After my run last night, I have decided that there is no such thing as easy anymore. At least right now there isn’t. We had an extremely busy weekend where we drove from Gonzales to Texas A&M to Shreveport on Friday, watched an outdoor swim meet (1022 degrees) on Saturday and Sunday before driving back home Sunday night. Couple that with the fact that I do not sleep well in hotels, and I started Monday off pretty tapped out.
While in Shreveport, I did manage a 6+ mile run with some hills Sunday morning early. Since I wasn’t sleeping, I might as well be running. Some people are picky eaters. I am a picky sleeper. Dark. Cool. Quiet. My Bed. Other than those requirements, I have no trouble sleeping.
Anyway, by the time I got home from work on Monday afternoon I realized I was doing some workout shuffling this week. I didn’t have 8 miles in me that day. I did manage 5 miles which I ran at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon while it was still 97 degrees outside. On Tuesday, I waited until 6:30 pm to go run. I figured it would be cooler by then. By the way, what is the temperature difference between “hotter than hell” and “hotter than 3 feet from hell”? Yep, it was that much cooler. It turned into a “put your head down and keep moving” run.
I am seeing a lot of those runs these days. I think I will start calling them “mule runs” because it reminds me of mules steadily plodding along following an unknown trail. When I was in college, my dad and I went hunting in Colorado. We stayed for a week in what they called a spike camp where it was just the guide, my dad and myself in a tent. We rode horses over the mountains and through the woods to grandmother’s house……..sorry wrong story. Anyway, on the way to our camp site our guide told us that if something happened to him, we could just drop the reins on our horses and they knew there way back to the base camp. Of course, he had to be telling us this as we passed a big drop off with some horse/mule remains at the bottom of it (a previous year “accident”). I was visualizing me and my dad slumped over our horses as they slowly walked through the desert with cow skulls and cactus everywhere and……..okay, once again I diverge. It was in the winter in the mountains of Colorado. Not the desert. Does anyone know the symptoms of severe dehydration and delayed heat stroke related loss of reality?
Where was I? Where am I? (just kidding). So I survived my 8 mile run on Tuesday and headed out on Wednesday for my “EASY” 4 mile run. I brought water. I ran later. I ran slowly. And when I turned to head back to the house after a little over 2 miles, the wind was at my back. “WWWWHHHHHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!”, you may be thinking with the wind at my back. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it was more like “PPPPPFFFFFFTTTTTT” as all the oxygen within 20 feet of me seemed to disappear. All that was left was me and heat. About a half mile later, I started getting dizzy and lightheaded. But wait, this is an easy 4 mile run! Yep, I kept telling myself that to no avail. I finished my 4 miles because I am more hardheaded than I was lightheaded. But the lesson was firmly burned into my overheated skull. There is NO SUCH THING AS EASY.
I will head out again tonight for another 8 miles or so. I may have an industrial water truck follow me just in case. And on Saturday, I have plans for a long trail run in Mississippi. I can picture now the point where I will drop my reins and just let my body get me back to the truck. I think it is time I scratch through the word “Easy” off the workouts on my training plan. They are not going to happen for a few months.
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