Don't stop

This is not my body.  No really, this is some alien stranger.  And most definitely not me.  I am soft and cuddly and have curves.  Somebody has made a substitution and frankly I'm suspicious.

From somewhere unknown after a few weeks away from the indoor wall, without doing anything different, special or intense I was suddenly able to lead 6a climbs.  And felt alive. I was looking at my arms though as if they belonged to somebody else.  Some weird person who has competent wiry arms which can be trusted to both hold and pull, to grab and pinch.  Nearly said lift and separate but clearly I'm thinking of something else.  These weird arms could climb, could almost leap upwards and heft this stranger's body upwards.  They were unbelievably trustworthy and I thought at the time it was just a teeny bit weird.

So, unaccountably annoyed with myself tonight and unable to contain the general feeling of irritation I realised exercise had been missing from my life for ... well, maybe as long as three days if I'm honest.  But as I'd already spent significant time seeing if retail therapy could lift my mood time had pressed on.  I know, I thought, I'll go for a run, that'll sort the bitch in my head out and calm her down.  Trainers were selected, and out the front door I stepped.  To find that really sploshing June evening rain had just begun.  No matter, I'm going to run.

Plan was to take the 5K route I know well, and to do it at the pace of someone who has only run once so far this year.  To try to do it at a speed which meant I wouldn't stop for breaks, something my legs and lungs would survive.  And about fifteen minutes into the run I was a) drenched and b) smiling.  Run, Forrest, Run, thought I.  And I ran and I ran.  And suddenly I looked up from my running reverie.  I was in Worsley.  This had not been part of the plan at all.  Somehow on a run I have done dozens of times, right near my house I had actually managed to get lost running.  But all was good, I took advantage of another bit of cross country track I know reasonably well from cycling, and trotted on home.  To find my restful pace had been in the vicinity of an 8 miles an hour pace.  Which was weird, because I am not that person.  Not one of those weird fit people.  Definitely not.

And Queen is bouncing round my head.

I feel alive
And the world, I'll turn it inside out yeah
I'm floating around in ecstasy
So don't stop me now
Don't stop me
'cause I'm having a good time
Having a good time