week 4, days 2 & 3

Once again, I didn’t have much time to blog this week, so I’m catching up with two runs today.

W4D2

On Wednesday I didn’t feel great most of the day. I debated whether to run at all, and until the early evening I figured I would just push my workouts ahead and run Thursday and Saturday to finish the week. Then, I had to make a run to Wal-Mart for a couple things right around 7 o’clock, and as I was walking from the car I decided that the weather was much too pleasant to pass up a chance to be outside for a bit… so, I hustled through the store to get what I needed, and got home in time to squeeze in a quick jog.

I didn’t have too much sunlight left, so I decided to take off from my house and jump right in to the intervals with only about a minute of warmup time. I jogged down my street and toward a small neighborhood park that has a little asphalt track that winds around behind some of the houses. The first 3-minute jog took me right to the entrance of the park, and then after my walk break the next jog interval took me through a little over half of the length of track that is there. There were a few hills to deal with, and I was not feeling my best… but I pushed on. Something about the shame of not completing a workout kept me going.

The long walk break and then the next 3-minute jog took me back out of the park and onto the neighborhood streets again. I jogged part of the way down a cul-de-sac and then realized that there was a pretty big downhill to get to the end, and I didn’t feel like fighting my way back up. I instead turned around and headed back toward the park. I was calculating how far I could go on the track again before I could turn around and head straight back, possibly finishing the workout right in front of my house. I really didn’t know, but I guessed and turned around to start my last 5-minute jog.

I was really very tired that evening. I think my body prefers to do workouts like this earlier in the day. Nonetheless, I made it out of the park, across a couple streets to my own, and I did actually end up finishing the interval as I reached my own driveway. A snapshot of the run is here (and it’s a little short, because I only did the intervals and not warmup or cool down):

Since I ran for time today instead of distance like I had done on Monday, my mileage is a little short. The full distance as written in the plan would be 2 miles, and my distance was just 1.8.  That is just because I am slow. Not unlike a cow.

W4D3

Today was another day when I considered pushing my workout until tomorrow. This morning was COLD, and since we’ve already had a few tastes of spring weather, I wasn’t in the mood for running in 30-some degrees. Then I spent a long while finishing up some work projects before Spring Break begins this weekend…

By about 4:30, I was ready to get out of the house. The temperature was at least up in the 40s now, and the sun was shining, so I put on my shoes and drove to the park.

Today I parked in a whole new spot, not actually in the park, but in a small satellite lot adjacent to one of the paths that leads in to the main track I usually run. Since I know the workout mileage is about 2 miles, I thought today I would walk the first leg of the path as my warmup, and then jog when I got to the main track. If I was at least close to the right mileage, I would be able to finish  up on my second loop and take the side path back to my car for a cool-down time.

Well, the warmup was fine, but I had ignored the fact that the last 20 yards or so up to the main track are on a hill. THEN, as soon as I got on the track I advanced my podcast ahead to the first jog, and then proceeded toward BNH. I had to jog all the way to the top of that monster before the 3 minutes was up, and I was already feeling it.

The 90-second walk break is never long enough. You think it’s going to be longer, but it just isn’t. Suddenly, Robert is telling me to start the first 5-minute jog… which I did, but only because I didn’t have any hills in front of me just then. In fact, I got to go gently downhill for a bit which was a nice relief. Then came the longer walk break, and I was closing in on one mile…

As I began to head up the gradual incline leading to BNH again, I decided to turn around and jog back around the other direction. By doing this, I would have a fairly level 3-minute run and then the last 5-minute stint would be hard, bud I’d be heading down BNH at the end.

I’m glad I did that.

As I got around to starting the last run, I was having words with myself. It was all the old talk again, like “you are tired, why don’t you stop now” and “you can always make up for it tomorrow.” There were a couple small hills before I would get to the final downhill, and I came dangerously close to calling it quits. I was even starting to have the familiar “I’m not sure I even want to do this (whole running thing) anymore” conversation. Biking is better for me. Anything is better for me!

Well, suddenly I am on the level area before leading over to the top of BNH, and Robert is telling me to push it because there is one minute left. Push it? I am barely keeping my feet moving right now!

