For years I had been slipping in my discipline to run regularly. As a final ditch effort, I joined the running group I used to run with some 15 years back. Well, it is not the whole group per se. A few of the old runner friends who still get together to run.

That has made all the difference. Not only am I running lot more regularly now (today was fourth successive day of run), the peer pressure also has improved my speed. Valerie pushed me to go the extra mile and make it a 4 mile run today and we did it at a sub-10 min mile.

My solo runs are far slower.

Finished my run and sat down outside the coffee shop with a cup of tea. Looked up and this is what I saw. The sky turned intense orange for about a few minutes and then quickly faded away. That was a quiet moment of bliss watching nature unfold upon itself.

Seemed like as good an excuse as any to the four of us to head out for a run!

Have to admit … the body was a bit lethargic today. But nothing beats getting up early in the morning and getting out in nature before the world wakes up.

Val and I put in an early morning hill run. After that we were having coffee and the discussion somehow went to one of her friends who is a devout Christian and she was talking about how much of logistical planning she has to do to be able to attend different masses during the week.

“Life is so much easier for the heathens.” Val concluded!

I was rolling on the floor, laughing!!

Our ring leader Lia is still not able to run but the rest of us showed up. This was probably my first run with Rachel although we could not remember if we had run once before on a Saturday about 13 years back with a bigger group.

Val pushed us all to complete the 4th mile. And for the picture today, she “straightened” up 🙂 I almost caught our home grown meteorologist Bill staring at the sky!

On a related note, we picked up discussing snakes right where we had left off last time and proceeded to the no less entertaining topic of cockroaches!!

And you wonder how we inspire ourselves to get up early in the morning and run!!

Got up in the morning and went out with the group (Val and Bill) for a run. Rachel bailed out on us and went for a swim. Given the humidity this morning, we kind of did the same. And put in a 5K run in too!

From the picture, Val seems to have taken Sheryl Sandberg’s book a little too literally !!

Did a 8K run and pushed for higher speeds. Peaked at 9:30 min/mile for a mile. But averaged a little over 10 min/mile today. The trick was to let somebody running past me get a little ahead and then speed up to keep a constant distance. After about half a mile, I would have to relent and slow down. That one time when I picked three high school kids passing by me – that was a mistake. Heart beat shot past 180 !!

In a somewhat related news… I am still alive!!

In a flashback to the yesteryears, ran with a couple of my old running buddies this morning. We missed Lia who actually put the run together today but she is recovering from a surgery. Running with the old buddies might be exactly what I need to get my discipline in running back. Thank you Valerie and Bill for a great run – although in a very hot and humid weather.