Friday, November 1, 2013

New Runner, Chapter 13

NEW RUNNER: First run of the week was fairly uneventful. I came home from work early that day because I had a late meeting and wanted to squeeze the run in beforehand. And I just didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of a nice day to run ... seeing as how it's supposed to rain most of the week. I couldn't stay running for the last 5 minutes as intended. Darn it! I got a cramp/muscle pull under my butt cheek and it hurt soooo bad ... grrr! Stretched it out when I got home and it stayed a little sore. I knew the plan called for a longer set of running intervals to start on my next time out, but I was hopeful I could do it.

To offset that frustration, I got an encouraging email from a colleague ... she made me feel so good! Here it is:

"I just saw you walk by. WOW! You really do look amazing! You have no butt and your legs look so skinny! I'm envious!" I think I should hang out with her more often!

Later in the week, I was lucky and got my next run in before the rain. Hooray! My muscle felt a lot better. (I put BioFreeze on it the night before). I actually ran the whole time I was supposed to ... at the longer intervals! Woo hoo!

I'm a little sad my colorful "celebration" tree has lost most of it's beautify leaves, which means winter is coming. I don't know how running in the snow will be, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Burgers on the grill tonight and my hubby made taco salad fixins' for tomorrow's lunch. Gotta love him!

MISS DAISY: Sounds like you had a great week! I especially like how you didn't let not finishing as strong as you wanted to on one run affect the next one. The truth is some days are just harder than others. Sometimes I'll know why a run feels so tough ... if I ate badly for a few days before, if I didn't get enough sleep, if I had to skip a workout/lost a bit of forward progress, if I was sick, etc. But usually, I can't tell why a "random Monday" will feel so hard.

For me, this week, it was Thursday. I hit my treadmill at 5 a.m. for my normal 4-miler after a solid night's sleep ... and thought I was going to die. I actually ended up running 3.25 miles and walking 1 mile. Sweating like a whore in church. (I'm so dainty!) The last quarter mile was "punishment" for not running the whole thing. (If I was going to walk, I had to go farther. It's a game I sometimes play with myself.)

When this happens, you just have to keep moving forward. The bad run is still training for the next run, no matter how good or bad it feels.

And, I love the email from the coworker. Those little surprises can mean so much!

As for running in the snow, it can be done. With any luck, your neighborhood will get better plowing service than it did last year! Ice is harder to navigate. Be smart, go slow ... and when in doubt, YakTrax!!!! https://www.yaktrax.com/



3 comments:

HR GIRL said...

"Sweating like a whore in church?" Pretty sure whores are too tired to make it to church, unless they attend the later masses....
Good post. I am really enjoying these New Runner Installments

Amber said...

Good luck running in the snow New Runner! It isn't too bad, YakTrax are a life saver! (I'll caution you to only run on snow with them, running on pavement leads to injuries.)

New Runner said...

Thanks HR Girl, and Amber. I'm going to try to keep myself going in the colder snowy weather...if not the hubby may need to purchase a treadmill for me! :) I'm not ready to give up a good thing just because of the weather. :)