Bugs as Protein
The main thing I took away from this is that it's not always a fun, spiritually fulfilling experience. You don't always have your best performance when you want your best performance. Sometimes the day just plain sucks and you have to say screw it and keep going. - Dirty Running
Yesterday was not the best running day for me. I was coming off of the excitement from Monday's run, which I hoped would be enough to carry me through the miles. I didn't account for being extremely frustrated in many aspects of life, completely drained and exhausted, super busy at work and socially, and on top of it all...sick.
Despite feeling completely exhausted and not able to 100% breathe, I decided to go run anyway. Yay going against my better judgement! It's what I do best (this can be applied to not just running)!
I pulled into the Mt Vernon Trail parking lot, and much to my happy surprise I saw toons of very attractive men running topless. Makes me sad that winter will come soon enough and I will no longer get eye candy while I'm out and about. Anyway...I was sitting in my car, pouring water/gatorade mixture into my camelbak like usual. I went to put the camelbak on.....you know the mouth part you bite to suck water out of? Yeah...that popped off and the liquid started spewing all over my right side of my body and on the ground. Yay. I'm usually clumsy, but when I'm sick I turn into CRAZY clumsy. It's ridiculous.
I finally started running down the trail and headed to that little cut-over patch that brings you across traffic and to Arlington Cemetery. The bugs were infatuated with me and my gatorade-y goodness...and I can't blame them (except now that I have a buuunch of bug bites all over I'm a tad unhappy). This is not to mention the one bug that decided to go all Magic School Bus and fly up my noise...never to be seen again (BLEH).
Let's just say overall that the run did not go well. What was supposed to be 7 turned into a very slow 3, my legs still tired from the Monday 6. One of these days my ankle will return back to completely normal size and not still a wee bit swollen like it seems to want to stay.
Tonight, I go again for 6 or 7, then I plan on watching Run Fatboy Run and drifting off to sleep. Saturday, waking up SUPER early to go for 20 miles, then a quick shower, chugging soooo much caffeine, and a 4.5 hr drive to the Poconos, PA to watch my AWESOME friend finish her first HALF IRONMAN!!! Already very, very proud of her...
...and looking forward to a nap while she busts her butt on those miles :)
In the meantime til I can tell the internet world all about my first ever 20 mile run, here's a little something I found on Dirty Running's blog:
"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is no use.’ There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for."
--George Mallory, 1922
Wise words that I think can be applied in so many ways...especially to our racing endeavors.
Yesterday was not the best running day for me. I was coming off of the excitement from Monday's run, which I hoped would be enough to carry me through the miles. I didn't account for being extremely frustrated in many aspects of life, completely drained and exhausted, super busy at work and socially, and on top of it all...sick.
Despite feeling completely exhausted and not able to 100% breathe, I decided to go run anyway. Yay going against my better judgement! It's what I do best (this can be applied to not just running)!
I pulled into the Mt Vernon Trail parking lot, and much to my happy surprise I saw toons of very attractive men running topless. Makes me sad that winter will come soon enough and I will no longer get eye candy while I'm out and about. Anyway...I was sitting in my car, pouring water/gatorade mixture into my camelbak like usual. I went to put the camelbak on.....you know the mouth part you bite to suck water out of? Yeah...that popped off and the liquid started spewing all over my right side of my body and on the ground. Yay. I'm usually clumsy, but when I'm sick I turn into CRAZY clumsy. It's ridiculous.
I finally started running down the trail and headed to that little cut-over patch that brings you across traffic and to Arlington Cemetery. The bugs were infatuated with me and my gatorade-y goodness...and I can't blame them (except now that I have a buuunch of bug bites all over I'm a tad unhappy). This is not to mention the one bug that decided to go all Magic School Bus and fly up my noise...never to be seen again (BLEH).
Let's just say overall that the run did not go well. What was supposed to be 7 turned into a very slow 3, my legs still tired from the Monday 6. One of these days my ankle will return back to completely normal size and not still a wee bit swollen like it seems to want to stay.
Tonight, I go again for 6 or 7, then I plan on watching Run Fatboy Run and drifting off to sleep. Saturday, waking up SUPER early to go for 20 miles, then a quick shower, chugging soooo much caffeine, and a 4.5 hr drive to the Poconos, PA to watch my AWESOME friend finish her first HALF IRONMAN!!! Already very, very proud of her...
...and looking forward to a nap while she busts her butt on those miles :)
In the meantime til I can tell the internet world all about my first ever 20 mile run, here's a little something I found on Dirty Running's blog:
"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is no use.’ There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for."
--George Mallory, 1922
Wise words that I think can be applied in so many ways...especially to our racing endeavors.
i love reading your blog!!!!
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