Let me preface this entire story by clarifying something:
It’s totally my fault.
Now, for the story!
As I mentioned on Monday, I am shooting for a redemption run this August at the GTIS half marathon. In light of that, I made the decision that it would probably be prudent to, you know…start running. So, I started putting some minor miles in each week, beginning back in March. I told myself I’d ease into it slowly—maybe ~10 mile weeks for March, and then begin an official training plan in April. That would give me 16ish weeks to prep for the half which sounds like a lot, but since I’m coming out of a six month running respite, I figured I would need all the help I could get!
While training for the marathon that wasn’t last summer, I had started to use the RLRF plan and really liked it. I tend to get injured if I run much more than 3 days/week AND it allows me to continue using CrossFit as my cross training. Because of this, I decided to *loosely* follow that plan again to train for GTIS….starting this week!
I typically head to Big Horn on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, so I had decided that I’d work my three runs around those days, starting yesterday.
Problem #1: I worked outside in the field all day on Tuesday and it was 40 degrees and raining. I got home from work tired, cold and shivering!
Y’all, I just couldn’t hack it! I was so exhausted from the chilly wet temps that I made the decision to curl up under a blanket with Tals and hold off on running for one more day.
This morning dawned freaking frigid and wet again, but as the day continued on, the sun came out and it warmed up! By the time I got home from work, it was 63 and beautiful—perfect for my first day of speedwork! I geared up in my Brooks Pure Cadence and headed to the track….only to find problem #2.
The middle school students were dominating the lanes with track practice. Sigh.
Determined not to let this second road block discourage me, I decided to head to the gym to use a treadmill. However, I got halfway there when I realized I really didn’t want to run on the damn machine! It was sunny! The birds were chirping! The sky was blue! How could I possibly run on a revolving conveyor belt?! Truth was that I couldn’t. I headed home and decided to embark on plan c: I’d just use my Garmin to run my 400s on the greenbelt path behind my complex. I would not be stopped today, my friends!
Problem #3: I could not leave my beloved Tally behind! One look at her little furry face and we both knew she was coming along for some speedwork.
Y’all, I am very aware that this was a stupid decision, but I love that girl and she wanted to come with me sooooo bad! She gave me her little furrowed eyebrows, raised one up, and plopped down on her little butt with that shaggy tail wagging against the floor. Who am I to deny such cuteness?! After all, I was running on a trail, so she could just run with me!
Problem #4: My Garmin is no longer communicating with my laptop.
What does this mean? I couldn’t program my workout! For some reason, my Garmin works fine but it won’t “connect” when I plug it into my laptop. Since I own a 305, this is the only way I know how to register complicated workouts (like12 x 400 with 1:30 rest in between). I was without a Garmin’s beeps to direct my run.
However, I still wasn’t ready to give up yet! I decided that I would still take Tals outside, only I would wear my Garmin and stare at it a lot. I would run for 5 minutes as a warm-up, take a quick look at my mileage, and then start running my 400s. Sure, it meant I was doing a lot of wrist checking to make sure I covered the appropriate distance in the proper amount of time, but it was better than nothing!
Problem #5: Tals loves nature. A lot.
I finally got outside, resigned to staring at my wrist but eager to finally get moving. Tals and I had just started our warm-up when we saw a fox! Yes, an honest to goodness fox in the middle of suburbia. Granted, there are tons of fox and coyotes up by me, but you typically don’t see them strolling through the greenbelt at 4:30pm on a Wednesday afternoon! Naturally, Tals wanted to investigate, so she started yapping and howling and leaping in the air, like the jackass that she is. I couldn’t get her to calm down, so I decided to just keep running while dragging her behind me. I figured she could only pull off the howl-hop-leap-run combo for a few seconds, right?
Note: She can complete that maneuver for far longer than I would’ve guessed! We’re talking a good half mile! Tals has skillz.
After finally getting away from the fox and finally calming Tals down and finally warming up my aching legs, I decided were ready to get our 400s in. I had written a few different paces down on my arm because, quite honestly, I don’t have a 5k time to help determine my 400 pace. I’m a slow gal, so I chose to aim low and hoped to keep all my 400s in the 1:55-2:00 bracket.
Problem #6: Except I had struggled for so long at this point that I had killed an hour of my day—I no longer had enough time to complete all 12 of the 400 repeats!
Once I realized this, I immediately decided to cut the workout short. Sure, 8 x 400 isn’t as demanding as 12 x 400, but it is better than nothing. Besides, once I got trucking along, I felt great. I was moving faster than I expected and clocking my 400s at a 1:50 pace. I felt great, and I was silently thanking CrossFit for helping to keep my legs strong all winter.
Problem #7: Tally got hot. And tired. And she is just out of shape!
By the time I hit my sixth repeat, I realized Tals was dragging faaaaar behind me. Like, tongue hanging out from the side of her mouth and drool pouring onto the pavement. Baby Girl was struggling with the intervals! I tried to push her through one more, but I realized that she was toast and immediately cut out. No matter how much I wanted to finish my repeats, it wasn’t worth her overheating. Tals has always been a winter dog and thrives in the snow and colder temps. Warmer conditions are not her niche, and her black fur heats her poor body up like a furnace!
In the end, I completed 7.5 x 400 of my prescribed 12 repeats and a grand total of four miles. Obviously, I wasn’t able to get the entire workout in, but it felt to be back out there and pushing it with running. I’m excited to get started again!
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Do you ever have workouts where Murphy’s Law dominates and everything seems to go wrong?!
24 Comments
Hey, you went out and you ran, that counts! And it was gorgeous out this evening, way different than this morning!