BUT

I made it to the crest, and I started heading downhill… very carefully, because I was so tired I was seriously afraid I might stumble and collapse, and then roll down the rest of the way. [I wonder whether the Nike sportband could keep track of THAT!]

And then I was done. And glad, so glad to be finished.

I walked a few minutes of cool down and stopped the sportband recording right at 30 minutes. I walked another minute or two to reach my car.

A snapshot of today’s run:

Lesson learned this week: I really do seem to feel better if I workout in the morning. Next week, I’ll be down in Florida to run The Dreaded Week Five. I’m kind of looking forward to it, though… the land is extremely flat down there!

week 4, day 1: going the distance

In the great tradition of Mondays, today was dreary and a bit chilly. I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning that kept me from doing my run first thing, so instead I headed out at midday. The temperature was in the mid-40s, but the dampness made it feel even cooler. Oh where, oh where has my spring weather gone?

Want to know what dedication is? Dedication is when you are 42 years old, and you’re a bit overweight, and you’re pretty disgusted with yourself, and you’ve just been to the doctor and seen that weight number pop up on the scale again, and you drive home in the chilly rain, and you haven’t had breakfast, and you just want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and some hot chocolate for the rest of the day and wallow in self pity… but INSTEAD you come home, and you eat a couple oatmeal muffins, and you put on the running tights that you know make you look like a cow, and you throw on a sweatshirt and grab your iPod and you get in the car and turn the windshield wipers on as you drive to the park where you can do your jogging workout for a program that you already completed once before but couldn’t maintain.

That’s dedication.

And so, Super Dedicated Me got to the park, stepped out into the drizzle, turned on my iPod and started around the track.

Today, just for kicks, I decided that instead of listening to Robert Ullrey’s podcast for interval cues, I wanted to try jogging the intervals as they are written for distance instead of time. Before I left the house, I had gone online to the Cool Running website to re-read the original plan and take note of the distances assigned to each interval. Then I jotted those distances in decimal form on the palm of my hand [yes, I know, it sounds primitive!] so that I would have a reference to the points when I would need to change pace. Kind of a cheat sheet. Since I was running with my sportband, I would be able to track my mileage easily…

All that is to say that I just chose a favorite playlist and walked my way through one song for warmup… then I started recording my run at the point of my first jog.

The intervals this week are:

• Jog 1/4 mile (3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (2 1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (5 minutes)

So, a total of 2 miles of distance.

I jogged the first interval with little trouble. Most of it was on the straight and level portion of the track… plus, you know, it’s only a 1/4 mile. I can do that. And I did. And then I walked my 1/8 mile… just about to the base of BNH! Oh, well. It had to happen sooner or later.

I jogged up BNH and was already feeling in need of a break, but still had a good 3/10 to go.

As I started to approach the place where the track intersects the main park road, I saw a woman running up the big hill that comes from the lower baseball fields. Running. Like, doing sprint work. Up that big hill. A hill that I don’t even talk about here, ever, because it truly puts BNH to shame. I figure if God wanted us to run up that hill, He would have made sure it was on the jogging track instead of on the road. The road is for cars. I am not a car. The end.

I wanted to shout to her that she was my hero. However, I couldn’t… because by the time I woggled my cow-ness all the way up to where she had been, she was long gone. Heading back down the hill. Probably to sprint back up again. Nut job.

[What's that word? Fartlek? FART-lek. Fun word. I'm not ready to be any more acquainted with it just yet.]

So anyway… back to ME. I kept jogging on around and eventually got to the end of the 1/2 mile. Actually, other than the first jaunt up BNH, it hadn’t been too bad. I figured it took a little longer than 5 minutes, but I didn’t mark the official time.

I walked my 1/4 mile, doing my best to keep things brisk.

The next jog was 1/4 mile… and as I have done a few times lately, I turned off the main track onto the alternate route down across the creek. I like the change of scenery, and I like avoiding another jog up BNH when I can.

The last 1/8-mile walk was on the flat track that runs behind the houses that border the park. I wondered if anyone was looking out their window to see my in all my damp glory, glancing at the “cheat sheet” on my palm and then checking my sportband to make sure I started my interval at the right time.

