“Nobody really cares if you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy.” ~Cynthia Nelms
Good point, Cynthia.
I was happy yesterday. But circumstances have made it tough to be joyous today, this Tuesday.
Since you probably don’t care that much about my level of happiness, I will just have to get over myself and tell you about yesterday’s high times at the track.
No. Really. High. Like I was coming around for my final warm-up lap and, WHAM, pot smoke right in the face. I don’t care whether or not people want to use that stuff, but it is so stinky; just really gross, especially when you are running. Next lap, though, it was gone, so it must’ve been someone just walking by somewhere. (Although, I gotta be honest, I sort of wondered if it had hung around…would I have felt the effects during my speedwork?)

Other things you should know about Tuesday’s track workout:
- I wrote my times on my arm so I wouldn’t forget what I was supposed to be doing.
- The north straightaway of the track was heading into the wind.
- The air was cold and it was very cloudy, very low light.
- For jogging and rest intervals, I stuck to Lane 5. For repeats, I used Lane 1.
- There was an older man with matted bed-head hair wearing baggy high-water jeans, a hoodie and mega headphones walking on the outter-most lane when I began my workout. As the workout progressed, he got closer and closer. I assume he must be one of those people who measures his workout by “rings,” as in every two laps, move in a lane. He was polite and didn’t use Lane 1 at the end of his walk – instead, I noticed, he stayed in Lane 2.
- I wore black UnderArmour leggings, a black Skirt Sports skirt, my yellow long-sleeved North Olympic Discovery Marathon race shirt and a black “Run” Bondiband.
Here’s how the rest of it went:
1.3 mile warm up
I took this nice and slow, and did a lot of strides, butt-kicks and high-knees to get my legs warmed up. I’m sure I looked like a total dork to the few high-schoolers who were still hanging out in the parking lot. Ran through pot smoke with head-swiveling trying to figure out where it was coming from and then laughing that someone would do that so close to school. (I’m a rule-follower, so…)
Goal: 1600 m (1 mile) in 7:42
Actual: 7:44
I was surprised, at first, how difficult this pace was. I know I shouldn’t have been, but since it wasn’t the 7:16 pace I had to do last week, I guess I just thought it would be easier. It was nice to do this at the track, though, so I could count down the laps: just two to go…just one to go…half a lap to go…use your glutes, WOMAN!
400 m rest interval
I had to walk for a minute, and then I slowly jogged a lap.
Goal: 1200 m (.75 of a mile) in 5:39 (7:32 pace)
Actual: 5:38 (7:32 pace)
For some reason, this 1200 seemed easier than the 1600. Only one less lap at a faster pace! Not sure why I was able to hit this pace more easily than the 7:42.
400 m rest
I, again, had to walk for a minute, then continued the lap at a jog.
Goal: 800 m (.5 of a mile) in 3:42 (7:24 pace)
Actual: 3:43 (7:25 pace)
I thought I had it, then I hit the wind during the second half of the lap. I had a hard time getting my pace back down after that.
400 rest
Walked and jogged.
Goal: 400 m (.25 of a mile) in 1:49 (7:16 pace)
Actual: .26 in 1:52 (7:17 pace)
It took me the entire lap to get my pace down.
10 minute cool down (actual 9:30)
I cut out 30 seconds early since I was on the side of the track nearer to my car and I needed to pick up T Junior, and get home to get ready for girls night with Chelsea (Will Run for Food), Zoe (Run, Zoe, Run), Mel (Tall Mom on the Run) and Jill (Running to Sanity).
Prior to the track workout, I’d spent a couple hours cleaning our belongings out of our travel trailer that we haven’t used in 3 years. Needed to get it ready to go to the dealer and to make more room for the new coach. This counts as cross training.
After that it was time to head to dinner with Chelsea, Mel, Zoe and Jill. We met for Greek last year, and we wanted to go again. Just dinner, no running or anything. Of course, that was a big topic, but the night wasn’t centered around it.
You know what’s dangerous: 5 bloggers with alcohol and cameras.
I can’t describe the dinner, just that when I left, I felt so blessed to have met these women – all of whom I’ve met through running/blogging since I started this whole journey in 2009. Here’s my favorite picture of the night (Just one more before we go home!):

I’ll post more pictures tomorrow or Thursday.
Side bar:
I AM THE OLDEST PERSON IN THIS GROUP. I’M OLD!
End side bar.
We laughed a lot. In fact, hopefully the restaurant will let us come back. Once, when Jill and I were cracking up over nothing (just basically laughing at each other laughing – yeah it was one of those nights), I cried a little.
Tuesday morning, though, I cried for a different reason.
First, I woke up at 3:45 a.m. I don’t know why I woke up, but I was extremely thirsty and didn’t feel so well. Seems half a bottle of wine paired with too much garlicky Greek food after 7:30 p.m. is not the best idea. I couldn’t fall back asleep, so at 4:30, I decided to just get up. My alarm clock was set for 5 anyway.
Fine. I accepted I would be tired.
But then, as I was driving to work in the dark, a bunny leaped into my lane! I stepped on the brakes and glanced in my rearview mirror. There was someone in a van or truck close behind me. I couldn’t risk either a) swerving off the road or b) getting rearended. I had to hit the rabbit. I had no choice. I felt the thwack as it went under my car and when I glanced in my rearview mirror again, I saw tufts of fur flying up in the air behind me lit up by red taillights and the other van’s headlights.
