Day 6, Week 8: Taking the large dog running > holes in my drywall later.

The training plan this morning said "10 miles at MP (marathon pace)." And then, after reading that, I died.

Just kidding.  I'm alive, I promise.  But I always freak out at workouts like this during the week, like I completely forgot that I was training for a marathon or something.  It's because I'm a moron, as I'm sure I've stated before.

I always think that I can't do workouts like this.  I was all "GAWD I don't know if I can do ten WHOLE miles at MARATHON pace for crying out loud these training plan people are INSANE" even though I will have to run 26.2 miles at that VERY SAME PACE in December.  After noting this incongruence, I then rolled my own eyes at myself and proceeded to petulantly stomp upstairs to get dressed.  Large dog followed me just in case I might be putting on running clothes and did his best pathetic if-you-go-running-I-want-to-go-too pose.

Patheticness Factor: 1000

As I was wondering what to wear, I looked outside and saw the wind.  It was hard not to see, because the trees were bending right in front of it and it looked very cold and very hard to run 10 miles at marathon pace in.  It's at that moment that I considered my options:

1. Scrap the run and go have more coffee in the recliner because...hey! More coffee!
2. Do the run later when the wind dies down this afternoon...*checks weather app*...and it's not going to die down this afternoon. *insertbadwordshere*
3. Suck it up, buttercup, and get out there and do as many miles as you can.  And take the large dog with you because misery loves company.

Seeing that option #3 was pretty much my only option because doing the run later is always a lie for me and the small dog had already claimed the recliner as his for the rest of the morning, I got dressed for a freaking cold and windy run using my usual running fashion sense.

I got the large dog in his running gear and off we went, running the same one mile loop eight times.  We have to do the same loop because that loop is a dog-free zone (except for the large dog, of course). You see, I live in the country and everyone has dogs that run off-leash, sometimes causing me to have to decide which leg I'm going to let them have if they catch up to me while I'm being chased.  This mile through town isn't one where I have to worry about having to force the large dog to make that same decision.

To make the run more bearable, I decided on a wind-coping strategy: slow down.  If you look at the mile route up above, you'll notice that I end up running in all directions (NSEW) at some point.  Since the wind was coming from the west, I decided I would slow down when I was running into the wind, and speed up when it was at my back or coming from the side.  It worked, because check out these sexy splits:

Now, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, "ZOMG your marathon pace is around a 9 minute mile???  Are you a crazy woman?"  While the crazy is obvious, my marathon pace is not, alas, a 9 minute mile.  It's a 9:20 min/mile pace.  So way to go me for running too fast.  As usual.  Only this time it was too fast in 18 mph winds, because I am a moron.  But the cat sure seemed impressed when she was watching us run.

Hyooman faster than I thought.  Will note that in plan to
kill her when her usefulness ends.

And I even know something else you're thinking.  You're thinking, "How many pictures of her damn animals does she need?"  

He asks me that same question all the time.

You're also wondering why I only ran 8 miles instead of 10.  Well, that's because I took too long farting around trying to decide if I was actually going to do the run that I got into a bit of time crunch. But the run got did, even if it was 2 miles short.  Remember, some workout is better than no workout.

And also remember that making the large dog happy and wearing him out is better than having him chew holes in the drywall later.

Post learnings comin' at ya:

• When I tell myself I can't do a run at a certain distance or pace, it's pretty much a lie.  Just like my "I'll do that run after work" lie.
• If you ever run with large dog into the wind, he stops pulling you like a sled dog and makes you, like, actually run without assistance.  The jerk.
• Running a one-mile loop 8 times by the same houses in the neighborhood sure makes the neighbors start questioning your sanity.
• The dogs tell me that drywall is an acquired taste.

Tomorrow's workout: More weight-lifting goodness.  Maybe I'll get crazy and do a different workout than I usually do on a Saturday.  Stay tuned!