The final 1/2-mile jog began at the end of that section of track, where there is a little hill and then I have to turn around and head back the way I came. As I came up the hill I saw a car parked in a little lot there with two people sitting in it. They probably wondered why I was jogging in the drizzle. I made a sweeping turn and headed back down to the flat area again.

The flat part wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, it wasn’t terribly long, either.

Before I knew it I was heading back toward the creek — a little hill to get to the bridge — and then up another hill to get from the bridge up to the main track again.

I was tired! I considered cutting the last interval short. The mileage just didn’t seem to tick off quickly enough on my sportband. Maybe I should just go three minutes instead? But I hadn’t noted the time when I started, so I couldn’t know when to finish. Nope! I needed to press on.

The last 2 tenths were killer. Luckily, I was finishing up on the straight section of the main track… this was good, since my eyes were practically glued to my sportband instead of where I was going, as I hopefully watched the distance tick off by the hundredths. I know that last stretch was VERY slow. Sheer pride got me to the end.

But then I was done! I stopped recording the run the second I got to 2.00 miles. After all that work, I didn’t want any of my cool-down walk to drag my overall pace down. I wanted to know how well I had done those intervals.

So, here is a snapshot of the run:

And look! Once again, only one White Circle of Slowness was noted!

Most surprising, though, is the fact that I was only about a minute and a half slower than the official timing of the intervals (like, if I had run using the podcast for my cues). My pace was respectable.

I got to the car sweaty, damp, and triumphant.

Bring on Wednesday!

week 3, days 2 & 3

This week has been wildly crazy and even though I was able to jog my w3d2 workout on Wednesday, I never had time to blog about it. I figured I’d better make sure to have an entry today, so today and today only you get two! two! two run reports for the price of one! Act now, this offer is good for a limited time.

So on Wednesday, the biggest thing to report was that I forgot to wear my sportband when I went out. Oh nooooo!  I had driven to the park already and I did think about driving back to get it at the house, but finally decided not to add another 4 miles round trip to my already-hectic day.

Wednesday’s workout went well.. weather was great, I felt like I was jogging at a good pace, and I completed all the intervals. I managed to avoid actually jogging up BNH and only had to walk up it once. I said hi to the World’s Friendliest Stranger and I listened breathlessly to Robert Ullrey give me my cues. I’m not sure of my mileage since I FORGOT MY SPORTBAND but I think it was right around 2 miles, like on Monday.

Today started at a more leisurely pace than usual because the kids are off school. Glenn is also home today and wanted to jog with me, so we suited up and brought Brody along as well. We took off from our driveway and went on a route through the neighborhood and over to a section where the area is cleared out for new home construction.

The first 90-second interval took us uphill a little, then down and back uphill again. Then we continued uphill as we took our first walk break. Three teenagers wearing different combinations of camouflage were on the sidewalk ahead of us and I gave them plenty of leeway as we went past.

By the time we got to the 3-minute jog we were just at the point of turning off a busier road and toward the construction area. It was uphill for a tenth or two, and then we got to jog downhill a bit. As we finished that interval, Glenn was able to let Brody off the leash for a few minutes to take off after some birds. It’s fun to watch that dog run.

The remaining jog intervals went fine, we were heading uphill for a good chunk of the time but were able to finish the last run heading downhill again, which was nice.

I am concerned that I have been jogging too fast, though, and am going to need to slow down quite a bit if I’m going to be able to tackle next week. But it’s nice to be able to jog with the sun shining! And not wearing three layers of clothes to keep warm! And so it’s a little hard to reign myself in and stick to the pace that I know I will need to do as the runs stretch out to five minutes and beyond…

Here is a snapshot of my run today.

I wish to point out a very important detail:  ONLY ONE WHITE CIRCLE OF SLOWNESS was displayed today!

And I happen to know that it is from when I stopped to pick up a dime off the street during the warmup walk.

week 3, day 1, take 2, featuring the jogger’s wave.

I’ve had a week off, and today I was ready to try to get back in the swing of things.

It’s been cloudy and/or rainy around here the past couple days… today was just cloudy and a bit chilly. After my son woke me up to tell me he was leaving for school (yes, I am the Lamest Mom Ever) I decided I really really really wanted that hour back that we lost yesterday for daylight savings. And I decided I would go for my jog at lunchtime instead of first thing in the morning.

