Since Mr. Boggs is to eventually be an outside dog, we moved his kennel just outside the bedroom door and for the past few weeks he’s been sleeping outside. Problem is that he has a different alarm from the rest of us…and his alarm goes off at 5am every day.
We reluctantly go along with the new schedule but when he rushes to the door all excited, tail wagging to greet Dakota, our only little girl, she jumps up and bites him right on the jowl. I don’t always scold her. Anyone that gets the whole house up at 5am deserves a slap in the face.
Running has not been top of my thoughts this week but today was my second scheduled run nonetheless. Since my days have been so busy with the move, I decided to do some laundry, pay the bills and take a load of boxes to the recycling center before the run.
Despite the fact that all I could see in the rear view mirror were boxes, and there was an aromatic bag of trash at the back, by the time I got to the end of the drive I promptly turned left toward town instead of right as intended. So I added a few miles of backtracking to the trip as well.
After spending more time hovering over that dumpster than anyone in their right mind should, it was already 68 degrees. I do the quick calculation of what the temperature will really feel like when I’m running and it’s a whopping 88 degrees. Ugh.
When I ran on Monday, everything felt fine. Today my feet were heavy and I think the hills got steeper while I was gone. It was humid; you could feel the heat rising from the ground. The lethargy was so palpable it felt like foreign matter clinging to my body.
I happened to glance up once on the back side of the run just in time to see the longest, steepest hill up ahead. My feet wanted to stop and my heart was agreeing with them on every step. There was a tree limb blocking the sidewalk on the way down this hill. I jumped over it coming out but let’s just say I did nothing of the sort going back up.
I prayed for a car to stop me at every cross walk but of course they all waved me through. Of course.
Just after passing the tree limb, I got the stitch! It’s so uncommon for this to happen to me that I’ve never even researched how to make it go away. It was during a race once that it happened and I took deep breaths in and forcefully exhaled. It took several minutes of this but eventually it worked.
So when finally I reached the nice shady down side of that monstrous hill, I was huffing and puffing through agonizing pain.
It took me 4-1/2 miles, twice by a tree limb and a bout with the stitch before I finally fell into a good stride. At the end of the run I walked around the track and decided there’s a lot to be said for pushing yourself through a run like this one.
I should have left the chores to this afternoon, should have gotten out earlier for the run, should have…, should have….
The lesson from this day is that when the alarm barks just get up and go.
The Fartlek 