Finding Time

Although I know that consistency is the biggest virtue for a runner, I have always struggled with mid-week runs and have never been able to work out the ideal time.

Early morning is useless as I already get up early enough just to get to work.
I gave up running at lunch time because I did not like the changing and the drying, the bolting of food and water, and limitations in the type of runs that could be done.
The most time-efficient method is to run as part of a commute, but I do not like running with a rucksack as I feel unbalanced and find myself always adjusting the strapping.

The only answer is to run in the evening, which although quite good, requires iron discipline - something for which I am not renowned. When I get back home I feel a bit hungry and a bit drained. The tiredness is mostly mental but the temptation to merely rest and eat is huge. Every time I get out of the door part of me is saying it would just be so much more pleasant to do nothing. That siren voice is still singing as I walk the pre-run walk and through the first few steps of the easy jog. Then something strange seems to happen as the body starts to loosen up - I begin to feel easier in myself. When I have found a rhythm everything feels calmer and I can not only feel happy that I am out, I can feel slightly smug that I have shown resolve.

"One run at a time" I say to myself as if I was some recovering alcoholic. Instead of it being a day at a time, the unit is a week. Each sunday I decide on a quota of runs for the next seven days and during the week I shuffle them according to circumstances. That is all - it is not complicated. Having a few things that can be rearranged or reordered seems to make all the difference.

It is easier in the summer time of course. Wet, dark, cold evenings make overcoming the inertia almost impossible and winter consistency is something I have never mastered. But I should not worry about that now. The whole idea is only to think of one run at a time.