Don't worry, this isn't going to become a "thing"
Just finished my second run (and had a bowl of porridge firm enough to bounce a spoon off as reward) and am feeling very accomplished. So it's taken me forever to get started - the weather's been cold! -; the point is I'm doing it.
And much as I hate the actual exercise part (it's astonishing how a year of gym-going seems to in no way prepare you for proper doing-it-outside jogging) I'm still managing to enjoy it. Mainly because it's giving me a chance to witness the seasons for the first time in one and a half years. In that time I've lived in what seems like an urban warren, ex-miners' houses crammed in together, where there are so few trees and birds that the only indication of season is the weather - and I'm English so that's no indication at all. Last spring I got excited walking along the Wear and seeing four hares darting up and down the opposing bank, because it was the first real sign of the season I had seen. Where I jog however is full of trees and grass and water, so I actually get an impression of what nature is doing. I saw a magpie carrying twigs today, and all the birds seem to be paired up: the mallards, male behind and female ahead, and a pair of great tits scratching through the moss on a limestone wall. (Don't lower yourself and joke, it's been done before by people much younger than you are. Namely me.) Lots of robin and dunnock song. A coot poking about its ramshackle nest, made of bits of wood and flotsam. Blackbirds everywhere. And a blue tit on a conifer that allowed me to get very close before deciding I'd pushed my luck and pissing off back into the trees. The snowdrops are wilting, but the crocuses are holding up and the first daffodils have bloomed. The woods smelt of wild garlic, which is a particularly nostalgic smell for me, and a favourite. It was drizzling the entire time but that never detracted from the feeling that spring has finally turned up. Sometimes getting up at 7 on a Sunday morning feels very worth it, just for that. It makes you feel human.
While I'm here, in fact, I may as well mention that I have booked my holiday, as promised, and I'm going to Thailand :)
And much as I hate the actual exercise part (it's astonishing how a year of gym-going seems to in no way prepare you for proper doing-it-outside jogging) I'm still managing to enjoy it. Mainly because it's giving me a chance to witness the seasons for the first time in one and a half years. In that time I've lived in what seems like an urban warren, ex-miners' houses crammed in together, where there are so few trees and birds that the only indication of season is the weather - and I'm English so that's no indication at all. Last spring I got excited walking along the Wear and seeing four hares darting up and down the opposing bank, because it was the first real sign of the season I had seen. Where I jog however is full of trees and grass and water, so I actually get an impression of what nature is doing. I saw a magpie carrying twigs today, and all the birds seem to be paired up: the mallards, male behind and female ahead, and a pair of great tits scratching through the moss on a limestone wall. (Don't lower yourself and joke, it's been done before by people much younger than you are. Namely me.) Lots of robin and dunnock song. A coot poking about its ramshackle nest, made of bits of wood and flotsam. Blackbirds everywhere. And a blue tit on a conifer that allowed me to get very close before deciding I'd pushed my luck and pissing off back into the trees. The snowdrops are wilting, but the crocuses are holding up and the first daffodils have bloomed. The woods smelt of wild garlic, which is a particularly nostalgic smell for me, and a favourite. It was drizzling the entire time but that never detracted from the feeling that spring has finally turned up. Sometimes getting up at 7 on a Sunday morning feels very worth it, just for that. It makes you feel human.
While I'm here, in fact, I may as well mention that I have booked my holiday, as promised, and I'm going to Thailand :)