The purpose of this run was to move and to smile and enjoy myself.
Can’t say I enjoyed every minute but I tried ;)
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Pulled out an old pair of shoes. They are not the minimalists i prefer but hot damn the support was there for 9 miles! Had to lose the socks half way through though. It was sweaty and I am sore but it feels right. Keep slumpin’!!!
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#running #run #runner #fitness #runners #trailrunning #instarunners #training #runningmotivation #runnersofinstagram #marathon #socialdistancerunning #sport #runhappy #instarun #motivation #workout #instarunner #slumper #triathlon #fit #gym #trail #marathontraining #laufen #soberrunner #merrell #runnersworld #runnerscommunity #thesocialdistacerunner
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCpMbbJBCGq/?igshid=54x71p44q77d0
Steady run after 6 day gap. I gad taken a fall on the badminton court again. My ankle was hurting. Am ok now.
Stay safe you all
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Quarantine Days
7/14/20
✨Hey guys! They last few days have been really nice. Pretty uneventful, but nice nonetheless.
Yesterday I bought a couple fun things! Got jasper earrings from A Little Wire and Stone @stolenfootprints store! :) I absolutely love them! And then I got a few more art supplies and some teas :) And then I donated to the elephant sanctuary and ended up getting a little cute stuffie :) his name is Tembo which is Swahili for elephant 🐘
✨Fast forward to today, woke up at 6:45 to go to the track for a run. I’m so bummed, I missed a 5k PR by 0.02 seconds!!!? My time was 22:01 and I was aiming for anywhere in the 21 minute bracket. Ugh. Something to work towards I guess!
Tomorrow is a mid length run which are my favorite (hello 8-10 miler :)
✨After my run this morning I got an email from a professor of mine I love and she asked me for help with something so we zoomed at 11:30, and we ended up catching up until 1. It was so nice, and I idolize that woman! Such an amazing person and mentor :’)
✨After that meeting ended I did a 50 minute yoga class. I wept the whole class. Talking to that teacher was so nice, but it makes me so sad at the same time. Knowing she won’t be my teacher in two weeks time. That I’ll be at a new school and our communication will be significantly less so than the past 3 years. I miss her so much. Her and another teacher and my EOPS advisor… I miss them all and am so sad my last semester there ended prematurely. Most days I feel okay about it all, but today was a rougher day.
✨But all in all, things are going okay, the people I love are all healthy and safe at the moment.
✨After yoga I made this bomb lunch! And now I’m just laying in bed, drawing, and watching my favorite episode of law and order SVU with Skyler Day 🤗
I am making enchiladas for dinner and I. am. stoked.
I hope you’re all doing well ❤️
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I’m giving away 10 entries to Camp Chaski Track/Road/Marathon week (Fauble, Enfield, Stinson, Bruce, et al) Hey Reddit Runners - no catch here, I just want to share some good will during COVID times in a cool community of fellow runners. I posted a similar message a few weeks ago before our Mountain/Ultra/Trail camp and was glad to get such a positive response. Mods - if you feel this is inappropriate, feel free to remove.Full disclosure - this virtual camp put on by my coaching collective and we do normally charge for it, but this is really just me as a human offering good-will to the reddit running world.Camp starts next week and is all virtual. It’ll feature morning guided workouts (both running and supplemental) and afternoon interactive masterclasses by some big name folks like Steph Bruce, Parker Stinson, Emily Infield, Scott Fauble, Marielle Hall, Becky Bruce and (though I don’t consider myself a big name), me.Everything will also be recorded if you can’t come live.Full deets are here: chaski.run/campsDM me for a 100% discount code.Love,Ty
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A respectable training day, about 1/3 of it running and the rest walking. If I can maintain this daily volume for the rest of the week, I think I’ll have a basis for a training regimen totaling 25 miles/week, no more. And over time, slowly and patiently whittle away at the walking miles, replacing them with running miles. A sane, sensible approach, and I am nothing if not sane and sensible. I mean, it’s not like I’m some kind of bull in a china shop lunatic who’d leap from a handful of easy 5K road races to taking on one of the most notoriously difficult 10 mile trail races in the Southeast US followed two weeks later by an equally arduous 14 mile trail race. I mean, only a complete newbie idiot would have ever attempted such a thing.
