24 hrs.
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was one the worst runs of my life. It was not quite sleeting but it was certainly too cold for rain. On top of that the 5 inches of snow we got overnight was quickly being turned into 3 inches of slush. Not that tasty Coke slush that they serve at the fair. It is that nasty sand/salt slush that gets into your shoes about 5 minutes into the run and gets colder as the run progresses. After slogging 7 miles at lunch in yesterday’s horrible conditions I had to abort the evening run due to fear for my life on the dark slicy roads of Hudson.
This morning I awoke and laced up the shoes ready to get in my token 7 miles. Out the door I almost killed myself on my front steps, then almost killed myself in my drive way, almost killed myself on my street, and was almost killed on the road off my street by a pick-up truck. I decided in not too long all the “almost killed” would soon equal a “killed” and walked back to my house wondering when was the last time conditions were so bad. Oh yeah, last night. I grab some work clothes, stuff them in a bag and high tail into the unknown but functional “Raytheon Fitness Center” for the belt of death rumba. I hate the treadmill so much it is sad. I should probably seek conseling. The rules of physics do not exist on that machine. You feel you have gone about 2 miles and it is .6 miles. The wretched machine and I have a little cold war going on with each other where I don’t make it go faster than 10.0 and it won’t make the odometer or chronograph tick backwards. It is a shaky ceasefire and could boil over into acts of aggression at any moment with me randomly punching buttons or the treadmill starting to make the most annoying screeching noise. I made it through 7.1 miles at 6:50 pace and no shots were fired. All is peaceful in fitness center and the concept II refugees felt safe enough to return.
Let’s hope I don’t have to use the machine again, ever.
Which brings us to lunch.
Yes, glorious lunch. The sun was out, the slush was mostly frozen, and the birds were singing. Ok, no birds but a bunch of diesel trucks rumbled by on their way to a construction site off Horsepond Road. Compared to yesterday, it was springtime in San Diego. Today I set a PR for French road while doing a pseudo workout with 6 x 2min on/2min off after a 15:00 warm-up. The last mile was 5:55 when I was supposed to be cooling down. Must have been cruising on the fartleks because the cool down pace was significantly slower than the fartleks and I was aiming for 5:25 pace on those. I always look to an unintentionally fast run as a good sign of easy speed. Easy speed is what I am after. You don’t even feel it but you just cruise through the run. When you check the watch you just think “how about that, it is finally coming back.” It is about time.
If one day you are cursing the fact you are living in New England trying to train for a marathon in the winter, just wait 24 hours and it will be better. Unless of course it is worse, then you can dance with the treadmill.
That’s all I got.