I knew today was going to be a challenge, not so much for the extra 10 minutes I was expecting to run, but because my stomach was in twists. My sleep also got interrupted last night when Husband caught a potholder on fire in the kitchen after I had gone to bed.
Regardless, I was determined to do this.
Last night, I sat down to map a route and runningahead had changed their website. I was utterly dismayed, due to my dislike of new things. However, it wasn't drastic and before long, I had mapped a route that was essentially the Figure 8 I have been running, increasing the upper loop to go all the way past the post office, down the side street, and back up the main road.
I got up early, and despite being groggy, hungry, thirsty, and achey, I was doing this. The weather was too perfect. I ate half a granola bar and had a little water, because I feared not being able to survive a longer run. I had an early dinner last night, so it made sense to me. I should have had more water.
When I took off, I took off fast. For once, I wasn't telling myself to slow down - this, after all, was a race. I knew I was taking a chance pushing it, but I thought today was the day to do it. I also tried to focus on taking longer strides - I realized I have been landing more on my toe area with my baby steps. When I take longer steps, I roll from my heel, which I believe is the 'proper' way to hit the ground. Regardless, I was back and forth with it today, because it quickly became a "do whatever you have to to keep going" kind of day.
It was downright cool out this morning. I was panting, hard. I had cramps the likes of which all the meditative breathing-into-the-pain in the world could not touch. I couldn't get comfortable in flat sections to prepare for hills. I thought a woman in her driveway said something to me, then realized it was just the song I was listening to (wow, 'in stereo' is fancy).
I saw a loose dog, but clearly I was a huge wreck, because he ran up his driveway and cowered as I went by. Speaking of driveways, most of those cars that were blocking the sidewalks Saturday were gone today. Aww, poor pains in my ass have to go to work on Monday morning?! Awww! I so sowwy.
I finally got to a point where I had cleared up the worst of the cramping, but I don't know how I got through a few of the hilly areas. When I got through the Bottoms of Post-Apocalypticaville, I was supposed to turn up the lesser of the hill options, but I had given up. I don't know if I could have made it through the course today or not, but I knew I had a long way to go and I was in horrible pain, so I stopped when my options were all hills.
I trudged home, bordering on numb. I was disappointed, but although I probably should have tried a slower pace, today was not meant to be a run day for me.
I came home, took some muscle relaxer/pain killer, and fell asleep for about 5 hours. Yes, that's how unemployment is supposed to be handled. I don't plan to run tomorrow, and then the weather will have to be evaluated. There's no way it could be as perfect as today was, but oh well. I am used to the heat. Kind of.
I knew I was at less than 2 miles today, but all in all, I'm pretty happy I made it 1.5 miles. It was about half my goal for the day, but that's still a hell of a run for a person as rough as I was this morning, or for me any time.
Runner's World published a review of Compression Socks this afternoon. As I have mentioned, I don't quite understand how this compression gear is supposed to help, so I checked out the article. The main thing I learned was that one of the pairs of socks made one of the reviewers have tingly feet. So when I asked a few days ago if my tingly legs were a result of the compression pants, apparently, yes. How that helps, we don't know.
Weather: 65, Sunny, No Wind, 93% Humidity, Feels Like 65
Time: 7:30am; Run 17:51
Distance: 2.48K (1.54m)
Elevation: +36.1/-38.3/net -2.3 ft
5K/10K: 38:04/1:20:29 (Fastest overall, Fastest just run since I was only running 16 minutes....which I didn't manage much more than today, so this was the 5th fastest just run time.)
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