At first I was in shock. I just killed a bunny. A poor, innocent, fluffy-tailed bunny. I bit my lip. Then I burst into tears. I tried to get it together. I asked God to please take care of the little bunny. Then I burst into tears again. Then I composed myself again. Then I imagined the little bunny just going about its morning routine and how it probably didn’t expect to die that day and I burst into tears…again. I cried off and on all the way to work.
Nothing makes you feel more like a big, bad human than killing a defenseless piece of living nature with your over-due-for-an-oil-change minivan.
My coworkers (all men) were nice about it (they only laughed a little and called me “bunny-killer” a few times), and tried to help cheer me up. One of our graphic designers even suggested maybe the bunny was really sick and wanted to “just end it all.” I’m going to go with that.
Have you ever hit an animal with your car? Have you ever run through pot smoke? Geez. I’ve had a weird couple of days.
22 comments
boo on the crappy day! I have killed my fair share of animals including 2 deer. Yep. how awesome of a dinner with great friends!
Ugh. I would be devastated if I hit a deer. 🙁 Glad you were okay.
I cried a little too, from laughing last night! So fun! We have to pick out our next dinner date!
I love to laugh!
So sorry about the bunny, ugh…hate stuff like that. I didn’t feel that great either…probably all the food and wine mixed. I didn’t feel like we drank a crazy amount. But that food for sure sticks with you!
Yeah, I was sweatin’ garlic.
Ah, poor bun bun. It’s no fun at all. I would have had a hard time even going in to work after that. 🙁
I considered going home. Oh, I did.
I did NODM in 2008! :-). How do you stick to your paces so exactly? You’re so speedy, nice workout! And finally, I hit a raccoon once and I totally cried even though I hate raccoons. So I would probably lose completely if I ever hit a rabbit or anything even worse that I don’t want to think about (like a pet)! So it’s totally understandable! I hope tomorrow is better!
So, I use the “average pace” field on my Garmin to help me get my paces. On my Garmin I have 4 fields: “time,” “distance,” “pace” (the pace I’m running at that moment), and “average pace.” Average pace is the one I watch the most — I speed up or slow down a little according to what the average pace says. Does that make sense? Not sure if I’m explaining it very well.
I’m so sorry about the bunny 🙁 That is sad. I’ve hit a bird before and it got stuck in the grill – made someone else pull it out.
As for pot, yes, I’ve run through that on our high school track I use. I almost started crying (it was at the end of the workout thankfully). II don’t care about adults using it but the idea of kids smoking out, especially before class even starts, just made me so sad.
I was a goody-goody so I never had access to that sort of thing in HS. How do kids get into that and why do they think it’s cool? I don’t understand it.
That sucks about the bunny, but just remember it was an accident. I’ve never hit anything but I came within about a foot of two deer a few weeks ago…
Never ran through pot smoke either, but I would not be happy about it…I agree with you: SO STINKY.
The dinner looks and sounds like it was super fun! Hope the rest of your week goes well. Your training sounds like it’s going great!
Thanks, Kendra. Glad you missed that deer!
That was an interesting track workout! I’ve never hit anything while I’ve been driving but my husband hit a coyote (we think) once (we were actually on our way to a race!). It just come down off a hill across the highway. It was early morning and he tried to miss it but there was just no way since we were going fast on the highway. I was so distraught over it and just wanted to ensure it was dead and not suffering. But, yeah, it was definitely dead. My dogs also killed 4 rabbits in our yard this summer. They brought one in the house through the dog door too…that was fun!
Ugh. That would be horrible to hit a coyote. Did it damage your car? When I was growing up, our cats would bring in lizards all the time. A rabbit would be a whole new ballgame. Gross!
Hope today goes better for you! Don’t beat yourself up about the rabbit. You did the right thing. I’d cry too though.
I ran through pot smell around mile 12 during the Portland Marathon. The last thing you need at that point is the munchies.
It did go better. Thanks! Yeah, deep-breathing pot smoke is not good times. Well, not for me anyway.
I have hit an animal with my car, a dog – and it was horrible. i burst into tears also.
Aw, Jen. That sucks. 🙁
OH NO KERRIE! That flat out sucks about the rabbit (I’m not going to say “bunny” because it sounds cuter, right?). Your coworker is right. The rabbit had just found out he had cancer and his wife left him for another jackrabbit. He wanted to be in a better place where his parents and little sister are waiting for him.
SIGH.
Ok, in all seriousness…you rocked the track. Next time I’m going with you….no crap from me! HA!
You know – you can program those splits into your Garmin….
Great track workout. Eck, I don’t like 1600s and find them difficult to do on a track and prefer to do them on the streets/trail. 1200s are my worst enemy when it comes to track workouts. I’d much rather do 400s and 800s all the time!
Once I was driving through a local park near our zoo and was coming up to a cross walk/intersection that had a group of children waiting on the corner to cross the street to go to the zoo and as I drove through the cross walk I was paying attention to all the kids to make sure no one ran into the road … and I ended up running over an entire little family of ducks, right in front of all those little kids waiting to go to the zoo, probably to feed the ducks bread 🙁
I once was in a car that hit a cat and I could see through the back window how it jumped and painfully died… I was in shock for the rest of the day, maybe even longer. I hate when this happens…. So Sorry you had to go through this.