My alarm clock is my cell phone. I know this is not unusual in this day and age of all things electronic, but it can be distracting.
When it goes off the first thing I do, (after I turn off the alarm, of course), is check my email, texts, etc. You would think there wouldn’t be many texts, but my oldest son has a tendency to send me texts in the middle of the night about whatever is on his mind at that particular time. Because of this awkward habit of his, I turn the notification noise off at night so as not to be woken up by a thought provoking question like: Why are there two different ways to spell there? Or even more interesting, the one from last night: When I’m 23 will [younger brother] still be in high school? Yes. Really. He is getting ready to graduate from high school.
I feel a tad bit ridiculous admitting that I check my email before I get out of bed. But it’s the truth and sometimes it works in my favor. That was the case this morning.
Yesterday I ran my prescribed mileage and wasn’t overly thrilled with my performance. I wondered if there was something else going on with me. Something I was possibly refusing to think about. This type of shit has haunted my runs in the past so it was a reasonable thought. Yesterday, my legs felt heavy far too early in the run, I was sure my knees were hurting in a new way and there was this weird pain at the front of my ankle. I still ran, but I was miserable and there was no joy derived from the run.
To make up for it, once I got home from work and fed the child, I did a couple of hours of heavy bag work, including a 12-15 minutes of jumping rope. It made me feel more accomplished than the run had but it exhausted me. Totally normal.
When my alarm went off this morning I turned it off, thought about how tired I was from the prior night’s workout and decided I would skip my 5 mile run. Then I checked my email.
As is the case for most people I know I have multiple email accounts. I have 7 loaded on my phone. Yes, you read that right. Seven accounts. I have a couple more, but they have turned into spam/junk mail catchers and I don’t frequent them much at all. All of my different accounts hold a specific purpose.
The only one I checked with any hope of finding something interesting to read (before I went back to sleep) was the one hooked up with my WordPress account. I laid in bed and read Jon’s post about accomplishing a goal and finally running 20 miles. It was positive, upbeat, happy (you could feel his happy) and amazingly (but not surprisingly) it made me want to run!
I got up, put the running garb on and stepped outside. Into 34 degree windy weather. Geez, just yesterday afternoon it was in the 70s. The HIGH 70s! Today was supposed to get into the mid to high 60s, but 34 degrees? Really?!
Of course I didn’t know what the temperature was when I stepped out. I just knew it was really cold. I had gloves, my warmest running hat, a sweatshirt and my wool socks on but I was also wearing knee length running pants and the bottom portion of my legs were icy. Still, I was so happy to get out there and run in celebration of Jon’s victory it didn’t really phase me.
I ran with my music, which is generally a no-no when I’m out that early, but I kept the volume low and my mace in hand so I could, theoretically, sufficiently attack someone trying to mess with me. I saw no one for the 58 minutes that I ran, but I was prepared!
First thing I noticed about a mile and a half in was that it felt better than yesterday. No knee or ankle twinges, no heavy legs and no real heavy breathing. Nice. Comfortable. My true “happy place.”
The Garmin buzzed at 1 mile, buzzed at 2 miles, buzzed at 3 miles. I ran on. Five was the goal. I went up hills, down hills, met up with a few long straights. It was awesome. I’ve been running in my town for so long that I usually know the distance of specific routes. If I’m going to run 5, I go this way, if I’m running 8, I go that way. This morning I wanted to change it up a little and incorporate a new neighborhood that I had run through the day before with my bad attitude. I was hopeful since I was having a better run I would enjoy it more.
Even with new routes you can kind of gauge the distance as you’re running. You know when the Garmin last told you you had made it a mile so you sort of know when to expect it to tell you you’ve reached the next mile. I had those expectations in my head and thought I knew where to expect the buzzing sensation on my arm.
Strangely it didn’t happen where I expected it. I just kept running. As I was nearing my neighborhood I started trying to figure out in my head where I would go to get these final two miles in. I sort of thought possibly I had missed the vibration for mile 4 because I was about 98.2% positive I had gone further than a mile since the last vibration. But that last .8% wasn’t having it. How could I have not felt the vibration?
I ran and ran and ran and waited and waited and waited for the vibration. All you Garmin users are asking yourself WHY I didn’t just look at my Garmin and see where the mileage was at, right? I know you are. It’s okay. I’m not offended. The fact is that I don’t like to watch the mileage tick off, which is one of the reasons I love the 610. I don’t have to! I can swipe my screen and have the time showing (or the virtual partner, which I have to figure out how to adjust because that dude runs at a 9:05 pace and I will never catch him). I prefer to have the clock face showing because it’s more important that I get back to my house by 5:30 than what pace or how far I’ve run.
So I ran the additions to the route I had thought through in my head and continued to wait for the elusive vibration. Nothing. When I got to my house, pissed off because I’d run out of time and hadn’t made my numbers, I took my gloves off and swiped the screen.
I burst out laughing. Turns out 34 degrees is enough to make your wrist numb. So numb that it couldn’t feel the Garmin’s vibrations.
Five miles? No. Turns out I actually ran 6.41. And I ran it quicker than I’ve ever run the distance before.
Thank you Jon, for getting me out of the house; and thank you Mother Nature for giving me the frigid circumstances (by Oregon standards) that allowed me to run a little quicker and a bit further.
No matter what else happens . . . any day that starts with a flawless and pain free run, along with great results on my Garmin is destined to be a good day!
Awesome, I’m glad my posts are good for something other than a personal diary. I thought NY was tough, but I’ve never had to run outside with mace. I just watch out for cars and un-leashed dogs. If someone wants to mess with me, than they will have to catch me first ;). Good luck in the Portland half, I signed up for the Rock and Roll Philadelphia half in September.
To be fair, I run with mace because I’m a woman, alone, at 4 or 4:30 in the morning. It’s not that tough here in my suburb, really, but we have had some weirdos jumping out of bushes and feeling women runners up over the past two years. I’m not really interested in meeting any of those freaks without my mace 🙂
Oh, I hear that. The same thing happens in one of the parks I run in. Wierdos indeed, and 34 degrees is too cold to be waiting in a bush. I’ll go for 21 or 22 miles just for you next month.
Speaking of weirdos, I was running on a road that faces the woods at noon one saturday and there was a naked man in the woods. Weirdos are out there at all times of day. But yes part of the reason i don’t run in the dark.
I totally agree, weirdos are out there at all times of the day!!!
That’s awesome! I’m so happy for you! Great run and I’m so happy that you found your happy place this morning!
Thank you! I am at my best in my happy place!!
Aren’t we all????
Well, I am kind of sabbotaging myself. There’s a race on Saturday, which will be the last one until this fall. But my motivation has been so sucky lately that I haven’t registered and I’ve basically talked myself out of it, even though it would actually be a good temp to run in. I’m just not feeling it. I’ve only run 2 days this week. *sigh*
Not helping me make up mileage, for sure. I wasn’t planning on running tomorrow, but now I’m thinking if I’m not running Sat, I’ll do something tomorrow. Glad you got a good one in, though!
Sometimes we just aren’t into running — I know I’ve had periods like that. I usually worry about it, because I like to worry, and then I let it go. It always comes back. 🙂
Can’t believe its still 34 degrees in portland! And yes I check my emails and blogs before I get out of bed as well. I love reading how people’s runs went before I read the news =)
It was only 34 degrees early. We are actually enjoying some nice warm weather, for a change, without rain. Supposed to be in the mid 70s today and mother’s day is supposed to be mid to high 80s. I’m glad to know I’m not alone with respect to checking blogs before getting out of bed 🙂 I prefer that over the news any day!