Its 2018, and I’ve had a few weeks to think on my long-term goals running goals after qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials at Valencia…but I procrastinated and didn’t do much thinking at all.
I am back to running, however, and am going to hit 80 miles this week, whew! I took two weeks down to celebrate and travel with my girlfriend, and a number of weeks at or below 50 before ramping up. I realized how great it is to take the time to sit back and appreciate how much you really miss the day to day grind of mileage. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of the training process, highlighted by dark mornings and spiraling fatigue, you forget that you were really looking forward to it at one time, and that you have (hopefully) a new great performance on the horizon. The London marathon is my horizon, and I’m extremely excited to tackle a training block with everything I’ve learned about myself in the past few months! There will be a time in the midst of the 100+ mile weeks where I won’t want to get out of bed, where I question why I do it, as many do, so I’m doing a little record keeping, anonymously as of now, so that I can remember what this feels like.
Here’s to doing good, and to the thing I love most about being in the full swing of training. This was a big 0.05% gain for me, and helped to finally make 100 miles a week on top of working full time feasible.
Run-Life Integration: The Commute
Option 1…London tube during rush hour:
Option 2…Regent’s Canal during rush hour:
After signing up for the gym in my office, I decided to try my hand at running to work, which I had never considered despite working in close proximity to several gyms in Downton Houston! My options now are relatively limited to either running to work or taking the London tube, which is a masterpiece in engineering and efficiency, but a hassle for a variety of reasons:
- Time: My average tube commute from Chalk Farm to Canary Wharf takes 40 minutes, each way. By running to work, I’m obviously saving however much time I would have spent commuting by just getting where I want to be going on the run instead! Instead of running ten miles at home (70 minutes) and then commuting (40 minutes) I just run my 70 minutes and end at work. The math DOES NOT GET EASIER! As I run over 10 miles in a day, sometimes I’ll run part of the way home as well, but if I don’t want to run the entire route back I still have the option to hop off the canal and take the tube the remainder of the way. The shortest route to work for me is 8.3 miles, which I combine with a 5.7 mile route back to the Angel tube station when I’m heading home. 15 minutes on the tube from Angel makes up the extra 2.6 miles I didn’t run, limiting my tube exposure to 15 minutes per day. Given the 14 mile day at 7 minute pace, I’ve cut my “Run + Commute” time from 2 hours and 58 minutes to just 1 hour and 53 minutes, give or take a few minutes if I stop and feed the geese. Time saved: 5 hours per week
- Money: The standard fare is 2 pounds 40 pence each way on the tube, enough said. Each time I run all the way to work I am able to buy myself an extra coffee, because that’s how much I’ve saved. While I do run part way to work on occasion, and am required to spend the 2 pounds 40 pence, even running all the way to work once per week saves me 124.8 pounds, or 168.48 US dollars per year, which I can scale up by the number of times I do the full route to work each week. This isn’t even a consideration of mine in the end, but it’s a nice to know, and a solid justification for treatin. yo. self! For those who drive, you can extrapolate that to gas, parking expenses, or ubers and cabs, and soon enough you realize that you’ve paid for a few race entries or pairs of shoes to boot. I might even start putting aside 2.40 pounds every time I make the full run as an incentive to either run more miles or be more strategic about it. Money saved: 250 pounds per year, conservatively. And because I’m in finance, if you were to put that into a brokerage account at a conservative rate of rate of just 5% per year…well, you may just end up a kazillionaire.
- Sanity: I’m a high strung guy sometimes, as many neurotic runners who spend their days pondering how to move quickly by foot tend to be. Therefore, I very much dislike the slow walking, the waiting in line, and very much the general dilly-dally of pushing yourself through throngs of people underground. Even if I discount the two prior factors, the sanity I retain from running along a gently moving canal every morning is worth the effort. Meditation, as I will explain in a later post, is something I enjoy experimenting with as a means of mental training, and my run to work is the perfect opportunity to practice. When I snap out of my blissful nirvana, I tend to listen to podcasts and music, but one thing I definitely don’t listen to is the wail of the tube through the London underground. Peace and quiet in the morning is a highly valued commodity, and can save you the stress of the daily commute and potentially years of life. I wouldn’t trade it.
Running to work really isn’t all that great. I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the competing cyclists, or the Englishmen who for some reason aren’t as dedicated to running on the left side of the trail as I am. I got scared by a goose once, and I’m convinced that I’m going to fall into the canal! Statistics aren’t in my favor!
It rains and it pours. Sometimes the wind blows my hat off, but in the end, I’m saving my time, my money, my sanity, and am making the daily training a part of my every day life. I’m the guy at work who runs to the office, and I’m completely ok with that. People understand and respect that fact, and here in London it’s extremely common.
See if it’s possible for you to integrate your training into every day life.
Do Good!
Young Austin
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