An Object Lesson in Planning

Today’s aborted long run was a reminder to me of how a good few little things can add up to one big thing when it comes to the best laid plans going awry. This evening I set off excitedly on what was to be a run of half marathon distance or greater. My excitement stemmed from it being the first run with my shiny new Apple Watch (I thoroughly recommend this piece of gadgetry by the way) and I was looking forward to road testing it, having spent the previous evening and pretty much all of today playing with it and showing it off to my partner. Then two words, two simple little words interrupted: mapo tofu. You see, I am a pretty damned fine cook and tonight I made this delicious Chinese dish. What I should have done is go for a run in the early evening and eaten later on. Sadly I did the opposite.

Mapo tofu is an oil-based, spicy dish that contains miso (a bean paste common in asian food). Any one of these on its own is, frankly, fart fuel. Combine oil, miso and chilli flakes and you get one thing: stomach cramps. I was forced to abandon tonight’s run because it felt as though half the world was about to blast out of my bum. I know, I know, it’s pretty gross, but there we are. I post it here as a cautionary tale. I was actually doing very well indeed, accelerating up the Crown Point hill with a greater speed and vigour than I had previously mustered but as soon as I hit the steeper bit it was a matter of time until nature took its course. At around four miles in I had turn back for home. I initially thought that running back home on the relatively flat part of the course would cause the cramps to subside and I would at least get a solid ten miles but, alas, it was not to be. It simply became too painful and so I dejectedly phoned home for a lift. I was also down to 15% battery on the watch which would not have been enough to complete the long run I had in mind, so another lesson learned: be fully charged upon setting off.

Add to this the fact that at 4.82 miles I learned that the crown on my watch could be activated by my sleeve and Runtastic abruptly stopped tracking at that point, forcing me to start recording the run again. This is all a rather annoying catalogue of events that scuppered a run that I has been very much looking forward to and was enjoying immensely. I now sit here, gutted and blogging about it.

Map

The Moral of the Story

Deep down I knew that this scenario was likely. I ate badly, planned badly and let my passion for a long run that I would certainly have enjoyed to circumvent my good sense, and given that it rained hard here all day until the weather cleared just as I set off I feel that I have passed up a great opportunity to grab a serious amount of road miles. It is therefore the moral of the story that good vibes and a good feeling are no substitute for good practices and good habits. Fortunately I can either run tomorrow (and miss the swim I had planned) or extend Monday’s morning run to the long run I could and should have done today, but I still feel very foolish for not planning intelligently and all I have to show for what was still a 1000 calorie is an evening of absolutely massive farts that shows no sign of getting any less windy. My self-generated wind power currently shows no signs of abating.

The joy of running overwhelmed me and my brain took a back seat. I will never let that happen again.