Steamy afternoon — July22 stats

It was hot today.

I’d been nursing an injury and yesterday I had an all day headache. So no fitness for me.

And I was going to keep it cool today, but I finished my writing session today and I was so restless that I needed to burn it off.

I grabbed my hubs and headed down by the river. I love, love the path by the river. But so does everyone else. It’s got a lot of cyclists, dog owners, other runners, non-runners, fishermen, and old men who love to take calls using their speaker function. I hate, hate listening to other people’s conversations when I am running. And I could hear them talking over my audio book. Y’all are drowning out the Lincoln Lawyer!! Even more ridiculous, I was jogging past one dapper gentleman and was hit in the face with a cloud of Jovan Musk aftershave. I can only assume he is meeting a date.

So it was steamy and late in the day. I haven’t ran since Monday. Today was much more walking than running. Not an awesome showing. But hubs reminded me that I knew it wouldn’t be a game changer run.

“But I want to win.”

“Win against who?”

“Myself. Like ‘take that yesterday me!’”

And he’s like, “But that’s also you. And you’re stuck with yourself.”

Fine. Today Yesterday Me beat me and sometimes that’s going to happen.

Rest day aches and pains

When I went out on Monday, I was rushing to get back for my call. I didn’t take time to stretch. And that’s what I was blaming my tight muscles around my left knee. I did 30 minutes of tight leg yoga. I felt much better, except the tightness in the knee. Then I remembered that I stepped on a big rock when I was rushing back.

I wasn’t looking and came down on a hunk of loose blacktop. It knocked me a bit. When it happened I went into immediate denial mode— I’m fine. It’s fine. Nothing to worry about. Denial so strong that it didn’t occur to me until late yesterday afternoon.

F*%k.

I was hopeful that some Arnicare gel would resolve it. I might ice it today.

But in the meantime— rest. I will stretch out again with some yoga, but no running today.

I wasn’t even supposed to be running today.

I had some kind of miscommunication in my brain this morning. After my coffee my brain said, Go change. You’re going running. I was nervous: it’s a level up week. But I change, cue up The Lincoln Lawyer, and coat myself in sunblock. I wore my hair dye stained white tank because it’s already ruined, what’s a little sweat.

I was late for my one scheduled call. I phoned them on my last leg, my house within sight.

And then when my call was over, I looked at my schedule and it said Yoga: 30 mins.

Well, damn.

I don’t run on Mondays. I run Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays. But to be honest, getting myself to do any activity the last few days has been a struggle. I’m glad I went and I am glad I leveled up.

I ran/walked 12 minutes/1 min (3xs). Again, I am faces with the hill dilemma. I found myself running into a gully knowing that I was just going to have to ran right out of it. But I reminded myself, You don’t get better at hills by avoiding hills.

But then I had another thought… I often tell myself that I have to go hard — all those fitspo inspo mantras like: Go Hard or Go Home.

Isn’t that just another form of self-sabotage? I have been working so hard this time about not killing myself, not worrying about speed, only focusing on endurance. I see my shadow on the ground as I work my way up the hill. I know I’m not running as much as I am shuffling. I know I could walk it faster. Going slow is a mind game and it gets me closer to being able to run for a full 30 minutes. Endurance over speed. I’ll start working on Speed at the end of September.