I escaped!

Yesterday, after the weird sensation of teaching fourth grade on a Saturday (we had a snow make-up day and will next Saturday too), I was very excited to take advantage of the warmer, less icy, more sunshiny conditions and get outside!

Since I simply don't know what's good for me, I still dragged my feet about actually getting geared up in my running clothes and there was less than an hour of daylight when I finally got out. I never wear more than long workout pants and a long sleeve dri-fit over a top when I run in the cold. I almost always shed the longsleeve within 5 minutes. Yesterday, however, I considered going back in and getting a jacket and/or gloves...it was pretty chilly.

Once I got a little ways in though, I felt fine. I was SO relieved to glance at the Garmin and see that my first mile was sub-9:00 without me trying for any kind of speed. (I'm not really focused on speed at all, especially now, but it is so discouraging when it seems like a struggle to just get a sub-10:00 mile on the treadmill. It feels so much easier on real ground.) I slowed down a little after that, but kept happily plugging along past the turnaround and up to 3.5 miles.

All of the sudden though I just felt so tired. I think my body just realized that 1. I hadn't fed it anything but junk that day, 2. It's only been doing 1 mile a day all week, 3. It's been fighting off a cold for a week with only sporadic medicinal help from me, and 4. It wasn't really used to running in the cold.

I walked a little ways, not out of necessity, just out of tired/laziness, but couldn't for long because I immediately became cold again. It would have been ideal if someone I knew came driving by and I could flag them down and just ask for a ride the rest of the way home. (Which is not an unlikely fantasy in this small town.) I sucked it up though (I wasn't miserable or injured, just tired) and jogged the rest of the way home.

So, it wasn't a dramatically amazing escape from the dreadmill, but I'll take any 5 miles outside over the best 1.01 on the treadmill.