Blitzed

I overshot my target mileage today. I thought I was scheduled for 8 miles. That's actually next week. This week I was actually booked for 7 miles. It didn't start off well. I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and did not feel like going. I needed to be around people to make sure I wasn't being a lazy runner. It already felt like it'd be one of those give-up-if-the-wind-is-blowing-the-wrong-way type days.

I pulled on my gear, made a face as the weather channel said it was 0C, but it felt like -5, and out the door I went. My iPod was dead. Of all the days that I really wanted to listen to some Incubus, Foo Fighters, and maybe some Billy Talent. I headed straight to the Beach to meet up with the Sunday running group I hadn't seen in months. I briefly thought about running with the 1/2 marathon group, which was doing 14K. But that was more than I wanted to do (calculating that it was a round trip 6K from my house to the meeting spot .... I did not need to do 20K today). So I went with group that was doing 7K.

In the summer, this is a nice route -- mostly boardwalk along the beach. In the tail-end of winter, it's icy, it's windy, and the waves (which remind me of the North Shore in Hawaii but devoid of surfers here) crashing on the rocks can actually kick up enough spray to hit you along the way. The unintentional funny thing about me running with people this morning is that I ran it alone, neither at the front of the pack or at the back -- in the middle where it was just me. I started off pacing myself behind the twins (two runners wearing the same jacket. We could have been triplets since they were donning the jacket that was given away at the Resolution Run) but quickened my pace. The fierce wind would make me feel like I was running in one spot and I almost wished for a treadmill. I completed the route in about 45 minutes. I took a quick drink and started my journey home. I won't lie, I wish I had brought my car. But my mileage wasn't done yet.

Away from the water, it was a completely different run. I stuck to the sunny side of the sidewalk and I moved with ease. There was no wind. All the traffic lights worked in my favor (today that means I didn't stop). I took a different route home and stopped at the Golden Arches to pick up hash browns and a McMuffin for me, some hotcakes for CMan. By the time I reached home, 2-1/2 hours from the time I left, I'd covered 9.4 miles/15K. Which means, I've inadvertently jumped ahead 4 weeks in the schedule.

Luckily for me, I had a girl's day scheduled today. Four of us went to take the waters, that is do the whole water therapy thing -- soak in a sea salt pool, steam, cold plunge, sauna, cold plunge, green tea hot tub, cold plunge, more sea salt. It was a perfect ending to a hard run.