I Had To Run Today

I was too busy with work to get to the gym this morning. I was really disappointed because today was chest and biceps and I’ve been making some gains in my lifts for both. I didn’t want to just give up and push everything to tomorrow so I decided to go for a run… in the middle of the day… in Florida… again. I didn’t have a choice. I guess I could have gone for a bike ride but I didn’t feel like it. So out I went. It was hot. It wasn’t quite as hot as it was in the middle of July but still hot enough to hurt. I cruised out for a half an hour with the goal of getting back in less than a half an hour. That crap looked good on paper and seemed like a good idea running down to the Y. My watch beeped at thirty minutes and I was happy that I only had to run two and a half miles back. Like I said, I cruised down there making sure to keep my heart rate under 150 like I had some sense. As soon as I turned around to start the run back, I realized that the whole trip out was downhill. I was still felling good so the realization that this wasn’t going to happen hadn’t hit. I’m me. I’ll tough it out. I gave it a good try too. I think I would have made it if I hadn’t gotten stopped at an intersection by traffic about half a mile from home. I had to stop, there was no where else for me to go, and once I stopped I couldn’t get going again. It’s funny how much running has to do with rhythm. Vince Lombardi said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all” and it’s true. I could run about ten strides and my legs would say no. I was going to sprint the last tenth of a mile, because it’s fun, but all I could manage was eighty of the last hundred yards. I finished in just under an hour and two minutes. When I consider the heat and not having run in more than a month, I’m very happy with my performance, but tomorrow it’s back to the air conditioning.