Day 19 - Social distancing while running

Running has become a lot more stressful these days! I got out today for my second run since the schools and colleges were closed over two weeks ago, and I would have though that it would be a great stress reliever. However, you have to be constantly on your guard in case a person appears from somewhere onto your path. The goal is to keep all other humans at the greatest distance from you as you can, so there is no room for drifting off into my thoughts, as I usually do on my runs. I had to cross the road several times during my run, and I was constantly scanning driveways and roads in case somebody was about to emerge in front of me. Our housing estate is like a safe harbour when I get to the entrance. By reaching our estate, I feel like I’ve gotten away from dodging the general public!

Despite all this stress, I managed to complete 5km today. I wanted to get the full 5km done, as I could then submit my time to the online race results page. MyRunResults normally provide a results service for road races. These days, however, they collect times for various distances that people run in their own time, and they make an online leaderboard with all the times.

My hay fever was quite bad in my run. I guess nature ploughs on, virus or no virus! I was prompted to think about this today, actually, when I saw a bird sitting on the lamppost outside my bedroom window. I was thinking how weird it is that birds and other animals have no idea that we’re all on lockdown because of a virus. They don’t seem to be too worried about getting infected anyway! I also saw two doves, snuggling up together on top of our neighbours shed, and the sight of it really made me stop for a minute to appreciate that small, nice moment!

I spent most of today working away on leaving cert biology material. I used my soup maker to make a lovely leek and potato soup. I took part in a ten minute live glute class with a fitness instructor on Instagram. Then, in the evening, Anna, Niamh, Orlaith, Julian and I took part in a live, online quiz. We conferred on the answers in a Zoom video call and generally had a nice catch up. The quiz seems to have been made by a group of tour guides that have lost their jobs and are looking to make a bit of money. People are being so enterpreneuring these days!Read more