August 23, 2012
Here I am hanging my head in shame. It's been probably about two weeks, if not longer, since I last put foot to pavement or even stepped on the treadmill. I've thought about it but my get up and go seemed to have got up and left town....or maybe even the country! I have even neglected to write which is just as bad because if I don't write my brain will atrophy. See, I have this theory that if you don't use your brain, it will atrophy just like muscles that don't get use. So the less you do, the stupider you get. Well, okay, so that was a bit harsh, but come on, it was a little funny, wasn't it? Okay....I'm digressing. I do tend to do that once in a while. My point is, I've not wanted to have anything to do with running for a while and now I'm feeling thoroughly ashamed. I do have some excuses though. Would you like to hear them?
1) The house has been full of kids and our schedule has been completely off. Every summer my husband's son who lives in another state comes to stay with us for the second half of the summer. That puts us at having four kids in the house and quite frankly that's a lot of kid chaos. Plus this summer we somehow got our days and nights mixed up so we were sleeping super late in the day (and I mean SUPER late like two or so in the afternoon!) and we were all up super late at night (as in until three or four in the morning!). So everything was all topsy turvy and mixed up. If you think that doesn't do something to your system, try it for a while and see. I had absolutely NO energy. Hmmmm.....wait a minute. Perhaps I should list that as one of my excuses. Yes, I think I will.
2) Over the summer we got our days and nights mixed up. See sentences four through seven of the previous excuse, or I could reiterate. Let me reiterate. When I'm sleeping late in the day and up all night it messes with my system. I felt incredibly drained and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't even want to do household chores, let alone get out and run three miles.
3) No air conditioning in the house means no cooking means no good food. The only air conditioning we have in our house is two window units in our dining room. These are used to cool the entire downstairs which is where we all live in the summer. Since it's the only air conditioning we have we do everything we can to keep the house cool. It's an old house, over a hundred years old, so the walls are very thick and it does stay cooler than most houses but we try to avoid things like heating up the oven or even cooking on the stove. It does tend to increase the temperature in the house and we try to avoid that at all costs. So, we don't eat real meals in the summer. Without proper nutrition my body feels crappy and I'm sure that contributes to the lack of energy.
3) School just started. School started last Friday. This led to a frantic scramble to get ready, buying supplies, etc. I can't believe how unprepared I was for this event! It's like I've been in a dream state for three months and all of sudden I was rudely awakened. What a strange feeling. I'd been so disorganized and sluggish then all of a sudden reality came screaming back. BAM! School's in session again!
4) All of sudden we got really busy. Right before school started my youngest daughter started cheer leading practice and then school started and all of sudden we have places to be and things to do. Which in reality is one of the things that brought me back to running.
So, there's my excuses. And here's what made me lace up the Addias again. Cheer leading practice and the Popeye Picnic Annual 5k. Okay....so you've heard so much about this silly little 5k but to be honest, it's what's gotten me back up out of my chair. Well, that and my daughter's cheer leading practice. The girls practice out at the place where all the baseball and soccer fields are. Around the fields is this "trail" of sidewalks. It occurred to me that the race is coming up quickly; it's September 8 and if I don't prepare I won't be able to finish let alone beat my husband. And we all know how important it is for me to beat my husband, don't we? LOL! So it occurred to me that while my daughter is practicing her cheer leading "G O Stinger let's go!" I could be getting some miles in and preparing for this upcoming race. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what I did tonight.
My computer said it was 92 degrees at around 5:45 this evening but I was determined. I need to get in shape and I've neglected running for so long I knew it was going to be tough. I've talked repeatedly about how running is mental for me and to me the first mental game is getting myself up out of my chair and into the run. I almost gave up today. The kids get home from school around 3:15 and I was in the middle of a painting project. I ran out of primer and needed to run to the store to pick up a gallon. I also needed to get some dinner going and done since we had to leave at 5:50 to get to cheer leading practice on time. I was cutting is super close and by the time it was time to leave my daughter wasn't finished eating. We hadn't given insulin and we were rushed. We forgot our cold drinks and had to go back and get them and I was about to just forget the whole thing but I'd gone to so much trouble to get everything together that I wouldn't let myself. See, mental games again. If you put a value on how much trouble you've gone to in order to do something then it's more important to you to accomplish what you've set out to do. After all, it took you so much time to prepare for it, you might as well get it done. We got to the fields and realized we'd forgotten the diabetes bag. I've spent a couple of weeks watching cheer practice and decided that cheer practice wasn't so active that it would cause a major dip in blood sugar and I had my phone with me so I decided to go ahead and run before I decided not to do it altogether.
