Woke up this morning...

Well, yesterday morning.

At 4:45 a.m. Thought, 'Dagnabbit, too early,' so I put my head back down for 30 minutes. Which became 75 minutes. At which point I woke up, cursed at the clock, and pondered running at lunch time.

Any sport will reasonably work some flexibility into its program (though I have heard of certain running coaches who are famous for NOT doing that, but then, I'm never going pro). I am famous (to myself) for allowing too much flexibility: I don't feel like running today, I can do it tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...

This got me into trouble in my last half-marathon race. I didn't do enough of the work, and I ended 13 minutes later than I wanted to (though I still beat my personal best by 10 minutes!).

This time, I am buckling down. Just you watch me.

I had considered taking all my running stuff to work and going at lunchtime. Winter running gear can be cumbersome though, and it wouldn't all fit into my little gym bag! So I scrapped that plan, and decided to wait for the evening.

As previously mentioned, it's hard for me to get up and running when I get home from work. I leave after an eight-hour day (or longer), wait in the cold for the stupid bus that never seems to show on time (10-20 minutes late), trudge from bus stop to home and unwrap from winter clothes into the luxurious heat of my shared townhouse. Who would want to go back into the cold after that?

Last night, I had one thing that changed my mind: my favourite MST3K channel was showing a movie that makes even me groan and wait for the sweet, blissful end, Laserblast. Some movies, you can watch to see how bad they get, some you turn off in sheer disgust. This one chased me out of the house and into the cold to do my run. Well done, Laserblast, well done.

I took off without my Yaktrax on, believing most of my fellow suburbanites would be so kind as to shovel their sidewalks for young, industrial runners like myself. I was only half right, but as they say all too often, c'est la vie!

Also of note, I forgot to turn my Garmin on for the first kilometer. Admittedly, I already had my headphones going (not advised for evening running, though I feel safe in my neighbourhood) and didn't hear the starting beep as I pressed the button. Sometimes, my Garmin Forerunner 305 needs a bit of button-pushing emphasis to get it going.

My run ended pretty well, so I decided to go for all-you-can-eat sushi. That turned into another nightmare of waiting over an hour for our first order, but that's another story.