What a week number 23 was. 24, be nice to me!
Day 1 – Sunday, June 14, 2020 – Quarantine Day 90
The first day of the week and started off with a morning run!
I am a sucker for morning runs and the day goes by quite smoother whenever I run in the morning. There wasn’t a better way to start my Sunday with an early morning run.
I finished my breakfast after the run and celebrated my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary over a Zoom call. Such a strange time to be alive! They were in India so the setup was a bit tricky, but it worked out well in the end.
The day finished with an hour of soccer in the evening with the kids. 🙂
Day 2 – Monday June 15, 2020 – Quarantine Day 91
The first day of the work week. Today, like yesterday, I got up quite early in the morning and before I knew, I was putting on my shoes and heading out for the early morning run.
The temperatures were in the 50s so had to put on my sweatshirt. It was so refreshing to experience the cold and hot weather and often getting soaked by the sprinklers. I had fun and ended up completing a 5K in under 30 minutes.
After finishing this run, I got back to my work and was glad to finish it by 4 PM so that I could go out for one more run before heading out for my biking session.
Initially, I thought the afternoon run would be more strenuous and tiresome. Turns out, I was wrong. I outdid myself by a few seconds, running the second time a slighter faster than the first time. It is important to note that the temperature in the morning was 50s and in the afternoon 80s. And, I used the same route for both the runs. So, it was soothing to find out I could outdo myself in the hot weather.
And after the run, it was great to finish the day with a 2 hour long bike ride with my friends, Monika & Anupam, and their kids. These kids sure are strong and they were not tired when I sure could use some rest. They outdid us and finished this long bike ride before the adults, which is always nice and enough to feel proud of them.
Also, today was the monumental day for the COVID19 positive cases. For the first time, the number of positive COVID19 cases dropped below 100 and you cannot help but appreciate the efforts of our Governor Whitmer. The way her office handled this situation in the state of Michigan is commendable and I am thankful of her for leading from the front.
Day 3 – Tuesday June 16, 2020 – Quarantine Day 92
Such a blissful morning and entire day for me.
I have been waking up early in the morning and proud of the fact that it is consistent so far. Let us see how far I can go and what things I can achieve through that.
The morning started off in amazing fashion. I got up at my 5AM regular time and started my run prep. I think it was 5.55 AM when I actually left home for the run, so I think, I will have to cut down some time on that. Anyway, the run was supercool and I ended up relaxing myself during the run instead of putting more efforts. I think, it was just one of those days.
I was glad to see a couple runners during this time of the morning. I love the sound of birds chirping, and the early morning sun showering the sunlight from the top. Also, the water sprinklers for the grass help to keep you hydrated and brings a child inside you.
I ended up taking more time than I thought, but, I think, it is okay, as long as I have some fun, right?
The evening was blessed with an hour of soccer with the kids and followed by some delicious food. Feeling blessed and privileged!
Day 4 – Wednesday June 17, 2020– Quarantine Day 93
What a day!
I am glad that the morning routine is working okay for me. I am still new to this and would like to see how far or long I can go with this.
After waking up a little late, around 5.30 AM, it was not until 6.30 that I got to go out for my morning run. The run was same throughout the course. This week, I am trying to do same loop everyday with 0.1 mile increase in between. So far, it has been working really well for me and my stamina is building up nicely. Nothing to complain there and I have to thank to Captain Rudd from the book The Impossible First, from whom I got the idea of adding 0.1 miles to my run from the previous day.
Today I took things quite seriously and finished the 5K run within 30 minutes and finishing the 3.3 miles run at around 31 minutes. I was impressed with the speed. I think many factors are contributing to this speed, some of which are, the cool weather in the morning, my not-so-new shoes and its comfortable sole, and my stronger mind (especially after reading The Impossible First and watching Courtney’s podcast with Joe Rogan).
After this morning run and spending the entire day before my laptop, it was refreshing (well, not quite much in the hot weather) to go out for biking with kids. We decided to finish a small distance of 13 miles as it was becoming too hot to handle. I always love spending time at Hines Drive and don’t seem to be getting enough of it.
Day 5 – Thursday June 18, 2020– Quarantine Day 94
Just a couple days left in the week and I am excited for the weekend as I would complete the first week of waking up early in the morning and running at least once everyday. I hope I will be able to finish what I started and come out stronger.
Woke up around 4.50 AM and was out the door by 5.30 today. Definite improvement from yesterday, but still a long way to go, so cutting and saving some time here and there. I enjoyed the run today and decided to take some time and relax myself while running. As I have been using the same route for the last 4 days, I am used to the pacing during the route and could figure out my pace without even looking at my Apple Watch. It was a relaxing run with soothing hot black coffee and a banana at the end of the run.
The picture below perfectly captures my mood after the run, which was so relaxing and awesome!
What a better way to spend the evening with kids playing soccer. An hour of doing that and I was done for the day. Wish, life was this simple!
Day 6 – Friday June 19, 2020– Quarantine Day 95
The last day of the workweek. As much as I wanted to go out for run today and continue my streak, my right knee had other plans. I am not sure where the pain came from because when I slept, I was all right and looking forward to the early morning run, but when I got up to pee at around 2 AM, I felt a shooting pain in my right knee. I tried going to sleep and not think about the hurting knee, which was hard and eventually I got my good night’s sleep in the hopes that the pain would go away in the morning.
I finally woke up at around 5.30 AM and was disappointed to find the pain still lying there like a couch potato. I decided to read instead of running and hope to get a chance to go out for run in the evening. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I had to skip the run for the day. It was hard but necessary, I guess.
Day 7 – Saturday June 20, 2020– Quarantine Day 96
And welcome to the last day of the week. As always, Saturday has been either a biking or a hiking day. This Saturday, we decided to go for biking, which was a brave decision, as it was 90F outside. We knew it would be hard to bike in such a hot weather, but, didn’t imagine it being this hard.
At the beginning, we thought we could for 40 miles, but when we reached 15 miles mark and took a long break, we checked our supplies and noticed that we were running a little low on water, which was an important commodity during such a hot weather. It was a good decision and we made it to home without any difficulty. We were exhausted, for sure, but didn’t dehydrate ourselves, which was key.
With the kind of bike that I have and the biking gears that I have, if I did 32 miles in such a hot weather, I think, it will be a piece of cake to for same distance in less time with a better bike and gear. Let’s see when I get to do that.
With this, week number 24 came to a conclusion and I couldn’t be more excited for the next week. I am almost at mile 390 for the year, so by the end of next week, I think, I will be able to accomplish 400 miles of running for the year 2020. 🤞🏽
Enjoy my running journal till then!
stochasticity 