I guess the title of this entry pretty much sums up how my run went today. As you can tell from the past two entries, this week has been a busy one at work. For some reason the hospital has been pretty busy with sick people. Thankfully, it doesn't impact me all that much but it makes my job of assigning admissions to teams really difficult when they are all nearly capped. As such, the last couple of days have really worn me out between work, the runs, going to bed too late and just not sleeping well overall.
For a while I thought I was going to get out of work early today but just as I was leaving a situation popped up which kept me there for another hour. By the time I got home I was pretty exhausted and just not in a great mood since I got tied up for that last hour. Needless to say, my immediate motivation for working out really wasn't there. With a little support from Renee, I through on the cold weather running gear and headed out.
The goal for today was 5 miles. The weather today was colder than the last few days with a temp of ~ 20 degrees, clear skies and some pretty strong wind gusts. I tried to get off at a good pace / rhythm, which I did for the first 3 miles. I was running at about 9:45 and doing pretty well. When I was out there all the stress and frustration from getting stuck at work unexpectedly disappeared. Just after the 3 mile mark I hit a point in my run that is a gradual incline that stretches for about 1/3 of a mile. The last few runs it gotten me pretty good and forced a 30 second walk at the top. Today, I was determined not to follow that same fate. I kept a good pace up the hill and made the turn on Summer St at the top. Unfortunately, mother nature was against me on this one as when I made the turn I found out that I was running into a pretty strong wind. Not sure if anyone has ever run against a 20 mph wind, but its like running in slow motion. I was able to make it another 0.25 miles but had to take my first 45 second walk. After the walk I hopped right back into a good pace heading at 9:50 pace. I was able to dig out another mile but then I got a pretty bad abd cramp. After a brief 1 minute recovery, I hopped back at it and finished the run. In total, I completed my target of 5 miles in ~ 50 minutes and change.
This run had +'s and -'s. Overall, I was hoping for a better run as this is a distance where I didn't think I should have to walk at all. Taking everything into consideration, I think its tough to get geared up for these runs when you don't feel well rested at the start of the day. Regardless, I did the distance. On a good note, since I run a lot of the same routes its nice to see points where I used to take turns to complete shorter runs. In particular there is one turn I used to take when a 2 mile run was my long run ... now I run past it after about 3 miles and feel great. Its a good feeling, and it helps to remind me that even though it wasn't a good run overall ... I am definitely making progress.
Looking ahead I have a couple of days off without anything planned, which will be nice to recover. Then, this weekend I have my first organized run as a member of L Street Running Club. 11.25 miles ... yikes! Wish me luck.
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