Triumph, Wimping Out, and Texas Skunks

Workouts:

Thursday: 8 mile tempo run

Friday: 30 minutes on the bike; 30 minutes of upper body weights & 10 minutes of abs

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 6 miles easy

Thursday's tempo run wasn't something I really wanted to do.  After my last round of marathon training, I was pretty much fed up with them, especially having to run some of them on the treadmill because Mother Nature decided she would be a cold you-know-what all the way through April.  Note to anyone who writes training plans-don't ever schedule the same workout for 16 weeks in a row; it's just stupid.  That's why this time around I am alternating my dreaded tempos with other tempo-esque workouts to mix it up and give me my much-needed variety.

But Thursday was a traditional tempo day, so, after I magically programmed my Garmin with the workout, I trudged outside to get it done.

And I beat the workout.  Talk about some mental magic going on right there.  The last mile was a struggle (I was keeping an 8:45 pace), but it was more mental than physical.  I was floating after that workout I was so happy to have totally owned it.

What I did not own was the 18-mile trail race I was supposed to do on Saturday in Texas (from where I am blogging at this very moment!).  While I am disappointed that I didn't get to run it, I am not disappointed that I didn't flirt with heat stroke-it was 101 degrees outside at 7 P.M. Saturday, the day and time of the race.  Instead, my sister and I decided to hang out for the day (scurrying into AC whenever we could), resulting in some serious relaxing in her new house afterwards:

Because I didn't get my 18 miles in on Saturday, I then planned on doing a 20-mile run in the wee hours of the Texas morning on Sunday.  However, even the best laid running plains can be shot to hell once you realize you came woefully unprepared.  I had no gels (since I didn't race we didn't go and get any, even though I saw some at a running store we visited!  Argh!) and my sister, who lives in Texas and does actually leave her house occasionally to go outside, had no sunblock in her house.  At all.  So, I was forced to restrict my run to the hours where the sun wasn't up--which meant that I could only squeeze in about 6 miles.  

Those 6 miles were interesting.  My sister lives in a subdivision that is along a main road that has a nice bike path/running path.  I took off on this path for an out and back in the 83 degree morning with my headlamp firmly in place, which gave me great views of the glowing eyeballs of a deer, 2 cats, 3 unrecognizable animals, and 2 skunks. It's the skunks of which I was the most afraid-they both raised their tails at me as I ran by, making me pick up the pace lest I be soaked in eau de skunkorama.  Thankfully they weren't there on the way back, but I did see an empty shotgun shell on the ground and had a cyclist almost sideswipe me as he passed me.  Texas cycling jerk.

I guess those 6 miles are better than nothing, but I am still going to have to deal with the fact that I still need to do my long run.  I'm going to have to be creative in getting it done.  Might even have to Ragnar it and split it into two runs.  We'll see how the week goes--just as long as I don't meet any more skunks on the run, it should be good.