In my defense, I have not made a late post at four in the morning in a while (OK, 4:16, according to my laptop, if you want to be didactic) (you know who you are) (and yes, I am on my laptop, ten-finger typing. It’s fun!). On the other hand, as regular readers know, I am too lazy (or maybe too impatient; is that better? Discuss amongst yourselves) to go back and check these things, so my defense may be a whole lot of hooey. I can’t worry about these things now.
I felt too sick to my stomach to make a blog post last night. I expect I ate too much at supper. It is a sad reflection on me when I am gaining my holiday weight through a mere week-day supper of leftovers. But it was quite tasty. Perhaps the run I took helped burn a few calories, but the fit of my pants this morning (and I specifically washed the fat old lady pants for just such an emergency!) would refute that forlorn hope.
Yes, I took a run and fully intended to make a Running Commentary post. The weather in Mohawk Valley is veering between bi-polar and “Go home, December, you’re drunk.” I can’t quite remember Monday (I’m having that sort of a week, in case you couldn’t guess), but Tuesday had some relatively high temperatures: 40’s and 50’s, but was supposed to get colder in the evening. It had rained during the day, encouraging snow melt, so I was a little concerned that it would turn to ice right about the time I wanted to run.
However, I set out around 3:30 p.m., having paused only to put on running gear and throw a load of laundry into the washer (regular readers may recall that is one of my few instances of multitasking). I wore leggings (nylon long johns which I often wear in lieu of pantyhose, to be exact), my long-sleeved ARMY t-shirt, and a knitted headband. It was a little warmer, after all. No need for hat and mittens!
As I have often observed, running after an eight-hour work day is a far different activity from running after a good night’s sleep on the weekend. Still, one must persevere. For the main reason, the Reindeer Run 5K is THIS SATURDAY!!! I felt prepared this past weekend. I felt distinctly less so yesterday. You’ll have that, I told myself (one of my favorite phrases of self-encouragement), and, well, persevered.
And it was not that bad of a run. Some of the sidewalks were bare-ish, but I mostly stuck to the road. My experiments with running on the sidewalk did not lead to disaster, but my feet definitely did not feel as secure. I kept to the less busy residential roads but of course could not avoid all traffic. Parked cars were an especial annoyance, but after all, people have to park somewhere. I hope I am not unreasonable. I kept left side facing traffic, and stayed over as far as I could without running in deep puddles.
I ended up going for 26 minutes. I hope that is good enough for maintaining my 5K shape for a few more days (let us not further discuss my actual shape!). Tonight we have shopping and dinner plans, but I hope to run Thursday and PERHAPS another short run Friday. And a pasta dinner. That is my favorite part of a race: carbing up the night before!