Anyway.
I can afford to take my time and build a solid foundation this time, it’s not like there are any races in the near future. I’m already getting notifications from races I signed up for scheduled for the Fall that they will be doing their races “virtual,” so I’m under zero pressure to step up my game to get ready. But some day ….. to paraphrase Her Royal Majesty, “We will stand at the starting line together again.”
16i wish tumblr let me block people properly from side blogs cause i have 180 followers but i know half of y’all are bots 👀 anyways if more real fitblrs want to follow me i would love to check out your blogs + follow some of you back!!
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Trail time to test out tight ankle/plantar fasciitis.
Overall feeling great.
❤️✌🏼🏃🏽♂️
17I’ve finally been able to run today, first time in MONTHS. Slowly and for not even 10 minutes, my knee starting to get painful again ! but it’s something !
I’m so happy. I will have to take it extra slow for the next few months, but running is back in line baby !!
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literally everyone: if you’re in pain you should probably stop running
runners: no ❤️
2Tues., July 14, 2020:
I just finished my run for the day. Today my muscles felt tight and really tired. I also was breathing really heavy despite the relatively low humidity. I was happy to see small time improvements in every split, but my mile times are still too high. I’ve noticed over the past two years that my last mile is almost always my fastest, even if I feel more fatigued each consecutive mile, and physically it feels as if I’m running slower. That probably means I’m not giving enough energy away on my first two miles. I am really trying to push myself hard so I can get back into the 7.5-8 minute mile times.
Today i have a 30 minute workout planned. I’m excited to have a short workout today. I’m going to eat my turkey burger, give myself a little time to relax, then do my workout.
I also had a bit of Kashi cereal when I woke up (at noon😞). I was only able to eat like half of the cup of cereal I poured for myself before it got too soggy to eat. I’ve been waking up too late for breakfast, so i just wasn’t hungry enough for bland cereal at the time. Still, I’m happy I ate something to give me a little energy for my run (not that I felt it). I’m trying to get back in the swing of eating 3 square meals at the proper meal times.
0How do you prepare for a lockdown? How long was it gonna it be? The government were saying 3 weeks, developments in other countries were telling a different story. How bad could it get? I’ve seen that movie Contagion, an eerily prophetic flick when viewed again post curfew one night.
As February ticked along we scrutinised our work plans, built our team and laid the foundations for a 3-month run. We had a couple of weeks downtime while we waited for details of our test group and preferred creative direction(s) we would be pursuing. Those weeks at the beginning of March were spent sliding forwards and back along the anxiety scale. The lockdown posed the possibility of being locked up in my apartment for an extended period and was troubling, actually deeply concerning. Squirrel and Lexi had been coming and going to mine as they pleased, sometimes together, often separately. We have a strange functional/recreational arrangement going on. It works for all of us, no one is under any pressure and we have fun. My fear was when told to isolate would they fuck off back to their respective nests, leaving me to fly solo in my own personal hells. The other area of consideration was that of work; it would likely be frozen for the duration! No work, no friends and nothing to do was/is one of my nightmares. I talked this out one night with Nic on FaceTime, who advised me to just pack up come home to New York, or leave for somewhere remote. We discussed possible remote locations over virtual whisky and bangers, planed our vast island retreats and who would be there rah-rah. Was fun talking bullshit with her, I miss her. I thought on it after the call, staring out of the window to Old Street and witching hour traffic, watching the last few stragglers stumbling their way home. I gazed around my place; it’s pretty big, so feeling confined isn’t much of an issue, no outside space to speak of, just a small balcony overlooking the courtyard, but there are a few small parks close by for any extended alfresco demands. It wouldn’t be so bad to stay here. If work got canned and the girls weren’t here what would I do? I can occupy my time well, but if I have months of it I’m really not sure how bad I would get. With hardly any of my effects here, I would be limited. Maybe Nic was right. After a restless night, I’d formulated the scenarios I was dealing with and went to my favourite local greasy spoon, the Shepherdess, for some artery-clogging sustenance. I sent out messages and put my fate in the hands of my friends. With a full builders breakfast in my belly, I went and lazed in the park with a cloud of smoke and waited for replies. it was a happy way to kill the time.