SO… around 11:30 I put on my running duds, cued up my iPod and drove over to the park. Hey Kelli! I went to your favorite running place again! I like jogging there because it is quiet and safe.

Today I wanted to do Week 3 Day 2, but I was prepared to repeat a Week 2 workout just in case I started jogging and thought, “no way can I do this after a whole week of inactivity.”

BUT

I did my warmup walk, which took me all the way to the top of BNH… and then I jogged my first 90-second interval, and…

…I felt fine!

Actually, really fine. I almost felt fast. I mean, I felt like I was going at a pretty good pace, and I wasn’t feeling too worried about whether I could keep it up. Of course, I wasn’t jogging up any big hills or anything. But, still.

So the first interval came and went, then I had a 90-second walk interval. I kept my pace as brisk as I could, passed the World’s Friendliest Stranger coming from the other direction, and then it was time to jog again.

Now, here was where it might have gotten interesting, because this would be a 3-minute interval. Three whole minutes! I knew I could do it, but wasn’t really sure how well I might be able to do it today. But I started up and I was going at a pretty good clip again… and still feeling fine.

And then it happened.

I was in the midst of my 3-minute jog when I saw a “real” jogger heading toward me. He was all decked out in his running tights and sweatshirt, iPod, and knit cap. Oh, and sunglasses. On this overcast day. Because he was WAY COOL. And I’m not making fun. I’m saying that because he was wearing sunglasses and totally pulling it off. I had left mine in the car because I didn’t think I could pull it off. 8)

So I see him coming toward me. We both are jogging, both tuned in to our iPods. We see each other coming and I flash a little grin and then…

THEN.

We both execute The Jogger’s Wave” at the same time.

The Jogger’s Wave. You know, the one where you are focusing on your jogging, and your hands are pumping slightly at your sides, but you see someone coming and so you take one hand and just kind of open it up. You just open it up and kind of show your palm a little, and then you close it back up. Now words are exchanged. Just the gesture.

It’s not a big wave. It’s subtle. It says “I’m very busy doing my jogging, but I can see that you are a real jogger, so I will acknowledge you this way.”

You see? He thought I was a real jogger. How cool is that?

ANYWAY.

My New Best Friend The Mysterious Jogger Man Who Waved At Me went on, and so did I, and soon my interval was over and it was time to walk again. I briefly worried whether I would happen to run into him again on the other side of the track, during a time when I was not jogging. I’d have to have some sort of explanation ready, just in case.

OK so, two jog intervals down… two more to go. As my next 90-second jog began, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take an alternate route instead of continuing around the track the normal way like I always do. I can do this much more readily now, since I have my Nike sportband to keep track of my mileage. It’s very freeing!

I opted for the track that took me down to the bridge, over the creek and off past a playground area and some neighboring houses. I got to jog downhill a bit (whee!) and then was on a nice stretch of level ground. I finished the short jog, did my last walk break and then began my last 3-minute jog interval back there on the level stretch. Ni-i-i-ice. I had managed to avoid jogging up BNH today!

As I finished up the last jog interval, I had only to hike up one hill to get back up to the main track and head back to the car. I got there a little before the whole 5-minute cool down was finished, but I didn’t care.

So, to sum up my workout: not only did I find that I was perfectly capable of going on with Week 3, but I was also recognized as a “real” jogger today! Does it get much better?

a walk in the park

I took the dog to the trails today for a good long run. A run for him, not for me…. I just walked. After a week of no jogging (and no volleyball, and pretty much no exercise at all) I was just looking to remind myself that I can still go outside and move around like regular people.

The muscle thing in my neck/shoulder area is much improved… in fact, I took note while I was out today that it did not bother me even once while I was trekking up and down muddy hills, trying to keep up with the dog. So, even if I’m still getting some twinges next week, I have decided that I am going to do my normal jogging anyway. If anything, I think the activity makes it feel better!

By the way… Brody enjoyed himself immensely, so much so that he required a shower when he got home. His name means “muddy place” and today he lived up to it.

Here is a snapshot of my excursion as it appears on Nikerunning.com:

I think it’s funny that no matter what pace you go, when you upload your workout Nike will always report that “Laura RAN x-number of miles.”  Also, you will see that there are no less than EIGHT of those little circles highlighting my slowest pace. Nike just wanted to say “Look! You went really slow HERE… and here and here and here and here and here….”

