Instead of taking two rest days, I went after the 5K again on Friday. I want to run the whole thing before I move on to the next phase of my training plan. No matter how long it takes.
I had thought about running Thursday, but my right thigh was super sore. I felt pretty good, all around, by Friday, but I had to go to St Louis, and drive all the way back, so I was pretty tired. I hadn't gotten much sleep the two nights prior, so I was a little worried about being able to finish.
Thursday night I ate a massive amount of pasta, and Friday I had eaten a blueberry muffin, Subway breakfast sandwich, water, mt dew, and Peanut Butter Cupcake from (cacao). Wow, do I need to get some salads back in my diet.
By the time I got back from St Louis and got ready, it was about 2:30 and I was wondering about school traffic. It's a holiday weekend, so I figured either the kids didn't go at all today, or they're probably getting out early. Ugh. I'm going to have to make a new route that doesn't go around a school. I set out, so tired, and was actually winded before I GOT OUT OF MY ALLEY. Pa-thetic. I knew at this point that it was stupidly pointless to try and do this today. I should have taken a two day break like I had planned.
Then the song switched to U2's "Beautiful Day," which one could argue it was. It definitely felt like fall, all of a sudden. But the sun was shining, the temperature was moderate, and in spite of a very strong wind, it was beautiful. I struggled down the main road, because I was running straight into 23-31 mph winds. As hard of a time as I normally have breathing, I am actually somewhat surprised that I survived this. I didn't have any problem, at all, when I turned around and ran back up the side street. Having the wind at my back obviously helped, but I just zenned out and ran up the long hill that is the side street with no effort whatsoever.
For the first time while running, I got a phone call. It was Husband, and as he was on his own athletically challenging trip, I really wanted to take the call. But, I was doing so well at this point, yet was still probably too winded to speak, that I let it go to voicemail. He left a voicemail, and that was all I could think about for a long, long ways. I assumed if it was an emergency, he would keep calling until he got me, but I really wanted to hear the voicemail..
When I got to the post office block, the Bow Wow Wow song, "I Want Candy" came on to get me around that terrible block. I was definitely not energetic going into the second half of the run.
As I ran through the intersection of "Head out of town and finish this" and "Last turn off to go home," I slowed down as I saw a car pulling up to the stop sign. (I had to stop for traffic A LOT today. I can't even keep track of the number of intersections I was stopped at.) Then I noticed the passenger hopped out of the car and ran back behind it, where there was a guy on a horse. This is in the dead center of town. I have seen this guy on the horse before in my neighborhood. It annoys me to no end. And now this guy is blocking traffic getting out to talk to him. Toolbags.
This is really gross, but I was super phlegmy today. Like choking on it phlegmy. This is the stuff that makes me not want to get off the couch. Husband has been sick, and I'm moderately concerned that I'm catching it. I'm deeply annoyed, what with not ever leaving the house, except to exercise. I haven't been sick in freaking eons. Ah, well, so it goes.
To add insult to that injury, I ran past a guy mowing grass, and since I was plowing along with my mouth hanging open, I ended up with grass in mouth. This is the dumbest hobby I've had yet.
Oh! It was right along here on my last run that I saw some kids playing with a hose, and I was so hot, that had I had enough breath, I truly would have asked them to spray me as I went by. Today it was plenty cool - crazy freaking MO weather.
I was really struggling as I hit the hilly section and ran toward the school. I was hoping to make it to the bottom of the hill that I had planned to stop and walk up on my last run. Since I actually managed to get up the hill last time, I was scolding myself for planning to stop. It's flat after the hill, I should just muscle up it, and finish this thing. But this run was different than the last one - I was tired and winded (literally), and there was no school traffic to guilt me into pressing on. So I stopped at 2.93K/1.82m/21 minutes, and walked up the hill. This gave me a chance to check my voicemail from Husband, who had just called to chat, shew.
I only allowed myself the one block, no matter what, because it's just too much effort to keep track of all these stops otherwise. So I walked for about a minute/.12K/.07m. I think this is where I noticed the bottom of my feet, especially my right foot, were in pain. Why oh why didn't I think to put a bandaid on that blister on my arch!! Youch!!