My invitation for the girls and Zac to move into mine were accepted, with thanks, and a caveat from Zac, his girlfriend had to come too. There were numerous reasons why, which I won’t bore you with, but fear and jealousy played the leads. We planned for the impending lockdown which was, by that time, inevitable. The mood was positive as we talked food, navigating each others’ preferences, likes, dislikes and allergies. The drink was a huge consideration point. How much do you drink? Be honest. Do you drink every day? Will circumstances in your life make you drink every day? Our drinks bill outdid food by 50%. Everyone thought I’d over-ordered, I wasn’t so sure. What remains now is like the back row of my parent’s liquor cabinet and the random shit they bought for one person at a party which no-one else drinks. It won’t last long. I can’t see it go to waste and even though it may taste like shit, it’ll do the required job.
It was all smiles and laughter at the beginning. We cooked, ate meals together, played cards, danced, cried, talked and talked about anything and everything. An initial abundance of work saw us through the first week or so, which was nicely topped off by one of my neighbours getting carted off by paramedics because of Covid. That was a wakeup call to the seriousness of the circumstances. I was suddenly a leper among friends. I’d been close and spoken to the guy quite a bit the weekend everyone moved in, so my flatmates were understandably nervous. Fearing the worst we waited to see if any of us would develop symptoms. The claustrophobia of the situation started to gnaw away at each of us, culminating in Mel losing the plot one night over dinner, screaming in a panic her worst fears which we all resonated with, but hadn’t voiced. She fled to her bedroom with Zac in pursuit, leaving the three of us to eat in deathly silence. We cuddled up on the couch and watched the fading light through the windows, trying to keep the conversation light-hearted as we aired those fears. With some wine and bangers to relax us, we got to that happy place, and when our couple returned sheepishly to the proceedings we were all cool, glad that worries had been aired and shared.
None of us got the bug so we relaxed, resuming our daily hour of outdoor activity. TBH I didn’t really care at that time whether I got it or not. My reasoning was if I did get it I would develop antibodies so I’d be OK going forward. I was also busy enough the time passed quickly. We’d agreed we would front-load the work and capitalise on our forced enclosure. I think in the first week I’d worked 80 hours, the second even more. With nothing else to do (as in go nowhere), it seemed like the best thing. Zac took the same approach, although Mel was in two minds… while she didn’t want him working so much, she was enjoying the praise she was receiving for her project running ahead of schedule. At the end of our self-imposed isolation, and as a celebration of not being infected, we hit the town for a night out. With everything closed no decisions had to be made for a venue, so we stuffed our backpacks with goodies and walked into Soho. The streets were void of everything, save a few people enticed by the emptiness, even those sad bikes left behind because of lost keys or stolen wheels appeared to have been removed. We dropped Fairy’s and/or Special K, smoked up and drank leisurely as we roamed the streets reminiscing over the venues we passed. Retelling past escapades at certain locations as we slowly ascended the summit of alternative reality. As the evening progressed I felt more like we were in some lab experiment and were mice trying to find the piece of cheese. I had a moment of terror when I started imagining too much, about a huge hand coming across the sky to pick us up. It was short-lived and the only truly wobbly moment of the night. Soho became China Town, then Mayfair, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Mayfair, Regent’s Park, Primrose Hill, Hampstead, Finsbury Park, Highbury and home. We were separated for a while, I have no idea how long, or if that actually happened but I remember it being just me and Lexi. Could’ve been 10 mins or an hour, I was oblivious, I just remember the others not being around and trying to locate them. I don’t even remember finding them, but realised they were back with us as we were climbing the fence to the Heath. We took the last of our gear on top of Parliament Hill (apparent highest point in London) admiring our contagion town as the sun came up. The last bottle of red was cracked and we swigged and toasted the morning. Once the sun cleared the horizon we were off again, this time with the purpose for home and recharged with the last of the goodies. It was by far the longest leg of the journey, on weary legs, our reserves depleting rapidly. By the time we hit Finsbury Park the drugs had worn. Conversation was reduced to simple questions, nods and grunts. There were people around, mainly runners and dog walkers, but a dedicated bunch was loitering around the Lidl (supermarket) as we exited the park. From there to home there was no talk whatsoever, it was just survival mode and everyone dealt with it solitarily. At home I made the best cup of tea I think I’ve ever had, strong and loaded with sugar, not something I usually take, but it helped. I showered for an age, cleansing the grime off my body, the sins of the night draining down the plug. No one was around so I took myself off to the park in the baking heat, passed out, the sun’s rays purging the remaining toxins from my body. I slept nearly the whole day. A night like that, wandering the empty streets of London may never happen again and I’m so happy we did it.
