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?!