Bad Day

So, I'm currently on a flight to Maryland for work and I'm not sure if I am going to be able to sneak in a run tomorrow. In light of this I decided to go for broke and try out a 3 miler today, the results are in:



Negative. For the record I have officially decided two things. One, weekends off are stupid. Two, when I get tired my form dissipates. I know this is not because I took the weekend off, but I can't help but wonder if that's doing me any good. Let's face it, if this barefoot running thing is really rooted in ancient performance standards, and, if those said standards required ancient man to break out into a run at anytime, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that no matter how hard the unions argued, mother nature does not provide a 5 day work week. Ipso facto, weekends off are stupid.

As for form. As you can see, the elevation of this run climed steadily for the last mile plus. I was dying. Hold on, I have a milion excuses. Lets go with the basics. Rain, it sucks and its demoralizing. Lack of conditioning (see: fat, out of shape, and weekends off are stupid). Wet, muddy, unreliable footing (rain). And last but not least, I had no idea where I was going. Although this isn't really a problem within itself, when added on to a present problem, it left me wishing I was done and not focusing on a defined finish line.

So my form disappeared and I'm feeling pretty tore up and it only gets worse. I decided to walk a little shortly after my 2 mile mark and attempt to regain control over my heart and lungs. This worked good, but I continued to neglect my fundamentals and it didn't save me. Basically, I fell apart. The last string of my run was a disaster, I flailed around and ignored my pace and posture. The only plus I have in it all is that regardless of anything, my foot strike remained the same. At no point did I revert to a heel strike, or even a midfoot strike. That happened naturally, which I am happy about.

Now, my wife will not allow me to violate the agreement to workout with 3 days a week. It just so happens this is one of the mandatory workout days. So, as soon as I got home, wolfed down a peice of fruit (no breakfast yet) and started my hour of sadistic torture at the hands of Bob Harper. Needless to say, it did not go well. I hurt. My back is killing me, and I don't mean one part, neck to butt, killing me. My calfs are dead to the world. And my butt aches. I'm done, fin, over.

Ok, now that I'm done crying, I wanted to share that I am wearing my Vibrams for my trip (aside from my actual appt, casual buisness attire does mean individual toe pockets). So far, almost every TSA Agent questioned me about them, and I was ripped by a Stewardess (yeah, I said it, stewardess) who apparently "doesn't know why anyone would actually want to wear those things" and wondered out loud her co worker if they "violate the shoe requirement for air travel". So mixed review from the public. Oh well, I love them. But, for the less than thick skinned, I ran across a product that I think looks like the best thing since individual toe pockets. Meet Merrel's Trail Glove. The Mrs. has a set of Merrel's of the hiking shoe variety and absolutely loves them. From what I've read, these puppies are the best your going to get if your looking for something to go off road in, or if you don't want to look weird (around our house the Vibrams are known as 'silly shoes').

Alright, my long winded rant is over. The baby on the plane is done crying, and I'm ready for a nap. Keep running (no weekends off).