So the EVIL PLAN has not been updated which means that I can decide what I do without the guilt. New Rule No.1: 5 days a week (!) and New Rule No.2: Only 5 hill repeats. Still had to get up at 5am though. Bleurgh.

Sunday. Three hours. Over it.

I even got home before lunch!

Running notes
Route: Camps Bay to the top of Suikerbossie and back
Time started: 7am
Total time: 1:50
Total distance: 18km
Weather conditions: Cool
Runner’s condition: Good

Last run of the week this morning, so I thought I’d tack on an extra 45 minutes and pocket 100km for the first time ever. I also collected my first face plant of the season. More spectacular falls here and here.

I hadn’t got more than about 150m from the front door when I tripped and fell. I’ve stumbled a few times this week, usually in the dark and usually because I’m so bloody knackered. I also always manage to find busy roads to do this on and this morning picked the junction of Hope and Roeland Street.

This time as I was making the transition from vertical to horizontal, I gazed at the oncoming headlamps and all I could think of was ‘please god, not the legs’ instead of ‘please god, don’t let me die’. (You know you have a running problem when the possibility of a twisted ankle is worse than a road traffic accident). I skidded along the tarmac, ripping my shorts, scuffing my knees, elbows and palms, but once I’d picked myself up and inspected the injured flesh there was miraculously no blood. All a bit disappointing as I had nothing to show the peeps in the office when I got in.

Running notes
Route: My house to the reservoir quick loop and back to Keizersgracht Street for the 40 mins fartlek session and back
Time started: 06:45
Total time: 1:10 mins
Total distance: 11km
Weather conditions: Mild
Runner’s condition: Lacking attention and now my knee hurts

Went out last night. Got drunk at a leaving do. Wanted to vomit. As did everyone else in the gym as they smelt the cloud of noxious stale beer fumes seeping through my pores. It didn’t help that I chowed a garlic pizza either.

Running notes
Route: Treadmill
Time started: 6:45am
Total time: 45 minutes
Total distance: 8km
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Sweaty

A blow by blow account of how crap my Wednesday (thats the hill repeats) mornings are:

1. Alarm goes at 5am and I open eyes and stare at ceiling until I feel myself drifting off, at which point I get up and stand indecisively in the bathroom thinking about what to do next.

2. Put half my kit on and then sit back on the bed to tie trainers which then turns into lying back on the bed and thinking about what to do next.

3. Cat is now awake and wants feeding.

4. Apply rest of clothing to body and wander over to the window to check what the weather is doing in the inky blackness. Think about what to do next.

5. Its raining!

6. Think about whether I can use this as an excuse not to go out, but realise that as I am now half ready I might as well carry on.

7. Tie hair up, find iPhone, headphones and go downstairs.

8. Get downstairs and think about what to do next (which now is blatant procrastination).

9. Feed cat.

10. Prevent myself from opening laptop to read work emails.

11. Go onto balcony to check what weather is really doing and think about what to do next.

12. Find door keys and leave house.

This entire process wasted 45 minutes of my life. I have heard tall tales from other runners who claim to get their stuff ready the night before and manage to get out in ten minutes. I don’t believe this is possible at 5am in the dark.

Running notes
Route: 1km hill repeats at 30% x 7 so as the motor is being fixed (again) I ran there and counted that as two ups.
Time started: 5:45am
Total time: 1:58
Total distance: 16km
Temperature: 17˚
Runner’s condition: It was dark for the first hour, but was treated to a stunning winter sunrise, and then it rained.

Running notes
Route: Kloof Nek car park to the Lower Cable Station turn at the end of the tarmac on Tafelberg Road and back
Height climbed: 180m
Time started: 17:45
Total time: 1:25
Total distance: 12.5km
Weather conditions: Cool
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Fabulous sea mist below us in the City Bowl, was like running above the clouds.

So the 3:30 marathoners suggested I join them today for an easy 24km run. So I proceeded to enjoy a 2:25 hour run watching everybody’s back whilst I struggled to keep up and not cough up the remaining portions of my internal organs. I did, on the other hand, get in an early run so I could fall asleep in the running club meeting I was forced to attend at 12.

Running notes
Route: God knows. We started in a car park, ran through Claremont up to Constantia Nek via Kirstenbosch gate, down through Constantia and then to the car park.
Time started: 7am
Total time: 2:25
Total distance: 21km (it took them longer than expected as ‘they’ had to wait for my sorry arse)
Temperature: 17˚
Runner’s condition: It was dark for the first hour, but was treated to a stunning winter sunrise, and then it rained.

They lied and made me run 31.5km. And then I said I’d run with them tomorrow. Idiot.

Running notes
Route: Camps Bay to Hout Bay, halfway up Chapmans Peak and back
Time started: 7am
Total time: 3:25
Total distance: 31.5km
Temperature: 24˚
Runner’s condition: I knew I shouldn’t have had that last beer.

Running notes
Route: My flat to Keizersgracht Street for the 40 mins fartlek session and back
Time started: 07:00
Total time: 40 mins
Total distance: 5km
Weather conditions: Calm

No car meant I had to run there, so I deducted two of the hills off the total.

Running notes
Route: 1km hill repeats at 30% x 6
Time started: 6:15am
Total time: 1:45
Total distance: 15km
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Slog, slog, slog

Running notes
Route: Kloof Nek car park to the Lower Cable Station turn at the end of the tarmac on Tafelberg Road and back
Height climbed: 180m
Time started: 17:45
Total time: 1:25
Total distance: 12.5km
Weather conditions: Warm
Temperature: 25˚
Runner’s condition: Fine

When I got to the top of Kloof Nek and saw the fog on Signal Hill I still decided to run it which was a bit of a mistake when the visibility went down to 5m and I was running on the road with the oncoming vehicles. Still here though, so lesson learned.

Running notes
Route: My house to Kloof Nek, Signal Hill and back, down to Camps Bay and back over the Nek and into town.
Time started: 7am
Total time: 2:30
Total distance: 21km
Temperature: 18˚
Runner’s condition: A bit scared

Nice and slowly, had a good chat with Carl on the way back.

Running notes
Route: Camps Bay to Suikerbossie and back
Time started: 7am
Total time: 2:10
Total distance: 18km
Temperature: 22˚
Runner’s condition: Fine

Running notes
Route: My flat to Keizersgracht Street for the 40 mins fartlek session and back
Time started: 07:00
Total time: 30 mins
Total distance: 5km
Weather conditions: Calm