Winds-day Tempo Run and What Dog Crap has to do with Running

I was in the garage for 5 minutes. FIVE.

I know because I was trying to make it quick. I promised T Junior we would make popcorn and watch a movie after dinner. I just wanted to do one last look for the tire pump. I want to take my bike with me to work tomorrow, but the front tire is flat. Need pump. Pump is lost in messy garage.

I’d already looked, but thought I’d look again real quick with “fresh” eyes before I got to popping. T Junior came out to help. When we came in, FIVE minutes later, there was pee sprayed over every square foot of the kitchen floor (somehow missed my gym bag, hallelujah), and 6 or 7 chunks of poop on the living room carpet that had been stepped in.

All three dogs look scared. As they should’ve been since I lost my mind and screamed at them.

Some days I think I have the “being an adult” thing down. Some days I know I don’t and tonight was evidence of that. After I calmed down, cleaned up, apologized to everyone for my tantrum, and jailed the kitchen-pisser and carpet-pooper, I laughed about it on Twitter. A step in the right direction, I think.

So what do indoor-deficating dogs have to do with running?

Nothing.

I just thought it was funny, and it made me feel better to share it with you. (Just be glad I’m not including the picture I took that I sent to Mr. T, who was not home yet.)

This afternoon was considerably better (although not without the potty-talk since I had a weird tummy and visited the ladies’ room multiple times before my tempo run at 11:30).

Anyway, the Run Less Run Faster plan called for a tempo run, and I convinced Mel (Tall Mom on the Run), who has been on a work trip for a week and out of her running routine, to go with me. (It didn’t take much convincing, as you can probably imagine.) And the friend she is, she drove to my office so we could start together.

The plan called for a 1-mile warmup, 3 miles at my Short Tempo pace (which is 8:13) and a 1-mile cooldown.

Since my body was, um, empty, I felt light on my feet as we left the parking lot and made our way toward the Interurban Trail, about 1.5 miles from my office. It was cold and windy. Someone honked at us.

Sidebar!

Why do people honk at runners? Do you? Is it because we were female runners? Was it my WSU logo t-shirt? Mel’s Nuun visor?

End sidebar.

During the warm-up, we had to high-step over a fallen tree that was blocking the sidewalk, and swerve around mud and puddles. And we had to start the first tempo mile before getting to the flat, straight trail.

Tempo Mile 1: So, with a half-mile to go, we sped up on the sidewalks along the busy street, then dooowwwwn and uuuupppp a big hill to the trail where we were practically knocked over by the wind. What a blustery day! (Ahem, understatement.) We thought it was bad on the side roads, but up on the trail it was way worse. The wind was so strong, it was even hard to breathe. I’d forgotten to reset my watch, so I didn’t know what our average pace was, only what our actual pace was. That made things tricky. I wasn’t sure if I was on pace or not. Pace: 8:19

Tempo Mile 2: We stopped so we could restart my watch. We got going again. We saw a train coming our way (the trail runs right along side tracks). The TRAIN honked at us as it passed. A train. There was also something weird up ahead on the trail a ways. We were mesmerized. At first, I thought it was a dog. Then I thought it was a trash bag blowing in the breeze. Then we both thought maybe someone was laying on their skateboard. As we got closer, it was just a runner coming toward us. But that hadn’t been the shape at all! Maybe he was an alien and morphed! At the turn-around point, the wind was thankfully now to our backs, but Mel was not feeling well. She let me know and told me I could go ahead and she would keep up. I did, but stopped at the end of the the mile. Pace 8:13.

I wanted to run with my friend, so I decided to swap my last tempo mile with my cooldown mile. Poor buddy just was not feeling well. We ran along down off the trail and back to the sidewalks chatting. Pretty soon, I had to speed up for my tempo…and, well, because I had to get back to work, clean up and change before 12:30.

Tempo Mile 3: We split and I headed back to work. I felt bad, but I appreciated that she let me run ahead. Pace: 8:13

So, I’m mid-way through my second week of RLRF training and I still really like it. I hope I’m still liking it after attempting to ride my bike on my lunch hour tomorrow. Should be interesting…

UPDATE: The bike pump was ATTACHED to my bike. Actually stuck to the side of it. With Velcro. On purpose. #eyesfail