HELL-acious 8 miles

I know they say spring will arrive on Wednesday. For now, it's still wicked winter in the Midwest. I thought I was done with my running cleats but that was a bold assumption. I sure wished I had them out at Kensington this weekend. I also wished it were above 25 degrees. Oh well.

The loop that we run out at Kensington is an 8-mile loop from start to finish. Since my runs haven't called for that distance I've never run the full course. For the 5 mile days, I run to the 2.5 mark and then turn around. For the 6 mile days, I go to the 3 mile mark and turn around. Etc. This week I got to trot the full 8 miles and we started from the informal "finish" mark and did the course backwards. These were some nice changes that I thought would add spice and freshness to the usual plodding along. Well, I don't mean that. It really is a great course out there. It's very scenic over wooden bridges , circling the lake, and that sort of naturalistic vibe.

Well, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

My head just wasn't in it. I knew my sister was running her 5K so I figured that I owed it to her to at least do that much myself before pausing. Then I figured I'm her older sister so I had to go a bit farther. Therefore, after 3.5 miles I hit my wall. After that it was a tedious arduous brutal battle of my spirit vs my legs. I'd run .5, walk .25, hobble, shuffle, walk, walk really slow, attempt to run .25 and so on until finally I was back to where I had started. That trek took me nearly 2 hours. UGH! Obviously, not the best effort of the last two months.

But I move on. I congratulate myself for what I did accomplish---getting up earlier than I do during the work week, not going out the night before, completing the entire circuit, basically not throwing in the proverbial towel as my vacation malaise was so begging me to do. Then Sunday I had 3 miles which, after that hellacious 8, seemed like a breeze.

Now, I am sore. My calves, hips, butt, hamstrings. All of it. Thankfully, today is a day of rest and tomorrow I'll be back at it. Hopefully, I can power out the expected 6 miles tomorrow with a little better of an attitude.