Weeks turned into a month. The project came to a natural break. market research, evaluation and QA blah-di-blah blah. The monotony still hadn’t set in, yet, and with the new freedom of no work we set about having some fun and enjoying the time on our hands.
Eating and drinking can take up a substantial part of the day, especially when you’re making elaborate feasts for every sitting. No sooner is breakfast finished and it’s time to start making lunch, always a 2-course affair of either entree-main, main-dessert, entree-dessert or if you were feeling really piggy, go fo all three. We all took turns to make our favourite meals, our signature dishes and ingenious ways to not waste any food. A month of this and I started seeing the signs of the reduced activity (when you can see it in the mirror, it’s already gone too far), so engaged myself in some cardio fitness routines and yoga with squirrel to keep the extra weight in check, I also began a running regime on the empty city streets. My neighbour recovered and returned, his gaunt grey face told a story of horror and had me reconsider my previous hope of contracting the virus. We sent them up a care package of some squash risotto and chablis. They were thankful, we made friends, they allowed us access to their roof terrace. Nice! This provided valuable additional space to hang out in because despite it’s cavernous open plan lounge/diner/kitchen/study, the walls in my place appeared just a tad closer each day. Our neighbours above, Shirley and Raymond, were/are a lovely couple, who fawned over us a little whenever we were on the terrace together. Inquisitive of our lives they asked lots of questions, posed some interesting ones for us and generally provided a good sounding board on the navigation of life. I would say they’re 50/60-ish, he’s in ‘finance’, she’s in the charitable sector (i.e. works for free to offset her fella’s evil deeds). Regardless of their ethical/non-ethical careers they are great neighbours and we are forever thankful for the use of their roof for the fresh air and sunbaking, the latter in full swing as the heat dialled up.
When the first wave of food ran out we ran sortie’s to the local Waitrose and Tesco for a re-stock, no alcohol at this pit-stop. Queuing for shop entry was a novel thing at first, it then became a ball-ache, now it’s non-existent, but I prefer this over the crowded aisles and stress-fueled shoppers. With the paranoid in society stockpiling essentials, we had to think on our feet a little more and buy basically anything which may constitute collaborative ingredients for a meal. The killer missing item for me was bread. I need a loaf in my kitchen at all times, it’s my go-to snack with PB, and I generally try to keep a freezer-loaf as a back-up. But all that was left on the shelves of my local supermarkets were nasty paste-y white bread. Don’t get me wrong I will eat white bread, usually wrapped around a fried egg, some sausages and dripping with ketchup and Tabasco, but I can’t eat it every day, and we shouldn’t either. I found a local baker in Hoxton and bought a 20kg bag of flour and a tub of yeast with a plan to bake bread every day. This was a therapeutic, enjoyable start to the day, I felt so fucking righteous and wholesome. A week later I bought a bread maker off eBay, it made way more sense. I woke up to the smell of freshly baked bread every morning! The drawback here, it was small, so we had to make 2, sometimes 3 loaves, but one was generally enough to see out breakfast.
