Icky Thump

Today’s calendar entry: “Men, coffee, and chocolate are all better rich - Anon”

Today’s title sort of sounds like my running sometimes – ‘icky’ describing how I feel; ‘thump’ describing my running style. But actually it’s one of my favourite running songs at the moment by the White Stripes. The lyrics are kind of interesting though. Here’s a sample:

“iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee
Icky thump
Who’da thunk
Sittin drunk on a wagon to Mexico?

Aaah well
What a chump
Well my head got a bump
When I hit it on the radio

Redhead senorita
Looking dead
Came and said
“Need a bed?”
En Espanol

I said
“Gimme a drink of water
I’m gonna ‘sing around the collar’
And I don’t need a microphone.”

Trust me, it sounds better than it reads! And it was songs like this that kept me going yesterday afternoon as I ran 18km, from home down to Lake Ginninderra, around the the peninsula and then back home again. The first 7km of the run didn’t bode well: I was averaging about 5.40min/km, my legs felt leaden, I felt tired, tummy felt blah, and I asked myself why do I do this? Not the running, but the time of day I sometimes choose to run. I am definitely not an afternoon runner – it sucks.

Anyway things improved after 7km and I enjoyed the rest of the run home. And my times had improved – I averaged 5.25min/km for the run so the second half was much, much better.

Thursday
I ran a slow 8km this morning before meeting Strewth and Mr B for breakfast at Red Belly Black Café. They make the best muesli with natural yoghurt, topped with marinated apricots – it’s delicious.