I have also logged more than 30 miles since I got the sportband, which means that I am now an orange level runner. It sounds so important, doesn’t it? Orange level. No more yellow level for me. Nope! I have moved on up to the big-time! I don’t really know what it means, but I am excited to enjoy the benefits thereto pertaining. [I hope it involves a secret handshake at some point.]

I plan to resume Couch to 5K on Monday. Haven’t decided for sure if I’ll go on with Week 3, or repeat Week 2 since I’ve been fairly sedentary for the last week or so. I’ll just be glad to be back out there trying again.

sidelined

Well, you may have noticed that there was no update yesterday. I have been sidelined by some trouble with a strained muscle in my back and neck area. It had been bothering me on and off for a few weeks, and in the last several days got to the point where I couldn’t even sit or stand still without a lot of discomfort. SO… I went to the doctor this morning and got a couple prescriptions, and I’m taking a few days off before jogging (or playing volleyball, or anything else that is fun) again. I’m hoping that I might be able to try a jog on Friday. Until then… sorry for the silence over here! I’ll resume with week 3 just as soon as I can.

week 2 day 3 take 2

So this morning it was 25º at about 8am when I decided to do my jog. I might have waited until later, but I was supposed to meet a couple friends at Panera in the mid-morning for some bagels and Bananagrams.

What is Bananagrams, you say? Why, it’s only the most fun little word game around! You play with letter tiles similar to those in Scrabble, except with no point values. You win by using up all your letters to form words, in crossword-like fashion, before your opponents do. And you can use the same word more than once, it doesn’t matter as long as all your letters form actual words. There are a lot more rules to it that make it very fun and if you do it right, it can even turn into a contact sport! But, more on that later.

So I jogged in my neighborhood today, which I feel I have the luxury to do more often now because of the Nike sportband which will tell me my mileage even if I’m not running at the park where I know the length of the track. Here is a screen grab of my run stats. Let’s study it, shall we? If you click the photo, it will take you to the actual page on the Nike Running site where my stats are logged in.

Contrary to what you might think, the “hills” on the graph do not actually represent hills on the road. Which is not to say that there aren’t any hills in my neighborhood! In fact, there are quite a few. But no, the higher points on the graph indicate times when I was jogging at a faster pace, and low points show when I was jogging more slowly (probably up a hill!) or when I was walking.

I like how these graphs always have at least one circle showing what my slowest pace was over the course of the run. And what’s really great is when there are more than one of those circles on there. Because that is Nike’s way of saying LOOK! See how slowly you were running here? And then you did it again in these other places. You are a slowpoke! And here is proof!

So anyway, the run today was OK. I got a couple bigger hills out of the way early on, and then had a stretch in the middle section where I was on one long straight street that was mostly flat. As I was jogging there, I tried to stay on the side of the asphalt road, but had to jump up onto the sidewalk a few times when there were too many parked cars and/or traffic getting in my way. One time in particular I was coming back down onto the road after being on the sidewalk, and in the process my shoe hit the edge of the curb in such a way that I very nearly turned and ankle and wiped out. And as I stumbled and (barely!) recovered, I had to hop briefly back up on the sidewalk, in one of those moves that you do when you are trying to hide the fact that you temporarily lost control.

I’m still very glad for the walk breaks right now, and was a little upset when I almost didn’t hear Robert cuing me to slow down one time, as I was passing a Lowe’s delivery truck and the motor drowned out all the sound from my iPod.  I may have jogged an extra 5 seconds that time, and I’d like full credit for it, please.

Oh and as I got to the last jog interval today, it was on a nice big long downhill… so that last little upward spike in my pace is a reflection of that. I do not normally run at a sub-9 minute pace!

And then I got the cue to start the cool-down.

And then my iPod stopped working. I’m glad it didn’t conk out on me any earlier.

Starting on Monday I plan to forge ahead with Week 3 (again).

week 2 day 2 take 2

Hey, you know what? It’s actually kind of fun to get up and go jogging when you have a clear-cut plan in place for how to do it. I have missed that about C25K. After I graduated I made the mistake of not having a clear plan to move ahead with… and that, coupled with the harsh winter that descended upon us this year, caused me to flounder.

