It had to happen eventually. Today was my worst run of the season.
In my defense, there was a lot working against me. My cousin got married yesterday, and I, of course, wanted to go. The show I'm in right now is happening as part of a festival, so the dates and times of the shows are pretty random. As a result, I had a show Friday evening, and one this afternoon, which wouldn't be so bad, were it not for the fact that I spent yesterday in Chicago.
Good Lord, it's cold up there. It's not like I'd forgotten, but it's just that kind of cold that gets in your bones and stays there. At least I got to see falling snow this winter. Didn't think that was going to happen.
So, I didn't get much sleep on Friday night, because I was so paranoid about oversleeping on Saturday morning. I was pretty much moving the entire day Saturday, and then got to bed crazy late on Saturday night.
When I'd made my reservations, I gave myself a 5-hour buffer between my plane touching down and when I had to be at the theater. I was encouraged when my flight started boarding on time. Less so when it took over an hour to de-ice the thing. Really O'Hare? We haven't mastered that one yet?
I tried to sleep on the plane, and I feel this was my true undoing. While necessary (because I needed the energy for my show), it is remarkably impossible for me to get comfortable on a plane, so I had to bend and fold myself in all sorts of contortions, which inevitably resulted in some part of my body falling asleep, so that when I woke up, I couldn't use my right hand or my left leg for a while. Then I'd resituate, and repeat the whole process. The good news was, I did get an extra couple hours of sleep. The bad news was, my body was angry with me, and because of the delay, I didn't have time to eat anything.
Due to having awesome inlaws, I didn't have to pick up the puppy until after my show, so I used the 3 hours I had left to go for my run, which was scheduled to be 18 miles. It took me a while to put together an 18-mile course, so I lost some time, and I didn't take the proper amount of time to warm up and stretch. The first couple miles actually felt pretty good. About mile 3, though, I started to feel some tightness in my back.
The course I'd drawn up still features a good portion of the Austin Marathon course, which means that most of the back nine (as it were) is downhill. The other side of that coin, of course, is that the first nine miles are generally uphill.
I decided to push through. I've got a marathon in four weeks, and I need to get the miles in. Plus, if I slowed down, there was no way I was going to make it back to the house in time to get ready and head off to the show. So, on I went.
At about mile 6, however, the back pain had spread to my leg and was really messing with my stride. I took at look at how long I'd gone thus far and decided that there was probably no way I could finish 18 in my allotted time, so I turned around.
Now, all of these things are excuses more than they are reasons. Didn't get enough sleep, didn't eat enough, limited time, leg pain, etc. Still, it turned out to be a good decision when, about a mile back toward home, the pain flared up and got very sharp. I did a lot of walking on the way back as a result, and in doing so, barely made it home on time. I had to pick up a bit of food before the show (having still not eaten), but I managed to make it to the theater only two minutes late.
The thing about today was that life intervened. There were things I could have done to ensure my run was safe, but today they would have prevented me from enjoying the other parts of life. I mean, I could have gone to bed earlier, but I wanted to celebrate my cousin, so I did. I could have made sure I'd eaten, but I was too tired to focus. I definitely should have warmed up adequately, but I got myself paranoid about the time crunch, and the show was more important than me.
All in all, I still managed to run over 12 miles today. I've still got two super long runs before the marathon in which to make up my time. I got to spend a great 24 hours with family, and I had two great shows. It's a successful weekend.
Even if it's not a successful run.
Today's run:
51 Degrees / Cloudy
12.2 Miles
1 Hour, 47 Minutes, 35 Seconds
Good Lord, it's cold up there. It's not like I'd forgotten, but it's just that kind of cold that gets in your bones and stays there. At least I got to see falling snow this winter. Didn't think that was going to happen.
So, I didn't get much sleep on Friday night, because I was so paranoid about oversleeping on Saturday morning. I was pretty much moving the entire day Saturday, and then got to bed crazy late on Saturday night.
When I'd made my reservations, I gave myself a 5-hour buffer between my plane touching down and when I had to be at the theater. I was encouraged when my flight started boarding on time. Less so when it took over an hour to de-ice the thing. Really O'Hare? We haven't mastered that one yet?
I tried to sleep on the plane, and I feel this was my true undoing. While necessary (because I needed the energy for my show), it is remarkably impossible for me to get comfortable on a plane, so I had to bend and fold myself in all sorts of contortions, which inevitably resulted in some part of my body falling asleep, so that when I woke up, I couldn't use my right hand or my left leg for a while. Then I'd resituate, and repeat the whole process. The good news was, I did get an extra couple hours of sleep. The bad news was, my body was angry with me, and because of the delay, I didn't have time to eat anything.
Due to having awesome inlaws, I didn't have to pick up the puppy until after my show, so I used the 3 hours I had left to go for my run, which was scheduled to be 18 miles. It took me a while to put together an 18-mile course, so I lost some time, and I didn't take the proper amount of time to warm up and stretch. The first couple miles actually felt pretty good. About mile 3, though, I started to feel some tightness in my back.
The course I'd drawn up still features a good portion of the Austin Marathon course, which means that most of the back nine (as it were) is downhill. The other side of that coin, of course, is that the first nine miles are generally uphill.
I decided to push through. I've got a marathon in four weeks, and I need to get the miles in. Plus, if I slowed down, there was no way I was going to make it back to the house in time to get ready and head off to the show. So, on I went.
At about mile 6, however, the back pain had spread to my leg and was really messing with my stride. I took at look at how long I'd gone thus far and decided that there was probably no way I could finish 18 in my allotted time, so I turned around.
Now, all of these things are excuses more than they are reasons. Didn't get enough sleep, didn't eat enough, limited time, leg pain, etc. Still, it turned out to be a good decision when, about a mile back toward home, the pain flared up and got very sharp. I did a lot of walking on the way back as a result, and in doing so, barely made it home on time. I had to pick up a bit of food before the show (having still not eaten), but I managed to make it to the theater only two minutes late.
The thing about today was that life intervened. There were things I could have done to ensure my run was safe, but today they would have prevented me from enjoying the other parts of life. I mean, I could have gone to bed earlier, but I wanted to celebrate my cousin, so I did. I could have made sure I'd eaten, but I was too tired to focus. I definitely should have warmed up adequately, but I got myself paranoid about the time crunch, and the show was more important than me.
All in all, I still managed to run over 12 miles today. I've still got two super long runs before the marathon in which to make up my time. I got to spend a great 24 hours with family, and I had two great shows. It's a successful weekend.
Even if it's not a successful run.
Today's run:
51 Degrees / Cloudy
12.2 Miles
1 Hour, 47 Minutes, 35 Seconds
No comments:
Post a Comment