As well as eating well and drinking water and all that sort of stuff, I decided to start doing exercise on a daily basis. My two exercise loves are swimming and yoga but as I didn't want to do just those two every day I decided to start running again. I've never really had a running "high" like I've had with swimming or yoga. For me it's been something that has an element of convenience - I can do it anywhere, it doesn't require going somewhere special and it doesn't cost anything (apart from the initial outlay on a really good pair of running shoes and appropriate running clothes). But I never got anything out of it emotionally, just the knowledge that in some way it was doing me some good. That's until I started running on Peckham Rye. I don't know anything about the psychology of running but for some reason I find it easier to run on the wide open space of Peckham Rye than I do for the same time and distance around the horse-riding track in Dulwich Park. I would have thought it the other way but not so. I find it easier to zone out on Peckham Rye, surrounded on three sides by traffic - everyone going somewhere but no-one paying any attention to you. In Dulwich Park it's different. It feels smaller, more enclosed. Often you can only see a small part of the path you're going to be running on ahead of you but it feels more of a struggle. You're constantly aware of the people and children and dogs and bikes and runners around you, there are more distractions and you have to focus more.
The furthest I've ever run is 5k - for me that takes half an hour and is three times round Dulwich Park. Although I could build up to 5k without too much trouble, I've never felt like I could go beyond that. Until today. Although I may have made it sound like I've turned into this super-healthy fitness freak exercising every day, the actual reality is that although the intention is there, I think there's only been one week where I have actually exercised every day (and I felt absolutely amazing!). And as I've never felt any sense of joy running, it's there on my list but I have to force myself to do it. On Peckham Rye it all feels very different....
I started running there a few weeks ago. I woke fairly early one Monday morning and realising that it was a glorious sunny morning, I wanted to go for a run. Most times I force myself to go for a run so to actually want to do it was quite something. As it was about half past seven the park was still closed and I didn't want to miss this golden opportunity so I ran down to Peckham Rye and ran round once. And there was something about that wide open space that made it feel easier. The next time I ran I went back to the park but struggled with the same distance that I'd done quite easily on Peckham Rye. I've stopped running in the park now.
The last time I ran on Peckham Rye I ran for 20 minutes. This may not seem like a particularly long time for anyone who runs a lot but I'd been struggling with increasing my time running without stopping. In the park I couldn't even do a few minutes without stopping and walking round part of the track so to suddenly be able to find myself going for 10 minutes, 11 minutes, 15 minutes and then 20 minutes was something of an achievement. I ran today and decided to do 20 minutes again. My plan was to run 20 minutes a few times before trying to increase it to 25 minutes. But today as I got closer to my allocated time I felt like I could keep going. So I did. For another 10 minutes. Now the last time I ran for 30 minutes non-stop (which is about 3 miles or 5k for me) was two years ago. It felt good to run for that length of time again. And the best thing? I felt like I could have kept running a bit more. So that's what I'm going to do next time I run. Actually it was quite amazing to feel like I could have kept going. When I slowed down to a walk my legs did feel quite strange, as if they were full of air but that didn't last long and I didn't collapse.
So now I'm pondering the psychology of running. Is part of it finding the right kind of environment for you to run in? The thought of running on a treadmill in the gym fills me with dread but not every outdoors environment seems to work either. I never thought having that wide open space surrounded by London commuter traffic would work for me but in some strange way it does. I'm more aware of the nature around me - when I started running on the rye, the daffodils were just starting to bloom and today I noticed that they had come to their shrivelled demise but look up and some of the trees were ripe with thick pink blossom, the kind that reminds me of Japan. There are fewer restrictions with the rye as it's open and I can run at any time so long as there's enough light. As the mornings get light earlier, I can run at any time I want whereas with Dulwich Park the earliest time you can go in is 8, regardless of what time the sun rose and the birds started singing.
And now I want to go and run again and see how far I can go. There's something quite exciting about knowing you're going to do something that you'd always had a limit on but now you can go beyond. I know I can run more that 30 minutes and do that easily. What I don't know is how far I can run and that's what I'm going to find out. I've already started thinking about half-marathons....