NOW I am falling back to regroup, and today was week 2, day 2 of C25K. I went to the familiar track at the park again… this time running on the asphalt since I didn’t have the dog with me.

It’s nice to have Robert Ullrey back jogging with me for a while. I know not everyone is a fan… but his podcasts are really helpful, especially during the early weeks of the program where there are so many intervals.

Now, in addition to the podcasts, I am running with my Nike+ Sportband, which adds a layer of awesomeness to my workouts. With the gizmo doing all the hard work of calculating pace and mileage and so forth, today my brain could relax a little bit and wander off to thoughts about… oh, I don’t know… world affairs, religion, culture… or maybe what I would have for lunch when I got home later. [Answer: homemade chicken & noodles]

It was fairly chilly today but the track was dry and the sun was out a little bit. I remember at one point thinking about how lucky I am to be able to go for a jog at such a nice, albeit challenging, course surrounded by woods and green space. I was reminded of the first time I was working through the program last fall, when every workout was new and exciting and tinged with hope of becoming a “real runner” someday. Now as I work through it a second time, I’m even more hopeful… because I know I can finish it, and I know that this time I have good weather waiting for me at the finish line in a couple months, instead of the prospect of dark days of snow and ice.

For the record, in case anyone is wondering… even though I did indeed complete the program in January and was jogging 30 minutes at that point, it is still very challenging to do these interval workouts now. I was definitely feeling it. And I was definitely waiting for those cues to change pace from jogging to walking. Maybe not quite as intensely as the first time around… but the walk breaks were very welcomed when they arrived.

And what would a visit to the park be without a sighting of the World’s Friendliest Stranger? I passed her and her puffy pink coat as I was finishing my 5th jog interval. I was heading up BNH at the time. Meaning to be polite, I removed one of the earphones from my ear to be sure I could engage in conversation with her as we passed each other. Unfortunately, I was so out of breath that all I could do was say “haaaahhhhhh” and then pant a bit. She smiled from behind the big blue scarf around her neck and said “you go girl!”  She’s nice like that.

So, a 5-minute warm-up, plus 6 intervals of 90-second jogs with 2-minute rests in between, followed by a 5-minute cool-down… by the end of it all I was definitely ready to be done. Nike tells me that I burned 374 calories. Well, isn’t that nice? All you dainty women out there, don’t be alarmed. I burn a lot of calories in a relatively short time because I’m overweight to start with.

Here is the link to the details of my run. My next workout is planned for Friday.

remedial running

This week I am taking a new tack with the jogging.

I’m starting over.

Well… almost starting over. Not quite all the way back to square one, but almost that far. Today I took the dog to the park and I did Couch-to-5K Week 2, Day 1.

Yep. Week 2, Day 1. That would be the one where I warm up 5 minutes, then do intervals of 90 seconds jogging with 2 minutes of walking in between. Then a 5-minute cool down. The whole workout is just over 30 minutes long.

This time I did it on the back trails, while Brody ran willy-nilly in circles around me, flushing out birds and peeing with carefree abandon on all the vegetation. The ground was pretty damp, but I stayed on the grassiest trails so that I didn’t have much trouble with mud. There is quite a maze of trails back there, and I covered  several of them multiple times in various loops as I ran around and listened to Robert Ullrey tell me when to change pace.

It was nice.

It was kind of hard. The terrain made things tougher than if I was just jogging on the asphalt track. And there were a few hills.

By the time it was done, I had gone 2.2 miles (according to my Nike+ sportband, which has been pretty accurate so far). I had burned 344 calories. It was a good workout.

So the plan for me right now is to swallow hard, leave my pride behind, and work my way back up through the ranks of Couch-to-5K again. I “graduated” the first time on New Year’s Day, and proceeded to be beaten down by a dreadful work schedule in January, along with plenty of harsh winter weather in both January and February. I wasn’t making any progress and in fact felt like I was backsliding, even though I did try to get out and jog with as much regularity as I could muster.

But now spring is on the horizon. And I’m looking forward to falling back and regrouping, then rebuilding my endurance so that I’ll be finishing the program just in time for a nice long jogging season starting around the end of April.

