Wednesday was a late day at work, so that turned into another rest day. Oh well, I just considered it a way to distance myself from Monday’s frustration. I have class on Thursdays but there are two hours in between school and work that I need to fill. This week I decided to try running.
So I have worked in this town for 8 almost 9 months, but run there once, and it was race on the beach so it doesn’t count. I mapped out a route that I was going to take and then had to change it because everyone I work with said I would be hit by a car on that particular road. Awww, so confidence inspiring. So they helped me make another route. Since this was the first time running before class, I figured 3.5 miles was a good goal. It would give me a good run and some time to stretch out before class and maybe study a little.
I set off with a goal of turning around 2 streets past a major street in town. According to Google maps that is. So I pass the main street at about 1 mile, thinking ok a little a farther than I turn around. By then I was in the state park. The first street is right inside the state park, so I knew I was still on track, so I ran on. The park had towering eucalyptus trees lining the ocean on one side and a golf course on the other so I was enjoying the view. It was heavily overcast but it was still pretty. I was running and looking for the road on the left when suddenly was I was in the natural history museum. Umm what? That was the 2 mile mark, not 1.25. How did I miss the street? Pulled my phone out and checked the GPS, yep, 1.95 miles. Crap! So I turned around and starting running back.
The route to the museum had been all downhill. So now I was on a time crunch, farther away from my car than planned with just shy of 2 miles uphill to go. Passed a dirt track on the way back that was the service trail for golf courts, was that what Google maps showed as a street? That is not a street!!!
I pushed all the way back, only having to take a walk break once up the worst hill. Got back to my car and was at 3.95 miles, figured what the heck, I am already late, I might as well hit 4 exactly and went around the block another time. 🙂 So Thursday’s easy run turned into a tempo by necessity. It felt good though. I think I like running in overcast chilled weather. I live in the wrong town, hehe.
Which brings us to Sunday’s long run. I set out with a plan for 8.5 miles. I planned on running to the track. Same route as my previous long run with an additional loop, so I only would have to do 3 miles on the track. Turns out the loop only added .5 mile not a full one. So that meant 3.5 miles on the track. I started out before 9 and it was already hot. It gets hot here and I know that, but it’s a dry heat, I can handle that. However these last three days haven’t been a dry heat, it has been so muggy. Yuck! 😦
I woke up tired Sunday morning but knew I had to get going. I finished all 8.5 miles with another .5 mile cooldown, but they were some slow, hot, tired miles. It was so steamy; I had a salt problem for the first time ever, or lack of. I was sweating salt. I had water and Gatorade, too. That has never happened to me before, hopefully it doesn’t again. Maybe I need to try something else. If the weather stays like this I may run my next long run in the gym on a treadmill. I don’t think I can do 10 miles in that humidity. But that’s 2 weeks from now, so the weather should break by then. Fingers crossed.
On the upside, I spent Saturday car shopping and managed to get rid of the clunker!!! Woo hoo!!!!!! Moving on from gas guzzling crap to (hopefully) sleek, heavy mileage friendly. My SUV sure looked pretty but it stranded me the day after I bought it, made it 3 years but commuting 35 miles one way 2x a day was killing me. I am so looking forward to the drive this week!!!!
Now onto to a relaxing Monday off! With some cross training stationary bike later.
Hope everyone had an amazing weekend!
Slacker Runner 