"The Bitch Made Me Do It!

My hope today was to go for a decent bike ride but again Mother Nature wasn't co-operative. So I tentatively suggested to Claudette that I may try to do a "longer" run instead. I got home from work at about 2:30 and on the drive home I knew it was even a poor day for running. The shoulders had so much slop on them that the footing would have been unbearable and even the pavement had ice and snow on the edges. And to top it all off it was starting to snow again. So of course my mind started rationalizing how to get out of it. Maybe I could just do a shorter one today, and tomorrow the weather would be better, or maybe I really, really just needed another day off eh? Anyway, this was my thought pattern on the way home, and then I made my mistake. I went home! And got nagged!

"You need to go, and on top of that you need to swim tonite"

... but, but , but....

"No buts, just get out there and do it"

... but the roads..

"No excuse, I already ran on the same roads"

...but it's gotten worse...

"yah right!"

So just to get away from it I got dressed and went out, with the intention of maybe doing 10k and then coming home. Instead of running blocks I decided to head up to the psych to see if they had cleared the roads around there and sure enough they were in good condition. So round in circles I started. The loop is 2.6 k so it was indeed pretty boring, but at least I had traction and I was out of the wind for the most part. I also found out that I was feeling pretty good. Obviously my day off had paid some dividends. After about a half hour however I suddenly got that old "where'e the porta potti" feeling, and so I knew I had a built in excuse to head back home soon. However despite some discomfort, the laps started to add up and at one point I thought maybe I could head home at about 15 and then either have a dump and head back out, or have a dump and stay home. When I got to that point however I settled for a pee in the bushes, and carried on in circles. By this time my mind was considering all kinds of alternatives. Maybe 25 (or 25.4 it would work out to) would be good as that was my longest so far anyway? Or maybe I should try for 1 more lap and make it an even 28? Or maybe I could even squeeze one more out and pass the 30 k mark?

And that's how I got there. Two hours and 47 minutes for 30.6 k which was just better than 5 1/2 minute k's. I'm really happy with that. It was 5 k more than my last run, and at a slighter faster pace. What's really freaky however is how amazingly good I still felt at the end. Better than after the 25, just 9 days ago. I could have gone further, and if I had a good enough reason to do so I think I could run a marathon. My heart rate didn't go over 140 until about 25k, and I believe even then, that dehyration was part of the reason. I had water with me, but as stupid as it may seem, I hate to bend down to pick it up....that flexibility thing again.

I had forgotten to take my music with me and so I had lots of time to think. Unfortunately all I could think about, besides concentrating on not shitting in my pants, was how crazy it was to be doing this. Why would anyone in their right mind want to go and run circles around a large psychiatric hospital, on a cold day in November, without just checking himself in and being done with it? I have not the slightest idea? The only justification I could conceivably come up with was "the bitch made me do it"....and god I love her for it..

I wish to dedicate day 65 to my wife...the "Babe In Total Control of Herself"

“Life's a bitch, and she's got lots of sisters"---Ross Presser

“My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch"---Jack Nicholson

love
peter