Keith has been busy for the past year building a cabin for our good friend, Tracy on a small piece of our land. It was just to the point where it was really, really taking shape, and we were getting really excited about it, but Friday, he got some really bad news regarding the status of his permits, and long story short...the cabin was put on hold indefinitely. And it is definitely a no-go where Tracy is concerned. Nothing any of us can do about it...it has to do with the State of Tennessee taking over the permitting, and not allowing any permits to be 'grandfathered' in.
I did not envy Keith's task of having to break this news over dinner, but he did it admirably, while we both guzzled margaritas. It was not a run day, but I had walked at lunch, thank goodness, and had banked enough calories for damage control. It's always good to stockpile for rainy days.
Saturday morning, I completely lost my mind. I set out from my house on an empty stomach early that morning, long run-bound. I had a nice Clif bar tucked away for just such an occasion, and planned to eat that, run, and then head back to the house for a nice breakfast. That would have been a great plan if I'd used a bit of common sense, but for some reason, I got mileage in my head and decided to go for my longest run to date....a nine-miler. At least I didn't go for ten.
To say that doing a nine-mile run without proper fueling is a bad idea is probably the understatement of the century. To my credit, I did finish (it was either that, or not get back to my car). But it was not pretty. I ran fairly strong until about the 6 1/2 mile mark, and that's when I hit The Wall. Most of the last mile and a half was walked, with some sporadic running thrown in for good measure. Obviously, my time was a wash....I think it averaged out to about a 14:30 pace. Sometimes, our good intentions are just not thought out well enough.
I am extremely motivated to keep trying to outdo myself on every run, either time-wise, distance-wise, elevation-wise, or any mixture of the three. But I really just need to scale that motivation back enough to concentrate on what's really important at any given moment. Right now, that's not distance. I have no halfs or fulls in my sights. I don't even have a 10K scheduled. So why am I trying to kill myself? Speed is much more important a goal, which will benefit me no matter what distance race I run. And that's something that can be worked on with a 3 to 6 miler, just fine.
It will also give me more time at home....that 9 miler cost me two and a half valuable Saturday morning hours....and that was completely unnecessary.
Keith thought so, too. After I got home, he struck a deal with me. No more running on the weekends, for the foreseeable future. I will limit my runs to Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work....and in return, he has promised me a nice, long hike every Sunday. That's a win-win for both of us. He gets more weekend time with me (and some badly needed cardio), and even though I'm losing one run every two weeks, I'm GAINING two hikes in that same period! Color me very happy with that arrangement. And when the time comes for me to gear up for an upcoming race, we can revisit the plan and tweak as needed.
We started the new plan on Sunday with a beautiful 3 mile out-and-back on the Appalachian Trail. It's a beautiful stretch that we've hiked before, but only went two miles out before, and that was when I was in incredibly bad shape, so I figured going out 3 miles wouldn't be too bad for a start. After all, Keith may not be used to hiking, but he's in pretty great shape, all the same.
I was wrong. After six miles of hiking, he was D O N E. And I felt bad that I had suggested going so far on our first hike out. To his credit, he's been a real trooper with all the sore muscle issues, and he's ready for our next outing already, but even though the tiniest part of me is gloating at the fact that for ONCE I'm in better shape than my spouse, I still feel bad that he's hurting, and I will make sure we don't overdo it again.
The worst part of this hike is that the trail cuts through the middle of a huge cow pasture. Dodging patties is bad enough, but dodging the cows when you have dogs with you is terrifying. Those cows are HUGE and if they decided to charge, a hiker wouldn't stand a chance. This mama was giving us the evil eye the whole time we were passing, and one cow kept trying to head us away from the rest of the herd. It's a good thing we really love the rest of this portion of the trail...not to mention the magnificent views....otherwise, we'd NEVER come back through this way!
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