“How did it get so late so soon?”
― Dr. Seuss
Foreword to Friday Night's Run
I can't sleep, so I thought I might as well do a #HFNLRunDiary2015.
This will be the tag I'll start using to record experiences, thoughts, insights and ideas, acquired along the run for this year.
If you are new follower, and have read my first 7 blogposts for 2015, I hope they helped you get to know me more - who I am as a runner. If you've been following for a while now, I hope you've learned something new. :)
I wrote those 7 blogs, first and foremost to remind myself, how far I have come and how with determination, I have reached so many goals, I never would have thought I was capable of. It should be, and would be the attitude I will have this year, and the years to come: determined (and more disciplined!).
Each blog powered the next, and I was happy to experience, that I still can do it - take one simple step at a time, and help myself move forward. I truly hope someone out there will be empowered by the experiences, and insights I share.
Here are the links to those blog one more time in order of when it was written:
I greet you randomly, 2015!: how I broke through "blogging/writing block"
When A Look Back Year Fuels the Future: brief summaries for each running year 2011-14
Marikenloop 2012-15: my history with one of the most popular ladies' running event in the Netherlands
Below are look back blogs to each running year - in pictures!
- Running 2014 in Images (HFNL Blog Appendage 4)
- Running 2013 in Images (HFNL blog appendage 3)
- Running 2012 in Images (HFNL blog appendage 2)
- Running 2011 in Images (HFNL blog appendage 1)
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| My running community project last year - I thought empowering others to be active in the morning will help empower me as well! |
Going back HFNL Friday Night Run - it was suppose to be an early bird run but I ended up running as "my old owl self".
I think, I completely have to embrace the fact that I am a night runner by design rather than circumstances, and that I need to work systematically and with more focus to be an early morning runner.
It is after all one of those reasons that marathon, specifically marathon training appealed to me.
I felt that if you are training for a marathon, your motivation to go to bed early and rise before the sun does would increase. Alas, I discovered your will should be stronger than your dependance on the magic of the marathon to work on early morning run aspirations!
But hey, we only have January! There are many months ahead of us, which are full of positive possibilities.
This blog is my first step to improving myself. I am openly acknowledging that I need to work even more harder to achieve the structure I need to be a morning runner. It is that simple.
Would this Friday Night Run be my last late night run? I don't know. I wish!
For now, I would say again, we only have January. WE all still have many more months to make many efforts to improve ourselves.
K by K
I admire bloggers, who could recall vividly what they experienced by each kilometer of their run - how it went, what they thought, what they felt - in their blogs. In the past years, I tried to do this by writing down in small notebooks after a race or a training run, a blow by blow account of how each kilometer was! I somehow along the way seem to always lose the interest to write them on the computer, and publish them here.
One thing I have learned even before I started running: anything is achieved, improved and refined by doing it again and again.
So here goes my first kilometer for kilometer blogpost for this year (my umpteenth attempt to begin this kind of series for the past 3 years!)…
How the day was…
Friday was a cheat day because my youngest had a super belated birthday celebration with two of her friends.
I wanted so very much to go for an early run so I won't have it in my head the whole day while I am out with the girls. They deserve my full attention.
Alas, I was not able to stand up even if I heard the alarm twice. Sigh.
I've been in this road many times. The only difference this time, I did not punish myself as much as I did previously. As I wrote above, I told myself, I'll do better in the last weeks of this month, and the next months ahead.
Our youngest and her friends had a great time, and I enjoyed it with them without any mental distractions of the missed morning run.
Afterwards, I spent quality time with the family - instead of going right away for a run, after arriving from a day out, I stayed home. Friday is mostly the Family's Pizza Friday. I did not eat any though, and simply drank a smoothie, later on tea; I ate fast food, movie theater snack, and ice-cream in the afternoon! I felt so bloated.
From Top Gear to Top Run...
3 hours later on the couch (watching our series), I told my husband, who was slowly falling asleep, that I am going out. I said out loud to him what I told myself: if I can sit and relax for 3 hours, I can manage to run & exercise for at least an hour! The day before, I also did (ran a 10.15 km) and felt so great (I'll share the story of that run in another blog).
It took me another hour to finally be ready. Don't ask me why, and how I do this kind of routine; you will be reading a blog about it, soon enough! *bows head in shame*
Now to the kilometers!
1 km - dark, foggy and brrrrrrrrrrr cold - it was like entering a human fridge. Luckily, I've been running this week, and knew how many layers to wear to stay warm enough.
Onward forward to...
2 km - it's a short distance, and you are out of our village. I kept telling myself: go on, you are almost half way the distance you are tricking your mind to believe you will go, and not further! But I think my brain was too distracted by the flow of ideas going through my head to send me more discouraging messages.
3 km - when I reached this point, I told myself, 2 more kilometers, and you can turn around - yay!
4 km - "...maybe I should turn around now…", said one part of my brain, and the other part replied, "…you are 6 kilometers away from improving your status on your different Nikeplus challenges!" MOVE!
5 km - I finally arrived at the school of our daughters. 20 minutes longer than when I bike.
6 km - I took a photo of an otherwise very busy bridge (see image above) completely empty in the late night. It was in the spirit of: "Picture along the run, confirms you did it!" But I suddenly got scared, when I heard very boisterous, happy - read: drunk! - voices.
Sooooo, I ran the heck away from the spot…
7 km - Selfie! The good thing about the dark, you don't see my nose running. :D
BTW, I love rediscovering the street sign I pass by almost everyday on the way to school: Koninginneweg.
It seems like a message. I am (sloooooowly!) on the way to being Queen of the road! Just need to keep moving. :)
9 km - in our village again, and feeling quiet fulfilled.
10.15 km - home sweet home! Everyone asleep (as we all actually should!) to open the door. hahaha
How was your Friday night?!
20/100
update 24.01.14 4:50 am
update 24.01.14 4:50 am
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If I can run, so can you: big dreams are reached with baby steps!