Day 68?! That means today is the last official day of training - a Run 30 minutes!! Rest day tomorrow and then the 5K part of the "Couch to 5K" the next day!! Holy cow!! This is all terribly surreal to me. Not only did I just start this little adventure, but I'm pretty sure I can't actually run for 30 straight minutes. If you happen to know how much I have hated each and every one of my PE teachers, you know how badly I want to look them up and tell them about this. So that they drop dead of shock. Yes, I still harbor that much hatred of them. Actually, now that I have taken it upon myself to learn how to be fit, nutritious, and active (one MIGHT CALL THAT physical education), I actually have spent a lot of time hating them more, due to their utter ineptitude at doing their jobs. It's no wonder our generation is all Twinkie eating fat ass diabetics who are going to die earlier than the previous generation. Thank you, PE teachers of the 80s and 90s for making us play volleyball, and archery, and softball. Our healthcare industry wouldn't be what it is today without your support.
I digress. And I'm about to digress further. I checked the headlines this morning (I like to ensure the world is still okay before I venture out into it armed with only pepper spray and a will to fight for food), and was quite pleased to see that Mr. Obama is supporting something that is quite controversial, that I support, and that I kinda can't believe he is supporting, even though it's clearly a Bill of Rights issue. I mean, I didn't know we still used that, but it's good to see the President brushing it off and supporting our Rights. This is actually relevant to my run - stay tuned.
Last night I checked the weather for today and it was supposed to be storming this morning, all morning, until it was too hot to move, which continues into the night. In spite of that, I set the alarm for an inhumane hour. I looked out and it was cloudy and dreary, but I pulled myself together and came out to the computer. The chance of storms had gone down, and we weren't under any weather watches (except for heat, of course). Glad I got up! I had all but resigned that I'd be running on the itty bitty track at the gym today (I think it's 1/16th of a mile). I would literally need a counter to keep track of my distance. My goal, again, was 2.5 miles, so counting to 40 laps is just unbearable to consider.
I couldn't quite decide what route I wanted to take today, but I decided to take another go at my Figure 8 from Day 66, hoping that it would be closer to the correct distance when I added the 3 minutes. I started out too fast AGAIN and was promptly worried about my ability to endure this today. On I went, around and around and around the douchebags who park their cars over the sidewalks. Some fantastic Christmas music came on the mp3 which resulted in me very nearly dancing down the block. The dead smell was gone from the turnaround block, so that was wonderful.
Thankfully, it was pretty cool and although I felt the need to keep checking the time all along, I was moving on pretty well. I got to the turnaround pretty easily, and I made my regular route back without too much trouble. I made the turn uphill to make the twist in my Figure 8 route, and I still had plenty of time left, so I went ahead and went into that top loop. I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the loop, and turns out I didn't quite, but it was close.
A couple of things I noticed on my run today. First, there were worms EVERYWHERE. There always are, but they're usually more dried up. These were still plump and huge, and horrifying. I try not to step on them for fear of splatter, or getting them stuck to my shoe and having the end slap my leg, or whatever. They're just disgusting. I was probably risking injury doing all the sidestepping I did today. At one point my ankle itched so bad I was certain there was a worm bit on it. I had to scratch it, which resulted in me hopping on my other leg while I did it. It was a super hard variation of the Super Douche.
There was NO ONE out today. No cars, no people. As I went through Post-Apocalypticaville, I noticed one of the residents has moved a semi trailer into their yard. Like an old, beat up one that people would live in after very bad things have happened. That is one bizarre stretch of road. At the end of it, where I turned to go uphill, I passed an older guy with three fatty dogs that were trudging along. That was about it for humanity today.
I also noticed that although I kind of felt like I was moving fast today, I just take really, really tiny steps. I'm going to have to work on that.
I didn't have to use my usual mind tricks today, I just freaking ran it. However, a big help at the end was my music that popped up, that I need at the end of every run. First - not sure the official name, but it's a mash-up of Barack Obama quotes and "We Will Rock You" and "Changes." Between being happy with the President this morning, and being re-inspired hearing his campaigning in my ears, I was dancing again. And then Madonna's "Holiday" came on. Girl, you know I'm going to celebrate this last training day and a 30 minute run.
Once home, I got a little dizzy while sitting down. Considering I thought I was having a heart attack for the upper loop of the 8, I probably should have been more concerned. I ran 2.43 miles. I was hoping for at least 2.5, considering I'm running 3.1 in two days. I looked at my map and another mile would be practically back up to the turnaround point (actually to the side street that my zig-zag route takes to get to the turnaround). That seems unlikely to be doable. I'll map out a route tomorrow, probably combining my Figure 8 route, and the main road I usually run on.
One last thing, I had previously mentioned that I needed to come up with some new goals, after I decided to skip the 10K race. I came up with a list of goals on the side of my blog that I have either mentioned in my blog, or have thought about. This is an easy way to add new ones as I come up with them, and mark my progress. Today I can cross another one off the list - Run 30 Minutes!!! Yay!
Weather: 72, Partly Cloudy, No Wind, 95% Humidity, Feels Like 72 (disagree)
Time: 7am; Run 30 minutes
Distance: 3.91K (2.43m)
Elevation: +60.6/-54.7/net +5.9 ft
5K/10K: 39:08/1:22:43 (5th best overall time, so I wasn't real happy with this. Also not happy that I'll be running an extra 10 minutes next time I run to finish a 5K!)
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