The running is still happening, but the swimming is on pause. Ironically, the new goggles that I ordered arrived, and I still haven’t been able to use them. I will have to shift myself a bit to go swimming more, but I have faith that I can do the 150 metres on the day because: I am still running!

I really enjoy the running. OK, I’m still doing walk run walk run, but there was a long (not really but it was to me) run in a session that I did and I was amazed at the distance that I’d been going. I also felt brave enough to wear my running shorts – pretended that I’d got them for Christmas, and I went out there on Boxing Day.

It helps that the route I’ve been taking is two laps around the park/ovals near the house, because it is 500 metres to the park and back as well as 2km to go around them once. I do the interval podcast over one and a half laps and finish up walking the end of the second lap with podcasts that I put on the Shuffle. I’m noticing that I’m finishing the podcast within a few metres each time I do it, so I think I’m getting faster, but only gently. The best indicator of that will be when I do the proper long run weeks – I think that’s week 5 and six that they kick in. I’m fairly happy with doing roughly 3 km though, and walking the last kilometre and a bit home. It means that I’m going out and running or walking 4.5km every two days, which is pretty good.

Timing is interesting. I’m supposed to be skipping a day between runs, but I’ve sometimes gone out in the morning (like I did on Boxing Day) and then gone out very late in the evening the next day, like I did last night. Running at night is great, all the heat has gone out of the day, and there aren’t a lot of people in the park, so I don’t have to be wary of dogs or cricket balls.

The swimming is easier to skip, because you have to go to the local pool, and with school holidays on, it’s filled with children. They have lap lanes, but it’s usually not sufficient lanes for the lap swimmers, and the incredibly raucous kids in the pool bugger the tides considerably. There is only one pool, 25 metres long with 8 lanes. Last time we went there was an enormous 20 metre long inflatable dragon platform that took up one whole lane three lanes into the pool (close to the edge and skylarking kids would fall off and smack their heads on the concrete surrounds), so the waves and bobbing of the water meant that every time you tried to swim a straight lap, you got shifted over into the lane marker buoys. Frustrating.