I ran up another two blocks, and REMEMBERED to continue out of town for two more odd shaped blocks (that amount to about the distance of one normal block). Of course, when I got to the end of the second block, there was a car pulling up to the intersection since the whole town was full of traffic. I wasn't planning to cross over anyway, but I felt like a real douche turning around with them waiting for me to cross in front of them. Sigh. Running is so fun.
Alright, I am headed home now. It's nearly all flat. I'm farther than I expected to be, but it still feels like a long way to go. The Middle School bus is dropping kids off, and stays about a block ahead of me all the way down the street, so there's herds of kids everywhere. Lovely. I do so love children.
Speaking of children, there is the slightest of all inclines on this side of the elementary school. I didn't think I could hack it, and needed another breather anyway. This seemed like the best place, after running another burst of 6 minutes. All the kiddos at the elementary school were out on the playground. (What, recess at 3pm? Way to wrap up the school day.) Anyway that was another 1 block/1 minute/.14K/.09m breather.
It almost killed me to start up again, but I had to keep going. At this point I had 11 minutes to get home to finish this in 40 minutes. It should be doable, I had covered a total of 3.93K/2.44m, but I still had to finish running straight into the wind.
There's the horse again. He's pulled over in someone's yard and there's a crowd. Whatever. I couldn't really look because there was a herd of middle schoolers I had to navigate on my side, who were all intently staring at this idiot on the horse instead of getting out of my way. The weirdest part was that I think this was the exact same spot where they guy dropped all the cash on my last run. Strangest town ever.
This time I only ran about 4 minutes, before stopping to walk the last block on this street. It was another 1 minute/.10K/.06m break, then I was off into the wind. As I headed downhill for the home stretch, here comes some scrappy little dog running after me. His poor owner was carrying a laundry basket to the car, so he couldn't chase the dog, and this guy was clearly going to follow me for miles. I used the last of my energy to yell at him to go home, and then I turned around and if he continued to chase me, it was his owner's problem. Sadly, I am certain that caused me to require one more walk break after only 2 minutes of running. The streets don't line up here, so I had to estimate my "block," but it was about .09K/.06m/1 minute, then I ran the rest of the way home (about one more block, lol). I charged ahead on that last little run, too. There was no, "Take it easy, you have to get through this, so you may as well do it slowly." It was all out, get this crap over with, as fast as humanly possible. I was somewhat concerned I was having a heart attack at this point.
I finished at 38:20, and when it was all said and done, the distance was 4.94K/3.07m. I measured it with the sidewalks on satellite - I have a feeling when I originally mapped it, I did it on the "map" setting and it was right at 5K. Whatever, close enough for me. I ended up walking about 4 minutes/.45K/.28m, which was about half as much as the last run, in spite of taking one additional walk break. I walked 9% of the total distance. One more and this is behind me, I know it.
And now the payoff of running: Chocolate cupcakes (or whatever choco is on-hand), hot shower, foot balm with spa socks, healing oils, and more food glorious food! This is why I run. This is the good stuff.
I was in fairly decent shape, except for unbelievable exhaustion. The bottoms of my feet hurt very badly, as if I had been standing on them for days. In spite of all that, I managed to mix up my first curry and it was a triumphant success. At least I can follow a recipe, if not a training plan. As it's now Saturday night, I'll add that the foot pain went away overnight, but I definitely have a cold and am as exhausted as I ever remember being (following another drive back and forth to StL today). I have a feeling tomorrow's scheduled run will be put off. Maybe I'll manage a baby run.
Weather: 72, Sunny, 23 mph Wind (Gusts to 31 mph), 41% Humidity
Time: 2:30p; Run 21, Walk 1, Run 6, Walk 1, Run 4, Walk 1, Run 2, Walk 1, Run 1:20
Distance: 4.94K (3.07m)
Elevation: +86.6/-88.8/net -2.2 ft
5K/10K (lol, why not): 38:51/1:22:07
Run Time: 34:20
Distance: 4.49K (2.79m)
5K/10K: 38:34/1:21:32 (Neither set of times is that great, but at least it's under 40, and I can almost taste a 3 mile run.)
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