It’s a strange time for us all. Adjusting from physical social contact to a more virtual connection isn’t easy and is a learning curve for everyone.

To follow government guidelines, as we all know by now, we should be at least 2m apart. The majority of us are good at this, others… Not so much.

There’s been a lot of anger and frustration online (from myself as well!) regarding our usually peaceful running paths now being overloaded by walkers and new runners. There’s also people not allowing others sufficient space to pass safely and of course, people struggling to walk in a single file is very irritating!

OK…

Right… Let’s step back a minute, take a deep breath and let’s remind ourselves. People usually aren’t at home all the time and we’re only allowed to go out once a day. It’s understandable there’s going to be more foot traffic. Everything is closed, what else is there to do?

As for the obnoxious couples who can’t walk in a single file or show some good manners? Yes, they are idiots, but again they’d normally be annoying elsewhere… Somewhere us runners steer clear of!

The world for many has got a lot smaller and it’s going to take some adjusting.

How am I adjusting my running?

I miss social running so much. Running with others really helps me to push myself further. Whilst this isn’t possible, to try and keep in touch, a few of us in the Huddersfield social run group do a weekly treasure hunt run. This means we have to find things like flowers and post boxes out on our runs and take a photo of them. We also take some beautiful selfies too!

Lunchtime runs are out, too many people are around to make it safe so I’ve started running early doors. 😴 This is really tough for me, as I like to give my legs time to wake up before setting off. To make sure my brain doesn’t try to talk me out of it, I have my running gear by my bed to get changed into and I’m off out of the door.

I’m running for my health, not for speed. As my regular readers of this blog know, this is something I’ve been struggling with. However, I’m back enjoying my running again as I embrace the mental health benefits of running.

I’ve gone back to basic, simple goals which aren’t time based. Endurance and hill work. I’m still keeping up some basic routines, I aim for around 20 miles a week and I’ve started running a weekly ‘parkrun’ on a Saturday 5k from my house! Sorted.

I am running out in the road a lot more and avoiding narrow paths. It’s actually nice to run in the road as it tends to be a lot smoother than the pavement which helps when climbing hills!

This isn’t forever and we are so lucky to still be able to run outside safely. How has your running adjusted?