Living in headlines...

We took some time today to watch The Shipping News from Netflix, and I was laughing because Kevin Spacey's character develops this habit of thinking in headlines for the newspaper for which he is writing. I'm familiar with the habit because I did the same thing when I first started blogging. I've taken a break from it, but I'm back at it, and I found myself thinking in headlines already today. Bear with me.

Saturday training...it's all about the breathing.
6.3 mile run followed by 40 minute spin on the trainer
I've only ever run with music in two situations--when I'm on the dreadmill or when I'm running inside/on the track. However, lately I've found it really tough to get out to run. Frankly, I just haven't enjoyed it, and it's really hard for me to make myself do something I just don't enjoy. But yesterday, K. let me use his MP3 player, and I spent the morning compiling the perfect mix for a quick run. I DO NOT advocate running with headphones. I think it's dangerous when you can't hear the traffic around you (or the dogs). I also absolutely can't stand running a road race and having everyone around me tuning out. That's a whole other post. But yesterday I needed something. Quite frankly, we live in the middle of Amish country in the middle of Kentucky, and there's just not much traffic where I run. I also committed to not cranking the volume on the headphones. Took all my gadgets (Garmin 205 and MP3 player) and headed out the door to run the Amish Loop.

The Amish Loop is called that because it's a loop on which 4 of the 6.3 miles are populated mainly by the Amish. What this means for me is that I'm more likely to see a horse and buggy than I am a car. It also means that if I encounter a horse and buggy, I should stop while I'm running so as not to spook said horse. Yesterday, I encountered neither horses nor cars. The Amish Loop, incidentally, also includes some 15% grade + climbs. One is a half mile long, and it regularly slows me to a walk.

Yesterday, though, (I do have a point I'm getting to here), I headed out with my MP3 player, and I found myself wheezing from almost the start of the run. I've had a cold all week, and the cough is just not going away. Yesterday's wheezing brought me to a stop several times on the run--I was an idiot and didn't bring my inhaler with me. When I got to the top of the toughest climb, I had to kneel at the side of the road to get all the crap out of my lungs and onto the side of the road. But the lesson for yesterday? One I learned the last time I went through this training. If you're having a shitty run, keep right on running. It might get better, and if it doesn't, at least you are further along the road than you were. More than likely, though, it will get better.

Yesterday didn't get better, but I also told myself to remember that run because you've got to have a bunch of really bad runs to really appreciate the good ones.

Sunday's comedy of errors (and quads)
4 mile run followed by 15 minute spin
The plan was to get up early this morning and head to the Y to get in a good swim. 3000 yards, I said! I am trying hard to get back into the rhythm of swimming now that we have a Y available to us. Unfortunately, the Y is a 45 minute drive from home. We picked it out because it's...well, it's complicated, but it's close to where K. works, and we go there after work, but on the weekends, it's a bit of a commute if we are headed there. This morning, we were.

We got there and the Y was closed. Ugh. They don't open until 1:00 on Sunday. At that point, it was 9:30ish, and it was too long for us to wait around to go to the Y, and we certainly weren't going to head home and then back again. I feel like I spend too much time in my truck, as is. Sooo, we went to the grocery to pick up some supplies for the week, and we headed back home...no workout done. Lesson 2 (I just make up the numbers, there really isn't a list of these anywhere) is consistency in Ironman training, and I've been working my rear off to get back to being consistent. So I needed to get something in today. Despite my aching quads, I headed out for a four mile run. Sometimes, it's good to run sore.

Nothing really remarkable. I've been a wimp about running while sore--using it as an excuse to take the day off. More on all that later. It's been a wild year for me in a lot of ways. But today I hit the road, and I ran a (relatively) flat four miler on sore quads. Came home and spun for another fifteen minutes while watching the Bears beat the Saints. I'm still sore. I like it.