My run today was abysmal. It’s been beautiful in Boulder the past few days (high of 75 yesterday) and I was looking forward to a great run to town, followed by a massage, and then a hang out at a friend’s house to watch the Broncos lose.
It’s 13.5 miles from my house to Boulder. It usually takes me about four miles to get in a groove on a run like this, although by mile two I’m usually loosening up and feeling happy. As I hit the Mesa Trailhead on 170 (2.6 miles) I actually considered turning around and running back home. I was tired, achey, generally felt like shit, and had no energy. I decided to gut it out to the corner of 93 and 170 (the 4.5 mile mark) – if I was still feeling rotten I’d either turn around and do 9 or call Amy and have her come pick me up.
I stopped at the Eldo Market at the corner of 93 and 170, got a Clif Bar, chilled out for a few minutes, and decided that even though I was having a crappy run, there was nothing fundamentally wrong (no pain, my heart rate was where it should be, and I wasn’t out of breath) and I should just keep on slogging ahead. By about mile 8 I finally got a rhythm going, but I still felt tired. When I hit the Boulder Creek Path at Foothills at around mile 11, I switched my Nano to Coverville’s “Covered Side of the Moon” and when Melissa Quade belted out Time I finally had my first surge of energy in two hours.
I stopped at the corner of Broadway and Canyon and walked to the St. Julien for my massage. My timing was perfect – Amy saw me as she was walking the other direction and I struggled to smile. She could tell I was hurting and wasn’t surprised when my response to her “how was the run” was “it sucked.”
My massage was great, but I still felt wiped out throughout the afternoon and into the evening. As I pondered what was going on, I drifted into a more philosophical zone. “Sometimes it just sucks” (whatever “it” is) and it’s best to just push through it. Today’s run was one of those – I had plenty of chances to bail, but nothing was fundamentally wrong (e.g. if I’d had real pain somewhere I would have quit) so I just stayed with it. Looking back, there were very few satisfying moments during the run, but I’m happy I finished it and capped a solid week of running that had a lot of travel in it.
I fell asleep at halftime during the Broncos game so I missed them losing, although I wasn’t surprised. Manning is just amazing, even without a real defense to help him out. Tomorrow is a new day and I know I’ll have a better run.