I think it will be nice to “graduate” again at the end of spring, instead of in the dead of winter.

At least that is the plan.

the best laid plans

Saturday!

Nothing official on the schedule!

Temperatures soaring into the upper 40s!

Sounds like a splendid day for a jog, right? I know!

So I’ve taken the week off since the 5k last Saturday. That wasn’t the original plan, but that’s how it worked out. After all, I ran on Saturday. And then the Olympics started. And I like to watch the Olympics. And there is a lot of Olympic coverage every day.

So,the week developed something like this: Olympics… a little work… more Olympics.. a little thinking about work… teaching my kids the importance of the Olympics… telling myself that work will still be here when the Olympics are over… and so it went.

Then came today, and even though there is still a bit of snow on the ground, I thought it would be nice to try to jog since the temperatures were going to be warmer than we’ve had lately. So, after a leisurely morning of pancakes and sausage and a little TV time, I suggested to Glenn that we go to the park.

Of course, we really needed to take the dog with us, since he hadn’t been out for a good run in a long time. And since a good jogging workout can be easily foiled by the Brody Factor, I suggested that we get the boys to come along to the park with us, so that they could take the dog on the trails while Glenn and I jogged the paved track for a bit.

Seemed like a good plan. Kill two birds with one stone kind of thing.

My first hint that this was not going to work out as well as I would have hoped was when Glenn told the boys to get their old shoes on and come with us to the park. I didn’t realize that this was the rough equivalent of saying “Boys, we are going to take you to a place where there will never be any fun, ever, until you die, which won’t be long because we will torture you within an inch of your lives on the way.”

So, after ten minutes of whining and looking for “missing” shoes and jackets, we finally made it to the car.

Now, the idea was simple. The boys would take the dog off of the paved trail, onto a series of back trails at the park where he likes to run. Glenn and I would go a few times around the paved loop until we were done, at which point we would call them (they had my cell phone) to come back and meet up with us. Everyone would be all rosy-cheeked and exhilarated from a good time of exercise, and we’d all ride merrily home while singing happy songs together, and we’d get showers and relax while we watched more Olympics. What a plan!

We parked the car.

We had forgotten the dog’s leash. Well, that would be OK. He still had his electronic collar, which was mostly what was needed.

I told the boys to head off through the woods while we got started. So they did. And we did.

And then the dog was running after us on the track.

We shooed him back in the direction of the boys.

A minute later, he was back with us. The boys were in the woods, calling for him.

We called the boys on the cell phone and told them to hustle on to a point a little further ahead where we would meet up with them again and hand the dog over once and for all. I had already started my sportband to record a run, but I turned it off since all I was doing for those few minutes was walking back and forth calling the dog.

We met up with the boys and gave them further instructions on where to take Brody. They started off through the woods again, and we decided to get out of sight as quickly as we could. I restarted the sportband and we began jogging.

The track still had a fair amount of snow on it. Much of it had a path cleared down to the asphalt, but there were quite a few places where slush and snow were unavoidable. We encountered BNH early on in the jog today, and it was still covered with a lot of slush. Fun, fun.

Even so, we pressed on. I was determined to jog a mile at least, without stopping. There were more slushy patches, and one spot where we had to hurdle a ridge of snow as we crossed the main driveway. Otherwise, the first mile was uneventful. I believe the time was about 11:22.

I decided to take a little walk break after the first mile, partly because I wanted to walk up BNH instead of sloshing through the slush again. When we got to the top, we would be ready to continue jogging.

But then, as we crested the hill, the boys and dog emerged from the woods right at that spot. Grrrr.

Brent was ready to go home. Of course. After all, 15 minute of exercise is really all you can ask of a teenager, right?

Glenn told the boys to take the dog back onto the trails for a bit and meet us back at the car. This meant that we would probably only jog another 3/4 mile at best. My plans for a useful workout were quickly crumbling.

We resumed jogging and kept up a pretty good pace for most of the rest of the time. Then before we quite reached the second mile marker, I could hear the boys coming, and the dog running toward us through the trees.

Sigh.

Mission aborted.

We turned and headed back to the car. There was a small outbreak of snowball throwing, but no singing on the way home.