Running

If you live in towns it’s easy to do things. You walk half an hour to an hour and you’re ready to do something. In contrast, if you live in a village doing the same thing would require a lot of traveling.

Tomorrow, for example, I could travel into Geneva in the morning, to run with a group, and then go home, have lunch. Eventually I could drive back to the same town, but this time for the cinema. That’s two trips to Geneva and back. That’s two hours of driving. If I use an electric car then my carbon footprint is not as big.

Normally I like to go for a run in the afternoon, after I have had a productive morning. This morning I went for a run first. This afternoon I have to go to an indoor meeting, which doesn’t fill me with euphoria. I feel an e-mail would achieve the same thing within a few minutes. Having said this I have skipped that meeting for three or four years so I feel obligated to go this afternoon.

Yesterday or recently I had a discussion about running. The discussion was about whether I have a favourite time of day to run and whether I can eat before a run and still run.

The answer is that I’m flexible in the time at which I run. I can run as easily first think in the morning at 5am as right before lunch, as after lunch. it really doesn’t matter.

Apple push us to get the Apple Watch Series 10, the Ultra 2 or the Apple Watch SE in third place. If you’re a runner, and you don’t feel like spending on the Ultra or the Ten then it makes sense to get the SE instead.

Although the SE is the cheaper option it still provides us with plenty of running metrics. It provides heart rate, pace, power, cadence, vertical oscilation, ground contact time, stride length, workout time, distance, elevation gain, average cadence, average pace, average power, active kilocalories, total kilocalories and more.

All climbers are familiar with this. You’re on a climb or a via ferrata and you look up but you don’t see what to do so you feel stuck. As a result you try one hold, and then another, and then a third and eventually you stop. That’s when you remember to look down.

If you look down you see that there is a foot hold 10 to thirty centimetres higher that will give you the extra reach that will allow you to climb onwards. The same is true with tech.

Recently I have been walking and running into and out of Nyon and in the process I have had to cross busy roads regularly and what has struck me recently, especially when running is that people stop to let me cross the road, even when they don’t need to. I really appreciate this.

When you cycle and walk between villages cars skim you, fast and close, and after several years of it I grew tired of it so I shifted to walking towards Nyon, along pavements, and avoiding busy roads when I could. In the process I often walk across main roads, if possible at crossings without lights, in the hope that cars stop for me.

Today I followed a link where a writer wrote “My every-other-day workout is walking three miles, fast, on a high incline on the treadmill—often times with hand weights too.” and I find it amusing. It’s amusing because in Switzerland, and especially in the old town of Geneva, Nyon, Lausanne, Neuchatel, Fribourg and other towns it is impossible to go for a walk without having a steep climb or a steep descent.

Today the Epix Gen 2 said that I should go on a 51 minute run so I did. I ran from Eysing to Prangins via the top of Nyon before running by the castle, down to the lake, and back along the lake road to Nyon. In the process I felt that my knees were right at the limit of their endurance so I considered stopping the run then and there.

Today my watch said that I should run for 36 minutes or so so I obeyed. As a result of running for 36 minutes I got to Prangins and made it part of the way back before stopping and walking. In the process I ran for 5.8 kilometres rather than 5 and I learned a new lesson, mainly that Prangins is close and that I can connect a few places, if I am ready and willing to run.

Weeks ago I started running again, but this time my goal is to run calmly. By this I mean that I ran until I felt pain, and stopped, over and over, until finally I ran with Wake Up and Ran and covered 5km. Since then I have been running 5k consistently.

My goal is not to run fast and my goal is not to run further. My goal is to get my body used to running, without feeling pain or sore when the run is over. So far it’s working.