly secluded trail. I would play podcasts out loud on my phone as a ran, so if someone heard me they might assume I was on the phone talking (my reasoning being they would be less likely to try something untoward). Anyhoo, I decided if I felt I needed to be on guard, I should just not run that trail alone anymore! It's sad...but an ounce of prevention can be worth so very much (especially for women exercising solo).
I would have avoided that car, too!
I run on my meal breaks at work. Because of various union rules, I often get 90 minutes for dinner, which is more than enough time to eat something an do something else. (I realized how much time 90minutes was when I was pumping on my meal breaks. Adn then I stopped pumping and felt like I got all this time back and needed to do something with it.) . My Husband bought me a light up running vest thing because he was afraid of me running in the dark, but I don't use it because I wouldn't run in the dark anyway. Though, I've run in the near dark sometimes on my dinner break at work, when it gets dark at 5:30pm, but the path to run at work has a lot of foot traffic and is well lit, so it feels pretty safe.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think I should just run inside at the gym or something, but I really do like being outside, which is part of the reason I run.
Do your clocks change in the fall? Maybe you can get some morning light back then?