September running

I started September with some goals for the month. Let’s recap:

• 150km
• 10k race at Battersea Park
• Sprint duathlon at the end of September
• Regular parkruns – get that time down!
• More structured training

In the end I managed to run 99km, less than August and much less than I planned. I’ve been totally snowed under at work and feeling pretty down. I’m running about 4 times a week but no long runs, I just can’t motivate myself to go and do it, mainly just commuting instead.

I did do the 10k race in Battersea Park, and it was fun. I was really anxious about it, for every reason imaginable. I cycled over after work and met up with Becca and Charley, and we ran the whole thing together, with one of Becca’s friends, chatting the whole way. It was actually really lovely. The idea of the race is that you “chase the sun”, which means that we lost, as it got progressively darker on each lap but it was during september’s freakish heat wave and didn’t cool down at all, which made for a strange but not unpleasant sensation.

I decided not to do the duathlon as I hadn’t trained and couldn’t face coming last, and the logistics were starting to get annoying and I just didn’t want to. Then I felt bad about it.

I did two parkruns. But I also refused to get out of bed twice too, so it could easily have been four parkruns. The two that I did were at Brockwell. The first was with Matt, we started near the back but kept it steady. I talked to Matt on the uphills and let him bomb down the descents. He was flagging a little by the end but still managed 29:25, which is 20 seconds slower than the last one but, crucially, on a much tougher course. The next week we did Brockwell again, Matt said he didn’t need me to run with him so I went off ahead. He spent the first half trying to catch me and paid for it in the second half – but still did a fantastic time and finished in 28:53. Amazing!

My running hasn’t been at all consistent or structured. Aside from commuting, I tried to do speedwork once but my legs were really sluggish. I attempted a long-ish run and ended up having stomach issues and beating a hasty retreat to the toilets in Battersea Park.

I would like to get a race or two in the diary but I feel really useless and lame so I’m stalling.

Aims for October:

• Speed work
• Runs that aren’t commutes
• Get a handle on these stomach issues
• GO TO INDIA