The SIx Million Millimetre Man

Tonight I avoided hills, and went out on a nice flat route, to bump up my distance a bit, and see if I could do 6K rather than 5K.

I’m starting to understand the phrase “to hit your stride”. The first third of tonight’s jog was quite ploddy, and I wasn’t enjoying it much. Then, fairly quickly, something just clicked, and it stopped being a problem.

I don’t know whether it’s psychological or physical or a combination of the two. It would just be nice to know how to make it kick in a bit earlier!

I believe it was musically assisted to some degree. If you enjoy guitars but don’t own a copy of The Stone Roses’ self-titled first album — maybe you were in a coma from 1989 to 1994, for example — then you should probably stop reading this and go catch up.

Luckily, I’ve had a copy since I was at university, and while the fact that the 20th anniversary edition has just been released makes me feel old, it doesn’t stop me loving it, and it was definitely She Bangs The Drums that played me into my stride, whatever else might have been going on with digestion and glycogen levels.

And from that point, it was easy. I got to halfway, turned around and headed back into town, and perked up even more when the Suspension Bridge hove back into view. Toward the end, when Pulp’s Common People arrived at just the right moment, I really went for it, doing some proper actual running to finish off.

So, that’s another six million millimetres under my belt. Huzzah! Full details here on RunKeeper.com.

Finally, my new camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8, arrived! At some point, I’ll run somewhere during the day and take a few nice bright cheery shots. For now, you’ll have to make do with the Portway at night, looking out along the beginning of my running route 😉