Warming Up

Sunday 14th November 2004

It's hard to believe that it's over six months since I ran along the banks of the Thames on one of my training runs. For the first three or four months of this year the river between Putney and Barnes was very familiar to me, whether running around it or rowing over it.
But once the evil Cambridge crew were defeated and my feet had pounded over 26.2 miles of London's streets I fell out of the habit of coming down here. I still haven't set foot in a boat since that momentous day in February, but today I ran from Hammersmith to Barnes Bridge and back again, a distance of around four miles.
Although the first couple of miles were a little uncomfortable and I felt an overwhelming desire to succumb to my nausea and give in and have a pint and a roast dinner in the pub instead, I pushed onwards and was impressed with how easily I managed it.
At the moment I am not running again for any particular race (I failed to get entry into the night run later this month), but I am keen to get back into the running habit. I have been enjoying living a life of laziness and hedonism for the last few months, but now it's time to get back to work and get back to some level of fitness.
Don't worry, it's not like I'm getting ideas about running next year's Marathon as well. That would be ridiculous. There's no way I would do that.
No.