I started out. It was hot. It was super hot. And I was out of shape. Super out of shape. I've said it before and I will say it again, it's amazing how quickly you lose the gains you've achieved. It's incredible. On top of that I started out too hard and too fast. I believe my pace was about 10:50 when I first looked at my Garmin. Holy cow! I knew I needed to slow down or I was going to bust. I tried, I really did but when I hit the first hill I put on a burst of speed (had I lost my mind or what?) and pushed on. UGH! I made it to the next hill which wasn't much further from the first and this one was steep and continual. I kept going. I knew I had to keep going but it was hot. It was super hot. And I didn't have anything with me to drink. I left my water in the car because I really didn't think there would be anywhere to put it and I was right. On top of that, there's no water fountains along the "trail". It was rough going but I made it around the first round and felt very pleased with myself until I realize that I had made one and a quarter rounds and still hadn't put in even one mile. This was going to be some form of torture. And it was. I found a fountain by the bathrooms of one of the fields but it didn't work and had to satisfy my thirst with water from the bathroom faucet. I splashed my face and took a few drinks of water and headed back out. I was determined to get in two miles at least. The more I ran the more parched I became and when my Garmin beeped my second mile I knew I had to quit. I intended to walk another mile but I was just too hot and too thirsty and I wanted to check on my daughter so I walked from where I was to where cheer practice was being held. I grabbed my keys from where I'd stashed them with my daughter and walked to the car and then back to the tennis court (where practice was held) and set up my lawn chair, collapsed and drank my fill of ice cold water. I did forget to turn off my Garmin for a couple minutes so that time was added to my run. Oh well. I was tired and thirsty.....I have forgiven myself for forgetting.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about this run. There was another runner on the trail and several walkers. I found myself trying to compare myself to her. She was much faster than me and I had to remind myself not to be upset about that. I haven't run since August 9. I'm out of shape and out of practice. I have to give myself time to rebuild and get back in the swing. I also had to remind myself not to be aggravated with myself about my pace which I felt was a walk with a bounce. My Garmin calculated my overall pace at 14:32 which is really poopy but to be honest that is an average and includes the walking. My average running pace was 12:32. Yes, it is slower than my treadmill pace, well, it's slower than my courthouse run pace as well but again, I've not run since August 9. It was hot; this was an unfamiliar course and it had hills....killer hills. I need to cut myself a break. So while I'm not happy with the overall (I should say average) pace, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm going to congratulate myself for getting back out there. I'm going to be pleased that I've got no pain in my knees and ankles and I'm going to get back out there again.
Some thoughts on the new route. I didn't like the sidewalk. I don't know why. I'm sure it's psychological. It's not much different than running on the sidewalks to the courthouse and back, only smoother without having to watch for sidewalks cracked and sticking up wanting to trip me and make me twist my ankles but I just didn't like the feel beneath my feet. I'm going to have to get used to them. I wish the trail was longer. I wish one time around was at least a mile. When I'd made it around one circuit to the place I had started I had only run about .7 miles. I'm going to have to figure out how far one mile is exactly. It's another one of the mental games I play with myself. I need to know where the mile mark is. It helps keep me going. Finally, it's like running on the track again. It's basically a circle even though it's more of a flattened square. It's just a loop around and around and around. It's kind of boring....well, it's boring with hills thrown in for a bit of torture. Joy. I'm going to have to get used to it. I am going to be spending a lot of time out there during cheer leading practice season. I might as well find something to like about it. I will be looking for something to like about it.
Here's the breakdown: I ran 2.54 miles. My average pace (with the walking included - walking from the bathrooms of the closest baseball field to the tennis court, into the tennis court to get my keys, then to my car and back to just outside the tennis court) was 14:32. The pace makes me unhappy but it was a rough run. I'm glad I got out there and got it done.
I want to end with one final thought. One of my friends on my running website posted this comment: "I love running. Running, I love you and I hope to never leave you." I couldn't agree more and when I read this comment I realized this sums up my feelings for running. I love to run. I never want to stop running. I never want to stop running even for two weeks again. I don't want to stop for even two days. I want to keep running...especially since getting back in running shape is so rough when I do stop!
Happy Running!
KEA
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