When I finished my last run I was so tired and so interested in drying off that I completely forgot to stretch. I thought about it the next day, but realized that I hadn’t had any problems or tightness, so no harm no foul.
So I thought.
My body may not have made a big deal of it then, but come time to run again, my legs were very clear about their displeasure. All the tightness I hadn’t felt during the two days prior? Clearly they’d been saving up.
I haven’t come as close to flat-out quitting a run within the first three minutes since somewhere around Week 2. Although I had stretched after my warm-up walk, no amount of additional attention was going to fix this. Because this? Was payback.
I gritted my teeth and I ran. I’d chosen a new route, a street I’ve never even driven down. One, it turns out, that starts with a long upward slope. Misery.
At some point, and I really can’t remember where, I realized that the tension had left my legs and the run had moved to the ‘tolerable’ phase. I came to an unfamiliar corner and had to make a choice. Right — a hill. Left — a bigger hill. Right it is. Good choice, as it turns out, because left would have taken me much farther from home, but there a long stretch when I truly didn’t recognize the houses and wasn’t sure which direction I was running.
Finally I got my bearings and continued to plod along at my lightening pace of 14:18 (hey! compared to 15:03 last time I was flying…) and even did a couple of back-and-forths along a cross-street near home — a flat one — just to add a bit to the mileage.
W9D1 stats: 2.85 miles or running in 40:45.
Thursday morning is my intended Day 2. Mornings haven’t been my strong point lately, but it’s supposed to be delightfully cool … and I have plans for Thursday evening. Monday is the 10K, so that will be my graduation run. Provided I can make it through the first 30 minutes.
Having seen the course, I’m starting to have serious doubts.
3 comments:
As a new runner myself, I absolutely love your Posts and your blog. I have no doubt you'll hit your goals in your race. You've done hills before and survived, right? No reason you can't do it again.
Love the blog! I'm about a week behind you, but I have had a run like this one. Great job finishing it anyways - I ended up walking!
ccpup -- Thank you so much! I keep telling myself that if I could finish the Peachtree with no training, that having worked for nine weeks should make this doable. Fortunately, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd built it up to be!
January -- Thanks for leaving a note. I swear, knowing I'm being accountable to "the blog" (be it just me or anyone else who wanders along) is about the only thing that does keep me going some days! lol
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