Turning point

Something happened this weekend. It was a Friday afternoon, and I was transitioning my focus towards my weekend runs - ten miles Friday night, 18 miles Saturday afternoon.  With this less than cooperative winter I was planning on doing both of these runs on the treadmill like a million past weekends. And I couldn't handle it - how many more hours could I take on a spinning belt without actually going anywhere?  I literally felt like I was about at my breaking point.  I went home for a late lunch Friday to pack my gym bag and mentally regroup.  "Okay self, we have to get creative.  How can we make another treadmill run actually be not just bearable, but FUN."   And then it hit me - what's one of the most fun things to watch?  Stand up comedy!  Sure, it's always better when you've had a glass or two of wine and your stomach is full of quesadillas and fresh guacamole, but water and a gel cube or two will be a good substitute, right? 

So I loaded a few of my favorite comedians into 'My List' on Netflix and had renewed hope that maybe, just maybe, I could actually have fun during my evening run.  Just a few hours later I hopped on the mill, set up my Netflix to stream into the screen of the treadmill, and Katt Williams and I got to work.  I have to admit, I was a little cautious of laughing out loud while running,  maybe people would think I was nuts?  So I kept it to a near perpetual smile with a few quiet laughs to myself.  After his comedy special I went to my favorite comedian - Aziz Ansari.  He released a special almost a year ago I hadn't seen yet so I was excited for the new material.  ....  And then it  happened.  He went into a bit about marriage that had me laughing so hard I had to hop onto the side rail, double over, and literally belly laugh so hard I cried.  Yep - me, with no one near me on the other treadmills, and no sense of how loud I was really laughing because I had the volume up pretty high in my ear buds.  And you know what?  I didn't give a shit.  Here I was with just a few miles to go, my face sore from smiling, and laughing so hard I could barely breathe.  Now THAT was fun.  :)

The next day for my 18 miler I woke up with the itch to take it to the road.  Sure there was plenty of ice around, it was only 11°, and we were supposed to get a snow storm, but hey!  I had trail shoes, YakTrax, and a check card to take with.  What could go wrong, right? I knew I needed some more gel cubes, so I figured I'd go to the gym and leave from there.  I'd run at least to Endurance House and back for gels, and any longer I went was just gravy. The rest I'd do on the mill.


At first the snow was a little bothersome since I was heading mostly into the wind and it was snowing pretty hard, so all the snowflakes felt like tiny daggers flying into my eyes, but it soon let up and just floated around me.  It was peaceful, hardly no cars on the road, and I had added some new tunes to my playlist so I was thoroughly enjoying my run.  After my stop to get my Cliff Shot Bloks I decided to do a bigger loop outside, so I headed towards the Pheasant Branch Conservancy.  The snow was great for traction on top of all the ice, but I still had to be pretty careful.  I ran a segment that was a couple miles long, then stopped at a PDQ before entering the big loop.  I bought a bottle of water to carry, and a Red Bull that I asked the clerk to keep behind the register until I got back.  (When it's that cold I don't like to drink cold things later in the run, so I wanted it to be room temperature by the time I drank it.)  I really hit my sweet spot the next few miles.  The trees were beautiful and served as a great wind block, the few people I saw were really friendly and the fresh air was amazing.  It was just cold enough that I didn't want to look at my gps EVER so I didn't really know how far I was at any point either, which is a nice change from the treadmill display staring back at me. 

As I headed north the footing got worse, and there was a lot of wide open areas.  I knew that the strip of trail heading back west would be the worst of the entire run (into the wind, not protected, and really icy) so I decided to jump off the trail into a beautiful residential area for a little extra mileage and to build up my body heat before hitting the hard part.  Well, it started out seeming like a good idea.  I *thought* I'd remember the street names and glide effortlessly back to where I came from, but instead I got completely turned around, ended up on the shoulder of a country highway for a while heading north when I thought I was going south.  Then resorting to trying to run in the highest elevation of the neighborhood to at least see where I had to go, but it was farm land on one side, and the conservancy on the other, and they looked exactly the same with the increasing snow fall. 


After admitting to myself that my sense of direction was completely nonexistent without the sun being visible I changed my focus to try and find someone shoveling their driveway so I could ask for directions.  A few blocks later I spotted an older woman shoveling and had a dog running around the yard so I ran up to her and laughed at her surprised expression (I was a snow covered, snot encrusted mess with a big old smile at the time).  She did her best to remember street names, but then said 'can I just give you a ride?  I have no idea what the street names are to get over there.'  My fingers were getting WAY cold at this point so I enthusiastically agreed. Her Portuguese Water Dog named Lodi hopped in the backseat and I quickly saw that I was 100% backwards in thinking I knew where I was going.  She offered to take me all the way home, but I said dropping me back at the trail was just fine. 


It was tough getting out of the heated leather seats to immediately tackle the toughest trail section of the day, but I was too busy laughing at my poorly thought out plan to notice how cold I got.  A few miles later I was back at the PDQ and happily downed half the warm Red Bull while patiently answering the questions from the clerk -'so, you like doing this?  Are you sure you can get back to where you're going?'  I must have looked worse than how I felt, or he just wasn't used to seeing runners. 

The few miles back to the gym went by incredibly fast and I was happy to see that I logged 15 miles in the snow before heading back inside, which only left three miles to do on the treadmill. 

This weekend felt like a turning point for me - I no longer feel like I'm just logging miles and getting through it.  I'm running miles and really enjoying it again, I'm not pre-occupied with the effort or the logistics.  It's finally second nature and I can feel myself recovering faster, breathing easier,  even laughing during these runs!  It's given me a lot of confidence that I've been doing the right things these past couple months.  I have my first 20 miler of the year this weekend, and then it's off to Vegas for a work trip.  I'm excited to share with you guys the kinds of workouts I do when I'm traveling.  I don't believe in the excuse that someone can't workout just because they're on the road!