It’s sure to get the blood pumping!
I'm already mid way into it. My blood is thumping in my ears, my breath is shallow, and sweat covers my body.
Recovery is done and it’s time to run hard again. I have my dog at my side and we are flying down the hill. Now hills are tricky. With a hill you can just relax and let gravity pull you down. But you can't so that with this. You've got to keep the HR up. Basically it translates to running even faster. I'm now flying down the hill, feeling like Bolt! At the corner is construction and I have navigated myself and a clueless run happy dog through a traffic congested 4 way stop. Add in the blackness of a dark night and we've got a cluster on our hands.
Nothing like taking the exhilaration of flying down the hill and slamming into a wall.
I'm antsy, I want to run again. I NEED to run again.
Finally I'm through the traffic and it’s time to hit the high HR again.
Ready, focus, RUN!
Step, step, step. Feel the gravel crunch beneath your feet hear the rhythmic clicking of the dogs nails. Feel the...
HONK! HONK!
Crap! I think I pissed myself!
There's a car directly behind me. Barreling down on me.
What the? I'm off the road, I'm not blocking traffic. What!
The car pulls beside me. It’s a beat up bronco. The engine is loud. The windows are manual. The paint is faded.
She's yelling something from the window but I can't understand. The passenger window is up and the engine is too loud.
I motion that I can't hear here and almost take off. But she seems adamant. She seems desperate.
The traffic is starting to back up behind her and I get the feeling that she needs help.
Crap! Woman! Can't you see I'm running? Running! Not ideally wandering around. I have a goal. I have a purpose. I can already feel the air cooling around me. My heart is slowing. I imagine I can feel the lactic acid building in my muscles.
I need to get out of here. Soon. I finally relent and pause the watch.
The lady motions to back window. It’s down. Finally I can make out her voice.
She is lost. Where is this street? I quickly give direction, but I can see that it doesn't sink in.
Hand motions. My body tells her where she needs to go (hopefully not telling her my body doesn't convey where she could go!).
Traffic has now built up behind her. She needs help turning the car around and now me and the dog are directing traffic.
She turns around and opens her door (to hear me better? Maybe the window doesn't work?). She starts to mumble her way through the apologies. She got lost. She's not from here. Her friend gave bad directions. She tries to continue on, but I don't care. I am busy. I NEED TO RUN!
I point her in the right direction. Stay around to watch her go and make sure she's going OK.
FINALLY! I can get back to running. By now my bodies cooled. My HR is relaxed. My body is done running.
I have to coax it back into it. Start slow. Build up again. Work the heart and body back into the mood.
It's not until the end of the road and about a .5 mile later that I'm back into it.
I can run again! I'm running. And running. And....running.
Where the hell is the mile marker? The watch should have alerted me by now.
I look down. Nothing. Nothing as in not turned on!
Arghhh! I forgot to turn the damn thing back on again!
The whole run since the car incident has been extra! I know I ran it but the official log won't show it. Either I end my run 'short' or I go the entire distance and go 'long'.
No good deed goes unpunished!
4 comments:
Ay yi yi. On behalf of the lost lady - thank you kind sir. Above and beyond the call of duty to interrupt your threshold (swing?) run like that - you are a nice guy!! If I were your coach I'd give you a gold star on your training plan. :D
I never talk with people who try to flag me down or ask me something while I'm out running. How dare they interrupt my training. They can find someone else to talk to.
This may seem callous, even bitchy, but it works for me.
Also, there is a caution factor thrown in there being a woman who runs alone a lot of the time.
I was approached once by two guys in a pickup. They were totally non threatening, probably wanted directions or something, but life's too short ya know? I thought "how dare they bother me during my training" and I waved them off.
Like Stef, I too never give directions to anyone who tries to flag me down while I'm out running alone. There have been too many abductions, robberies, rapes and other crap going on in my area to risk being nice, even to another female. Sorry your workout was interrupted. You get an A for effort, though!
OK, am I the only one that almost had a heart attack just reading about your speed work.
Christ!
Sorry you had an interruption, but you get HUGE points for restarting! I am pretty sure I would have been D.O.N.E.
You know, if you keep getting faster and faster you will have an even loooooonger wait after IMCdA for me ;o)
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