Its been a month since I have written a post. Life got away from me so fast and these past 6 weeks have been overwhelming to say the least. My running has gone from 5 days a week to 1. How depressing. If I wasn't so determined to not give everything I worked so hard for up then I wouldn't run at all right now, but it took me 6 months to build back up from my knee injury last spring so as of now, ill keep on running.
I run once a week, on Wednesdays. Twice if I'm really feeling up to it. But right now I am teaching 9 to11 classes a week, and with that kind of load, plus school and interning, not only do I have zero time to add in running, but my strength for it is down too. But on Wednesdays I teach 2 of my easier yoga classes, and all I have else is interning till 230. I also don't teach till Thursday nights giving me ample time to relax on Thursday, even if its just sitting all day in class, at least I'm only using my brain. I have informed my students that I do my long runs on Wednesday and that yoga is going to be really interesting on Thursday night. They are pretty funny about it.
While my desire to run is high, my motivation is not as high as it could be, due to the exhaustion and all, so last Wednesday I decided to run home from work. This is not an easy task, because you can't get from my job to my house safely, even though they are on the same road. So I went on google maps and mapped out my route using what google thought would be bike friendly roads. (FYI- bike friendly means in no way runner friendly) I mapped out an 11.5 mile route, took everything that I needed for running to work with me in order to make it home, and had my husband drop me off in the a.m. so that I had no choice but to run home after.
Running 11.5 miles is a mental and physical adventure, just as a marathon is. 11.5 is about as physical as my adventure gets for right now, but once I can up my training more, I will start to crave a longer distance and eventually leading to running my 26.2 that I plan to do in now, May. But running 11.5 on a path, serene and protected, is a much different experience then running 11.5 as a form of transportation, on roads that are rarely traveled by a human, and only by an over abundance of cars.
A few days ago a guy said on his face book page "How many of you spent an hour in traffic this morning in order to ride your bike in a gym." This is a statement that I have come to follow a lot in my training. "I can't go for a run today cause I have to run to the bank and then the grocery store." Oh..... why don't I just RUN to the bank, then hit up the grocery after. It takes a lot more planning, but it saves gas, which saves money and the environment, and you still get in your workout. So on Wednesday I decided to implement this tactic and ran home from work. I would like to describe my experience, which was trying to say the least. Two hours alone in your own head gives you a lot of time to... be in your own head. Another one of the reasons I love running so much. So I decided, at about 1 hour and 15 minutes in to describe my experience like this.
Walk out the door.
Music blaring.
Nervous.
Excited.
Hit the road.
Round the bend.
Major intersection.
Turn right.
Not an appropriate road for running.
Cars cars cars.
I love running on roads that over pass other huge roads.
Exhaust.
Turn left.
No shoulder.
Trash
....Am I lost.
No.
Trash.
A few miles in.
Feeling great.
Suddenly in the county.
Horses.
Trash.
Cigarette packs.
Empty liquor bottles.
Really?
No shoulder.
Round the bend.
Tons of cars.
No shoulder.
Shouldn't have had that 5 hour energy shot.
End of road 1.
Not where I thought I would be.
Running in grass.
Tons of traffic.
Playing frogger across Polaris Parkway.
Other side.
Exhausted from 5 minutes of sprint frogger.
Walk it out.
Pick it back up.
Easy does it.
Trash.
Found a bike path!
Bike path ends quickly.
Whats the point of that.
Turn right.
Over half way done.
It got cold.
Hips HURT.
Stretch it out.
Pick it back up.
Windy.
Way too many cars.
Trash Trash Trash.
Tons of empty liquor bottles.
WTF.
Mentally bored.
Call Abe?
No. Keep running.
Start thinking about writing this.
Over thought about writing this.
Mentally tired.
Change music.
Trash.
No shoulder.
Tons of cars.
Stop light.
Stretch it out.
Pick it up.
Side of the road.
Trucks.
Cars.
No shoulder.
GIANT trucks.
Little Katie.
Tired.
Industrial area.
Stop light.
Stretch it out.
Longest stop light ever.
Thank goodness...
Pick it up.
Feeling great.
Tired.
Hurt.
Feet are swelling.
Pop music sucks.
Good beat.
Suburbs.
No trash.
Pride.
Ache.
Thirsty.
Almost there.
Turn right.
Down hill.
Singing loudly.
Hand dancing.
Bottom of the hill.
Hips hurt.
Stretch it out.
Pick it up.
Up hill.
Getting closer.
Pride.
Exhaustion.
Pride.
Pain.
Music.
1 mile left.
Down hill.
Music.
BOOM!
Hit by a car.
Lecture lady.
Keep moving.
Almost home.
Pick it up.
So close.
Turn up beat.
Turn left.
See house.
Walk it out
...Pride.
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