Week Three, Session One

Should be:

Run 3 minutes. Walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times.


I actually did:

Run 3 minutes. Walk 2 minutes. Do this 8 times.


Today was a Bad Day. I had a pretty active day out at the barn - wrestled with a 1900lb draft horse as well as chased a yearling who has realized that sitting in the field all day is tons better than working with me - so I wasn't exactly fresh and full of energy. I was full of self doubt - if running 2 minutes makes me tired, how can I up it? I really didn't feel like running (more so than usual).

I was panting and running inefficiently. My shins hurt, my feet hurt, my legs hurt. I stumbled a couple of times, and I was frustrated. I was SO TIRED I almost started to cry a couple of times. I couldn't take my normal route because it was early in the evening and there were tons of people in the park for a baseball game (this meant I had to run for a long time carrying a smelly bag of dog poo, because I couldn't loop past the garbage cans without running through a crowd). I know I look stupid when I run. I turn bright read, probably have an awful facial expression, and I look like a total noob. I was terrified that a "real" runner would see me and laugh at my efforts (kind of funny: as I was turning down my street about 15 minutes after stressing about this, I saw a running team with matching T shirts coming towards me. Someone has a sadistic sense of humour!)

I stopped back at home to make the dog switch (switch from the Golden Retriever to the Shih tzu). As we're running away to do the last 3 rotations, the damn cat starts following. Just picture it: A chubby, sloppy runner slapping along with a Shih tzu beside her and a tabby cat trotting behind, bell jingling away. I figured I would just run around the block a couple of times for the end of my run, but when we got to the end of the street kitty decided she had gone too far, so she sat down and started meowing as loudly as she could. I coaxed her to keep coming and we ran for a little bit more. As we started back down the other side of the crescent my parents live on, she sat down and balled her eyes out again. Apparently she didn't realize that we were actually CLOSER to home than when she spazzed out the first time. I said screw it, went back and got her, and we all walked home together.

That is the story of why I gave up after only 8 rotations when I was supposed to go for 10.