Tuesday, December 4, 2007

out of one hole, into another

Good news. The blister toes are still around, but have caliced over. That means no more toe pain (other than the messed up toe). That is so awesome. Unfortunately the climb out of that hole lead me to fall straight into another. The right ankle is still sore. It's like I can't ever have everything working at the same time. It isn't all that bad, but I'm hesitant about even the smallest things that could make a big problem later.

Got out fairly early to the complex tonight. I needed to pick up some stuff from the store so I had to get the run over before it was completely dark. Barely made that happen. Tonight's run felt like I was dragging. My legs are pretty worn out. The first mile was like running through foot deep mud. The second and third pretty much the same, just tired legs. Finally by the fifth mile I got into some kind of groove. The ankle started hurting periodically. I think it may have been me thinking about it instead of focusing on being relaxed--is that even possible? Anyway once that happened the run felt a lot better, still not running on all cylinders, but definitely better than those first miles.

Toward the end there was a string of 3 runners. I was gaining on them pretty good. The faster who happened to be in the back tried to pass the first 2. He got way in the middle of the path going at what I guess he thought was a good pace. I saw him in the distance and gained on him in less than a minute. I figured he would pass them but he never did, so I was stuck being polite and running behind for a good stretch, hence the slower mile toward the end. I also was almost hit by a red truck. The guy driving saw me and purposefully pulled in front of me as I was the crossing the pedestrian lane. I kept running straight at him and nearly clipped his truck bed. Granted not the safest thing I could have done, but the guy came from BEhind me, and I wasn't about to stop. I should have ran him down, but I let it go quickly.

Someone had graffitied the course sometime in the past few days. The worst part wasn't that it happened, the worst part was that it was really bad graffiti. I mean the letters were all jacked up, no style whatsoever, and absolutely no regard for aesthetics. It looked to me like some third graders did it - other than the high school-esque profanity. I hope when they report or publish it they say they suspect primary school kids did it so the "artists" know how terrible they are. Leave it to the real artists guys.

So after running by that 8 times I was finished. Not really a consistent run, but still felt okay. I would like to run above a 7:30 pace tomorrow!! I tried not to run too fast today, but it looks like it didn't happen. It was even faster than the last medium run. I'll have to work on relaxing, because I may be overcompensating for the tiredness in the legs with speed.

7:33, :41, :25, :22, :27, :22, :29, :43, :25, :16

8(9.7)miles. 40-38 degrees. SM 342

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