Ever decreasing circles

There are only so many 3 mile routes one can run around one’s home. I currently feel like Ms Pac-man, constantly turning and re-turning the same corners again and again in search of the one elusive road I have not yet been down.

This makes it sound like I am out there pounding the pavements every day like Rocky in training. I am not. Last week I ran twice. This week I haven’t yet run at all. I will, though. I am trying to get to 6 months’ pregnant before reassessing the situation, so I still have a month of running to go.

Speaking of Rocky, I have just realised that I haven’t yet done the 1.4 miles from my flat to the steps of the Emirates Stadium to run up and down them and then come home. The reason I haven’t run that route is because it is ugly, and crosses lots of busy roads. The problem with most routes near my house is that they are too ugly, too hilly, too boring or have too many busy crossings. Or that they have slightly uneven pavements. Basically I am just really getting fed up of running 3 mile circuits of my house, and any excuse will do.

Lately the circuits haven’t even been 3 miles long. On Saturday I managed a whole 23 minutes (which at current speed is about 2 miles) of running, not including frequent walking breaks. My legs felt like sandbags and my overwhelming emotion, running on a beautiful sunny bright morning when I should have been full of Christmas cheer, was fear that I would lose control of my bladder.

I didn’t, though.