Days 1 & 2, Week 7: When good runs go bad.

Today I got up and did my usual Ramped Up Upper Body workout by Cathe.  My supervisors made sure I was using proper effort and form.

After yesterday's workout, it was nice just to abuse my arms and back this morning.  And what was yesterday's workout, you ask, since I fell asleep after it was over and did not post yesterday?

The workout was, in no uncertain terms, the long run from hell.

It didn't start that way.  I was actually looking forward to the 18 miler I had on schedule, mainly because it was a) not 26.2 miles long and b) the temperatures were in the 50s.  I should have known what was about to await me when I woke up and I was all "what's that noise? is it raining?" and the hubbs instead stated "it's not rain - that's the wind."

Turns out we were lucky enough to get some good old-fashioned fall 25+ mph winds yesterday.  Highly annoying, but I've run in worse conditions (i.e., tornados and hail slamming me in the face!).  I decided to abandon my time goal and just get the distance in, because every runner should have layers of goals with any race or run.  So I went upstairs and got dressed, putting on a fave pair of capris and my newest pair of Brooks Launch 4s.  The large dog caught me, though, and started hanging around in the hopes I would take him with me.

Chicago Marathon representing.

I sense a dog that wants to go running.  Could be just
my imagination, though.

Because I had been caught putting on running clothes, I decided to hook up the large dog and get him to drag me around for the first 6 miles. We left the house and started to run...and then this run started going terribly wrong.  Let me enumerate with lots of bullet points:

• The running dog started weaving back and forth with excitement.  He hasn't been run in over a week, and he was all OH BOY OH BOY MOM IS RUNNING WITH ME all over the road.
• About a quarter of a mile into the run (the eighteen mile run, let me remind you), we hit a spot in the road where walnut trees were dropping their weird green fruit all over the road.  Now, I have run through this area a million times before, mainly in the dark.  However, in broad daylight I landed on one of those round green fruits of running injury and rolled my left ankle into an almost 90 degree angle.  Incredibly un-fun, and it made me slow down and take a video to document my ongoing idiocy.

• So, I did what you normally do when you injure yourself during a run--keep running, of course, noting that there is pain not only in my ankle but also radiating up to my hip.  "Gee," I thought, "Sure hope that goes away soon!"  Luckily, it did.  Kind of.  
• I made the mistake pre-run of having a wheat bagel.  You know the kind of bagel I'm talking about - the one with lots of fiber.  I also had this muffin during breakfast that I dug out of a package that screamed GOOD SOURCE OF FIBER on the front of it.  You probably have figured out where I'm going with this fiber theme....and if you guessed "right into the corn on the side of the road three times, two of those times attached to the dog," then winner winner chicken dinner. 
• I also made the mistake of timing my run so that I would finish in the dark.  I had a headlamp that I grabbed after putting the large dog back in the house after 6 miles, but apparently the battery-changing fairy in the house (that would be me) forgot to change the batteries since the last Ragnar and that headlamp was spitting out just enough light to make a complete mockery of my run. 
• And I don't even want to talk about the time where I was running around a curve in the road and an oncoming car almost hit me and I gave him the universal one-finger symbol for "Can't you see me RUNNING here???"  He probably didn't see that symbol because of the crappy light coming from my headlamp.

By mile 15 I had had enough of the corn-diving and the darkness and the wind that just wouldn't let up and the pain in my left leg so I called it quits and went inside.  Inside there was dinner, a shower, light, a proper bathroom and no freaking wind.  Some workout is better than no workout, right?  Even if the "some workout" really, really sucks.


Only one main learning today:

When the run is a crappy one (literally), all you can do is shake your fist at the run and move on.

Tomorrow's workout: Of course it's mile repeats.  Argh.  And more about stupid running mistakes I make so you can avoid them.