And if you go through your Garmin “mode” and “workouts” (I think?) you can create a workout that way – it’ll chime every time you hit X miles and then you can do either time or distance cool downs between repeats. I haven’t done it in a while but its the only way I’ve done it, I’ve never done it through the computer.
That’s what someone else said too! Man, I need a personal tech support individual in my life…I’ll check it out!
woohoo for actually getting outside!! 🙂 Sometimes our runs just go as planned, but in my opinion, You got a great workout in today!! 🙂
Your dog is too cute! 🙂
Also, I have no idea about the Garmin thing… I have a 405CX but I’ve never created a workout before… interesting…I’ve always just looked at my wrist… A LOT! 🙂
I learned how to create one last year, but apparently it is possible on the watch and I just don’t know how 🙂
Oh lemme tell you, curling up on a couch after a long, rainy day sounds so so good!!
And those pink shoes are beautiful, I want a pair for myself, can’t believe I’ve never tried Brooks before!
I really love them! I wore Brooks Adrenalines before I switched to minimalist, and I was happy with those also until I started dealing with PF. Now I switch between these and my Mizuno Wave Riders and it seems to be working.
What a hot mess of a workout attempt!! After all that, I probably would have just straight up ran a few miles without counting pace/400’s. Come to think of it, that’s what I always do!! haha. Maybe that’s why I’m slow. 🙂
I hate when I try to leave to workout and the puppies give me that look and get all excited (aka EVERY time I dress in workout clothes). It makes me feel so guilty if I can’t take them with me.
Yeah, I’ve created a monster with Beans- I seriously feel guilty for the rest of the day if I leave her behind.
I used to have the 305 and do know that you can program in those workouts with out the computer. I think you go to workouts, and then it should come up. Cola hates when I do intervals that make me go back and forth, he will quit after the third or fourth one and just play around in the middle, of course he doesn’t have to be on a leash out here.
Great job at least getting in a little speedwork!
I love running with Tals SO MUCH MORE when she is off-leash 🙂 Jealous you get to do that all the time. I’m headed out for a small trail run shortly, and she and I are both psyched since she will get to run free!
What a lazy Garmin! Lol sometimes the stars just mess with us huh
It can only go up from here, right? 😉
Oh my….sounds like my life! Sometimes you need to just step away, haha, but you got SOME in, so that great! Im headed to Littleton this weekend to run Platte River 1/2….Im sure Ill have my own “Comedy of Errors” list to post this weekend from my adventure with altitude :/
Fun! I ran Platte River in 2009 (I think) and it was such a fun race! I thought about doing it this year but knew I’d never be ready in time. Good luck, and have a great time!
But you got out there!! Thats what matters! And I love Tally! xoxox
She is my little snuggle girl 🙂
I have tons of trouble connecting my 305 to my laptop too. So annoying! Sometimes the stars just don’t align – that means next time the universe owes you a great workout! Do you think CrossFit for cross training will make your legs tired for your workouts? Or since you’ve been doing it awhile, is that no longer an issue? I’m just curious bc I tried Body Pump for cross training and it was a huge fail.
I’m cashing in on a trail run shortly so hopefully it goes better! And as far as CrossFit goes, yeah, I’m frequently sore for my running workouts– if a CrossFit workout involves physical weights instead of body weight movements, I’m guaranteed sore muscles the following evening. If they’re crazy sore, I’ll rearrange my running schedule, but more often than not, the soreness is nothing that I can’t shake out with a couple miles. We went for back squat PRs on Monday, so my legs were flipping SORE on Tuesday…good thing it was cold and rainy!
Baahahaha, okay, I feel ya 110% here. When I get ready for a run, Cabo just gives me those eyes (THOSE EYES!) and I melt. She only gets to come with me once or twice a week, and those eyes kill me every time. Then, once we DO get to running, she’s all tuckered out after 3 miles and wants to lay in any/every patch of shade she sees. She’s a black lab, and just like Tals, thrives in the snow/colder weather. Sigh. Cabo seems to be out of shape too! It’s almost backpackin’ season, we gotta get her in shape! Stat!
THOSE EYES! When Tals was younger, she just got used to always coming because she had so much energy– she used to run 5-6 days a week, for at least 3-5 miles a pop, including the 10 milers on the weekends! Now a days, she is getting older so she goes less, but she needs at least 3-4 good runs a week….which is conveniently how often I go. Shoot!
PS We still need to go ‘packin this summer!
Heather, this was a great story. So happy to see you have a good attitude about the whole debacle! And at least you logged 7.5 of the 12 intervals AND tired out your girl!
We are looking for some input from runners for some blog posts we want to publish on the Stonewear blog this month, if you are willing to contribute some answers on Twitter or through your blog we’d really appreciate it and link to your site!
This whole post spoke to me (and made me crack up). I’ve been doing my intervals on the road (1/4 or 1/2 miles–I didn’t trouble to figure out 400/800 meters). I too have a dog who LOVES to run. But she is getting old and can’t keep up the pace and I feel so bad dragging her along (plus she like to take way too many pee stops!). So our compromise is that I take her for the warm up (I actually ran 4 miles yesterday with her before my interval workout), then bring her home and head back out for the speed work, hoping she doesn’t tear up the trash in revenge.
I am of the mind that any work is better than none, so good for you for getting in your 7.5 intervals in spite of all the problems.
So funny! We’ve all had days like that. And I can certainly not blame you for not wanting to go back out on the cold/rainy day, or for wanting to avoid the stupid treadmill on a beautiful day! I think 7.5 quarters isn’t such a bad start, either, so pat yourself on the back.
Those shoes just went on my must have list!!