Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday, August 14, 2015

8/11-8/12/15

Tuesday- This was one of my two child-free Tuesdays of the entire year. I was pretty excited the last few weeks about the awesome mountain run I had planned. Which all meant that the day would be screwed up. I woke up to dark skies and quickly checked the weather. WTF. 100% chance of rain ALL DAY. The radar showed this dark green mass about to drench us. And then it started. Pouring rain. I knew my plan was out. I could still have done the run, but what was the point of doing an awesome mountain run in those conditions? Plus, I couldn't take a risk like that with the ankle. The wet conditions would have been too risky to hurt it more. I realized that a sucky road run was going to be in the cards for the morning. I only just realized that morning that I had no wrap or ankle brace, so I had to make a quick trip to Walmart to pick one up. I ran into a friend who always refers to me as "Beautiful" when he sees me. That was nice to hear on a day when I was really pouting inside, and it's just one of those little things that make you feel better. I was in and out of there in like 5 minutes. The less time I spend in Walmart, the better.

As soon as I got home, I headed out into the pouring rain with the intention of running 12 miles. I'd run out 6 up through Cranmore Shores, then up Tasker and Allard Hill Roads, then just run 6 back. I felt so slow. I've really lost a lot of my speed with all of the mountain running. It's a trade-off, I guess, since mountain running is so rewarding. Beautiful views, clean air, solitude, quiet... I could go on. But it's leaving my road running with something to be desired. I'm kind of torn now. Should I train more on the road? But pretty soon, it will be winter, and I will only be running on the road the majority of the time. I thought I was mixing it up okay, but I can feel the loss. I probably shouldn't worry too much about it, but I do.

Anyway... I kept a decent pace up for the run, and it poured rain the entire time. The ankle wasn't bothering me, but the ankle brace was. I had to stop multiple times to adjust it. By the time I approached the top of the first hill on Allard Hill Rd (mile 4.5ish), I was noticing some pain in the ankle and also what felt like a blister on the back of my heel from the brace. I decided it would be best to turn around, so I did. I normally fly back down this hill, but I had to take it somewhat easy on the ankle. I made it home just as the UPS guy was there dropping off an ankle compression sleeve that I had ordered from Amazon. Ha ha. I ended up with 9 miles at 7:29/mi pace. Not bad, but it was barely faster than my April 11th run that was on snow-covered roads. I think I'm starting to panic.

As soon as I got home, I changed into dry clothes, put on my rain gear and then drove the dogs to the Albany Town Forest to take them on a walk... in the pouring rain. The dogs didn't mind the rain, though, and had a good walk. I didn't really mind it either; I have spent a lot of time walking trails in the rain. It was just the gloom of the day and the fact that it was on one of the two Tuesdays I would have alone.

Yay. Look. It's obvious I can't contain the excitement.
Since my original plans were out the window, I decided to go to the movies. I hit Starbucks first to use my "free drink" reward for a quad venti latte with whole milk. :) I hung out in there for while perusing eBay for a new phone. I've had a cracked screen for almost 3 months now. I was going to deal with it through my 2-year contract, until a piece of the screen fell out on Saturday. It was time for a new phone. A trip to Verizon for the second time in 3 months left me walking out angry and new phone-less, so I knew I had to turn to eBay. I spent 30 minutes trying to find a new phone I could afford. Spent $100 on a refurbished phone in the exact same model I already have (outdated). I thought about the other costs of a new case and arm band and decided I wanted to use what I already had, so that sealed the deal. By the time I was done with eBay, I was done with my latte and drove across the street to the movie theater.

I always go with John to see what he wants to see, but since I was alone, I decided to see Trainwreck. The movie theater was a MADHOUSE. I've seen it crazy, but this took the cake. HUGE lines. It's a small town theater that can't really handle the crowds like this, but they were doing the best they could. Some of the patrons there were awful. Trying to get refunds because they couldn't find seats together in a sold out theater. The manager held his ground and kept his cool. I don't know how he did it; I would have been all road rage in the movie theater if I had had to deal with some of those people. This isn't the city! I probably picked the only movie that wasn't sold out. It was funny, but like all romantic comedies, they get way too serious about 3/4 of the way through it. Boring. I liked it, though. The funny parts were really funny. Just leave the sappy shit out.

After the movie, I went home and made dinner. Wrote my Bradbury blog post and that was about it.

Wednesday- Woke up at 4am to take the dogs on a run. I had to work my 24 hour shift, so they were going to be alone for most of that 24 hours. Don Fredrikson was coming by to take them out around 5pm, but I really wanted to get them some decent exercise before I went to work. So I piled them in the car and drove to the Albany Town Forest again. As I drove past the ranger station, I realized that the last time I was over here this early was Christmas Day morning when Jim Johnson and I ran up and back on the Kanc in the dark. Our big wildlife sighting that morning was a mouse crossing the road... that we saw twice. Ha ha. When I thought of that, I so wished I was running the road again instead of the trail, but with the dogs, I needed the trail. I donned the headlamp and off we went. First headlamp run since the winter. Very weird. Still unsure of the ankle, I took it pretty slow. 4.5 miles at a very "conservative" pace of 8:50/mi. Good way to start the day, though.

Work was somewhat busy all day. We lucked out with only a 911 overnight instead of a transfer, so I only lost about an hour of sleep. Two weeks in a row of decent sleep! I'm not sure how to handle this.

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