I just got back from a very rewarding run, we exceeded our
own expectations and I think we managed to push ourselves more than we have in
the past. I certainly was not expecting
tonight’s run to be overly successful – we had an extremely poor performance
yesterday, we lasted only about 3:40. Unfortunately,
you read that right. What was supposed
to be a run turned into a walk, and we have chalked it up to being
a case of the Sundays. We have such a
poor performance record for Sunday runs that we have sworn off any future
Sunday training days, it just never ends well.
Today at work, when lunch rolled around I decided to avoid
the cold weather by doing some stairs in my office tower. After several weeks of running I expected
myself to be half decent, but, boy, was I surprised. It was a staggeringly awful performance. I only managed to complete 2 x 8 up
and 2 x 8 down, for a total of 32 flights. I started off rather ambitiously
trying to at least jog up the stairs, but after only two sets of stairs I thought
I might just tumble backwards to my death.
With that, I walked the rest of the way.
I found it so difficult that I had to run back to my desk for a water
bottle after the first set. Then, I repeated
it all again, and as my jello-legs carried me back down to my floor, I decided I
had had enough. This is the truly
shocking part – all of this only took about 4:30. How embarrassing. So, as I headed back to my desk, beet red, I grabbed
my yoga mat and an empty office and stretched out. Never before have I seen my legs shake that
much doing a down dog or a sun salutation.
Today’s lesson: I must do more stair training. Never have I been so fearful of meeting
someone in a stairwell, I must do better, if only to repair my bruised ego.
Given my lunch-time experiment, you can see why I was not
looking forward to the run, the stairs had taken the wind out of my sails, or
at the very least, out of my lungs, and I did not relish the thought of moving
in a way that resembled speedy, if at all.
My husband called to check in while he was at work; I told him I was
going for a run, but that I did not want to go, that I thought I would only be
able to last about two minutes. He very
wisely told me that I should go, because at no point in time will I regret
going for a run. As much as I hate to
admit it when he is right, he was right.
And now I have it permanently recorded in the black hole that is the
internet… So, with this advice in mind,
I met up with my running partner and we decided to try something new – just run
and see what happened and how long we lasted. What a brainwave! The first round we lasted approximately
11:24, followed by a bathroom interlude where he so kindly wandered around the
neighbourhood until I could rejoin him.
For round two I believe we lasted an impressive 13:43, followed by no
bathroom break! We capped it off with
one last kick at the can and clocked in at 9:25. So we were pretty close to our six sets of
six, and we covered somewhere in the region of 5-6k. It was much more enjoyable
because we weren’t waiting longingly for the sound we covet so much – the alarm ringing in break-time. I was anticipating an extremely cold temperature given the windchill, but it was actually quite nice, so much so that my visit to
the bathroom provided the perfect opportunity to shed both my gloves and my
scarf. It even started to snow and lightly coat the ground, it looked almost magical. So, there you have it, I do not in any way
regret the run, and my husband was right for the first time in our
marriage.
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Here is a shot from our Sunday run... |
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It appears as though there might be an issue in this area of the city. |
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You can barely tell, but it is just starting to snow. |
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I felt exactly like this shopping cart by the end of our excursion. |
What a good supportive husband!
ReplyDeleteI can't complain, I am very lucky to have him!
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