Start time: 04/24/06, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:45min/mile
So. The idea was to run four miles by myself today; I’d missed running on Saturday because I’d started to come down with a cold, but I decided that it was more or less gone and I could hit the trail after work. It was a quarter mile out on the trail that I discovered the new headphones I’d bought for running… well, they stunk. To the point that I threw them in a trashcan rather than even try to keep using them. Back to the earbuds, I guess, despite how much I don’t like them either. (They always feel like they’re about to fall out.)
My first half-mile was a little fast (4:00), but after that I settled into a good pace for the next two miles worth of halves (4:19, 4:20, 4:18, 4:23) and I had a mile and a half to go. It was at mile 2.75 that everything fell apart. I’d thought on the previous half mile that I was starting to drag, but the split only had me about 3 seconds off so I figured it was just my mind playing tricks on me.) Suddenly and with no warning, though, I started feeling light-headed and dizzy. For a couple of seconds I actually thought, “I’ll just run to the mile marker and then I’ll stop, it’s only two minutes away.” Within another couple of steps, though, I knew that wasn’t happening. I stepped off the trail and walked for about forty-five seconds to try and catch my breath, then jogged the last bit to the marker and stopped entirely (4:57).
And so, I walked the last mile back to my car. Slowly. I felt stupid for having gone out running in the first place when I was just getting over a cold, and doubly stupid for not having the good sense to at least plot a route where I would’ve gone out less distance and then just repeated it, in case something like this happened. More importantly, I just felt like my ass had been kicked all over the place. My stomach was a little queasy, and as I trudged back to the car in my own personal humiliation, I prayed I wouldn’t see anyone I know. (No such luck. Madelyn’s husband Don had been out jogging and I’d passed him on the way out, and sure enough he passed me as I walked that very long mile back.)
Well, I guess I know what I’m not doing on Wednesday.
awww, it’s ok! It’s better to get healthy first. (believe me, I’m battling this too – really bad cold for over a week and i’m dying to get back to karate – but i just know all the cardio work will leave me totally breathless)
I’m my own worst patient — very good at telling others to get some rest and to take it easy, but there I am, out there hoofing it.
Still staying off the trail, though. A little voice in the back of my head right now is urging me to go running on Saturday, but I think I will try and be smart for once and start fresh next week.