Work came back for a week-long sprint, I thrashed my side of this out in three 15 hour stints. Zac paced it out for the week, keeping in sync with his missus. We were all starting to disappear into ourselves a little each day. FaceTime, Zoom and Hang-outs became my good friends, bringing mates to me through the ether. I spent hours buried in my laptop, with a compulsion to connect with those in my life from afar. Nic and Luce were not doing so well, from an emotional perspective, and Kashie had fucked off back to Slavwegia as events were unfolding, and left them to it. Neither could get home or out of town and things were getting scary in New York. The landlord has frozen the rent ‘until a time which is convenient for regular payments to resume’, which was a very nice gesture indeed. That has taken the sting out of the situation for them. Harv had gone upstate, as had Jase and co. and remained living in a sense of normality. Friends in Asia were seeing a clearing through the trees, coming out the other side, there was hope. I even messaged my ex, just to make sure she was OK, which she’s not, and she started to blame me for it. I took a few of her cutting remarks without reply because there’s a bit of guilt with me so I felt I deserved it, but her continued little digs at me through our chat just pissed me off so I ended the call politely abrupt, wishing I’d never bothered. I spent the rest of the night stewing about her in moody silence, pretending to read while my flatmates played Monotony. My thoughts took me to the mystery girl of my past. Where was she, who was she, was she OK? why do I think and dream about her so much? it’s doing my fucking head in. I find myself scanning for her whenever I’m out, which is harder now that face masks are in use, and plausibly a good thing to dissuade me from the madness of it.
Katje busied herself by running dance/yoga/cardio classes from our dining room via zoom, which seemed to take up a large chunk of her day. Sometimes Lexi would join in but mostly she was reading or binge-watching something. The fitness instalments provided a pleasant distraction from work, watching the girls in their ever-smaller clothing getting sweaty and flushed. I upped my running game as the effort reduced, pushing myself to pace a little more each day, capitalising on the time and solitude it afforded me. I also used the runs to meet up somewhere central with friends across town, have a distanced chat before continuing home. It was on one of these runs, as I finished at the river and stretched out in front of that Tate, I had a spark of an idea for a great campaign. I ran home through the deserted city streets, thinking, and the further I got the more I knew my idea was a winner, runners runners everywhere. I pitched it to a friend who‘s in marketing at Adidas and he liked the idea but needed something more visual to float it around their team. There would be legwork to do, excuse the pun, but with a fresh idea, I was game for it. I tapped up some of my new links on Strava then looked at the flybys on my longer runs into town to see who I’d been passing, looking for people who liked to run long and came from outta town into the contagion zone. Once I’d identified an array of potentials I roughed out a storyboard, sent it off and sat back to wait. The reply wasn’t long in coming, it was a yes!! At least it was something to take my mind off the real work.
I connected with all of my candidates then sent them each a message asking if they were interested in my proposal and if they were could we speak. I had 19 candidates, including me, and after my calls, it went down to 16. It was simple, run into central London and plan to run every street from the middle out, over however many runs we did through lockdown, tag the runs and post them on social. The first weeks running would give me the basics for a teaser video that would attract more runners and build a following, then a challenge posted on Strava for anyone to partake in. Each km run would attract a donation from Adidas to a charity. Running gear would be fronted to the challenge team so the brand would be visible in all shots, and their generosity extended to 2 pairs of runners, 3 pairs each of leggings, shorts, long and short-sleeve tops, masks and a phone pouch arm-band thingy. The first run was planned so we all met in Golden Square late morning, not too early to start and close enough to lunch so we could give everyone a drink and snack. It was without a doubt one of the weirdest lunches I’ve had when straight, all strangers, apart from me and the 2 girls, swapping our stories over energy drinks and bars for about an hour or so. We bid farewell and made our journey’s back to our respective pods. The girls provided some assistance throughout the project duration, which was about 5 weeks; choosing photos, involving themselves in some of the video editing and compiling all the routes from the trackers so we knew what roads had and hadn’t been covered.
The girls also got a crash course in digital marketing and how some of it works, which they were astounded by. Lexi understood but Katje was in disbelief, even with Zac and Mel chipping in, so I made her watch the Unexplained Truth on Netflix, that Cambridge Analytica doco thing. Explained what I know of facebook and how I’ve used it, Adwords, insta, blah blah blah, pointed her to a myriad of resources and explained how everything you see is targeted. Everything. She’s now a little paranoid, maybe too much, but it’ll subside. She’s all over facebook and insta for work reasons so kinda knows what goes on, but not to the depths the 3 of us were telling her. She said we were evil. On that note, I will pull on my cloak of darkness and bid you farewell.
Later Gators
0Run like you’re one jump ahead of the bread line and one swing ahead of the sword
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