16th August: Alone or with company?

So what do you do when it comes to training? Do you go out by yourself or do you go out with one or more people? From seeing the weekday joggers in my village the vast majority of people going round the block are doing so by themselves. Running can be viewed as an individual pastime of you pushing yourself, but being next to someone can really help to pass the time as I can swear by from running distance events over the last few years.
 
My neighbour and erstwhile marathoner Pini has offered to go out running together on a good few occasions, but with him being that much faster than me I have refused as I would not want to disrupt any training plans he is in the midst of (he is good at having those and sticking to them) and in effect, waste his running and training time by having to force him to slow down to maintain the illusion that we are running together.
 
I realise the offer to go running is made by him with this knowledge in mind, and when I have gone out jogging with LSS I have done so knowing it will be at her pace (well maybe a little faster than she would normally go) rather than at mine and I certainly have no problem in doing this as it is my expectation of the run, so surely the same applies with Pini’s offer to me?
 
Personally I am with the majority of those I have seen in the village and as a rule I run by myself (excluding a four legged companion). The major reason is more to do with time factors than anything else: With my line of work and its non-regular finishing times I cannot commit to set times or days, so I tend to run (or cycle) when I can find the time and this is also the same reason that I have not joined a running/ cycling/ tri club as it is tricky to keep the commitment that joining demands of you. If you are to run with someone and for it to become a regular occurrence then you need to have a day and a time that works and to stick to it as cancelling at the last minute will only lead to upset and you’re back to running solo again.
 
It looks like for the time-being I will continue ‘flying solo’ so-as-to-speak, but hey, I’m not discounting in the future going out running with other people… As long as they are happy to abide by the rule that if you can’t hold a conversation with the person you are running with, then you’re going too fast!
 
Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.