Thanks to the wonders of jetlag I was awake at 4am this morning, which is kind of annoying but did at least mean that I could get to the gym by 7am for a run and a swim. It's pretty quiet then - really I don't know why I don't go at that time more often, haha.
While I was in New Jersey with Kyle I did some running around her neighbourhood, which was good exercise and also useful as a way of finding my way around the local area. Running outdoors is quite a different proposition to running on a treadmill, and it was interesting to compare the two this morning.
Probably the biggest difference for me was the lack of immediate feedback - the machines tell you your speed, distance, gradient, time and calories burned, whereas outside you have to rely on your subjective impressions, which I found out can actually be quite faulty. I think I run further and quicker outside (don't get excited though, it wasn't that far/fast, and I certainly won't be running any marathons in record time). And after a few runs I was starting to learn how to listen more closely to my body, to know when I needed to slow down or pick up my pace.
Aside from that, running outdoors is more varied and I suspect more stimulating mentally. It was also good to see a few other runners on the street and do the runner's equivalent of the Masonic handshake as we passed. So I missed that a bit this morning - maybe I'll start running around my own neighbourhood in the next few weeks.
Afterwards in the pool I was practising my front crawl exercises again, after a six week hiatus. It's coming together but I still have problems with breathing, especially on the right side. However I do have a lesson tomorrow which will hopefully put me back on track. I have some other vague swimming plans but I think they'll have to wait until things settle down a little, in the meantime I'll just keep on running.
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