Running with the Grumps

This is totally how I felt on Saturday.


You all have my husband to thank for this post. Yes, he's a computer geek but you're not thanking him because of anything related to that. No, instead, you're thanking him for the fact that I even have a run to blog about.

On Saturday I was feeling lazy and irritable. Sure, the temperatures had warmed up to above freezing but all that did was cause the snow to melt. Everything was damp and gray, all the plants, trees and grass are still brown and dead-looking, and the moisture makes it feel colder than it actually is. I didn't want to go outside into that mess. Yet, I didn't want to sit around the house anymore, either.

So, as a way of feeling less like a lazy slug, I suggested we leash up the dogs and walk to one of the grocery stores so I could grab a few things for dinner. I was a little worried about running due to some foot pain I experienced on the treadmill on Thursday. Instead of running, I was envisioning a nice power walk to accompany the errands. The husband, however, was envisioning a nice leisurely stroll. In the end, he suggested I just go run off my grumpiness. "Stay in the neighborhood," he said. "That way if you have pain you won't have very far to go to get home."

I leashed up the Phil dog and he and I went for a run around the neighborhood. Probably close to 1.5 miles. I didn't take the Garmin so I have no idea how fast or slow we were going. There were a few stops (boy-dogs like to pee on EVERYTHING) but we made it the whole way. I dropped off Phil and leashed up Trinka Deu. Sadly, Trinka Deu seems to be no longer interested in running. We trotted along for a bit but she decided early on that she would prefer to walk. I turned towards home and tried to hurry her along. I wasn't really dressed for just walking!

When we finally made it in the door, Jason was sitting on the couch eating lunch. I realized I was hungry. I came thisclose to calling it a day. Instead, Jason encouraged me to get back out there for a little bit longer. So, I hit the streets and, since my foot was still feeling fine, I ended up doing another 4.8 miles. I took the Garmin that time :-) Total for the day? 6.3 miles. It certainly wasn't a speedy run (I believe I averaged 9:53/mile for the part I had the Garmin on for) but I still felt like I was working really hard to maintain that pace and I totally could have taken the world's longest nap when I got home. I just keep telling myself that when I looked up training plans on the Runner's World website they all indicated I should be doing my long runs even slower than that!

Speaking of training plans, I still need to talk about my upcoming training and racing plans. I think I'll do that tomorrow. Stay tuned!