A Week of 5K Run and a Rainy Day

I’m well again. The whole sore throat ordeal was rather peculiar. Usually two or three days after I come down with a sore throat the sore throat goes away and sniffles, and maybe a cough, takes its place. But not this time. Each morning I woke up expecting to need tissues throughout the day, but I never did. Weird, but I’m glad I’m better now. Those head colds sometimes last forever…

My initial goal for Monday was to run at an easy pace for 30 minutes. By the time 30 minutes rolled around, however, I felt great and decided to make it 5 km instead. This would happen to be the very first time in my life that I’ve accomplished running that distance without walk breaks.  Yay for me!

Today, on the other hand, was not so fun. I woke up to rain. I probably would have still run, since it was only drizzle at that point, but today I wanted to run with my dad, which I regularly do. Well, Daddy is not a fan of rain. We waited until 4 p.m., and by that time the rain had long stopped and the roads had mostly drained as well. Our goal was to run to a certain point–somewhere around 2.5 to 3 miles. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but around the 1.5 mile mark things started to hurt. First my calf felt “funny”, and then the funny feeling pain gradually made its way up to the spot around my knee that it loves to hang out at. Besides that, both my dad and I overdressed for the weather. Sure, the thermometer said 15C/60F, but it sure felt cold when we stepped outside because it was cloudy and damp. We should have went by the temperature. Whether it was a faster pace, the unusual time of day, a little less sleep, or the pinto beans I ate for lunch yesterday, I didn’t feel like I had much energy. We finally made it though, but I’m sure glad it’s over. It’s interesting how two similar runs can feel completely different.

I’ll be trying to add a bit of cross-training to my schedule in the near future. I eventually want to increase the number of days that I run. I don’t think I’m ready to do that quite yet, so I figured that if I go ahead and do something on the extra days I plan to run I will already have a habit for that time of day.

Behám hocikde. — “Huh?”

Living in a country other than the US, I had the opportunity to learn a foreign language. Really, if someone lives somewhere, anywhere, he or she should at least attempt, if not learn fluently, that country’s language. So what would “Behám hocikde” mean? “I run anywhere.” It does not mean that I run to anywhere. It means that I run anywhere that I currently happen to be. Whether I am in the US or overseas, whether I am at home or at Grandma’s house–I run.

So far, since January, I have tracked times and distances of “runs.” The only problem is that I also included my five minute warm-up walk and then usually a five minute cool-down walk. That wasn’t smart. Now I want to get an accurate pace calculation, so I’m entering less mileage (the mileage that I actually run) and therefore less time into my log. Ugh. Now it doesn’t look so impressive. If just anyone happened across it, it would look like I’ve been cutting down mileage instead of building it up. Oh well. At least I know my real pace, and it’s about what I think and not what others think, right?

For two nights in a row I’ve slept 5 and a half hours. I’m not running any races anytime soon so I suppose it’s not that big of a deal, but I’m still a fan of getting 8 hours of sleep if possible. Good for the body, good for the brain, good for the nerves…