Not A Great Day

I woke up shortly before 6 o'clock, as I always do, but took my time to get ready because I was cycling to work this morning and had an hour to spare, which is nice. However, when I made my way down into the parking lot shortly after 7 o'clock my bike was gone. It had been secured against the bike stand, and I had a decent D-lock, but they cut through the bike stand instead and took my bike as well as a second one (to add to the insult, they left another one behind!).

On the bright side, the bike was almost 10 years old, not worth a lot to start with and very much on its last legs anyway, so I doubt they got anything for it. The lock and the new back light were worth more than the bike itself, I'd say.

I had to bring in some things into work, so running wasn't a great option and I made my way into town on public transport. It didn't matter that I was later than usual. We were all quickly ushered into a meeting, to be told that the company was closing down and we all had just a few weeks of employment left.

Fuck!

So, by 10 o'clock, I'd already had my fill of bad news. A friend of mine insists that things always come in threes though I could certainly do without another blow; just for today at least.

Real Life sucks. Running Life, on the other hand, which is my preferred life anyway, is still going smoothly. Who knows, I might soon have plenty of time do run an awful lot more.

I spent the weekend in Kerry, which meant I got to run along the lake, though I didn't do a full loop as I was trying to take it easy after last week's double header. The legs were moving quite well and my easy pace is improving quiet rapidly at the moment. Even so, I was really surprised to see such a low HR for 7:45 pace on Saturday. It went backwards a bit on Sunday, which shows that I'm still recovering. However, I met Sean at the end of my run, and the middle of his long run, and shared a mile with him. We didn't get to talk much as it was close to home already but it was nice to catch up again nevertheless. I might see him again in 3 weeks in Dublin.

I took it seriously easy on Monday, especially as I was carrying a backpack, which I usually try and avoid. Still, despite taking it really really easy I still averaged close to 8-minute miles, so who's complaining. Tuesday evening was ever so slightly different after receiving those hammer blows in the morning, but the run did me some good, mentally especially. And hey, it was my fastest run in a while - not entirely coincidental!

Let's see what happens now. I have money saved to keep me going for a good while, so we're not about to get kicked out onto the streets any time soon.

Say, you don't know someone looking for a senior IT developer or team leader in Dublin, do you?

7 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:30, 7:45 pace, HR 140

8 Oct

12 miles, 1:34:10, 7:50 pace, HR 142

9 Oct

9.35 miles, 1:16:06, 8:08 pace, HR 135

10 Oct

9.3 miles, 1:11:16, 7:39 pace, HR 144