Into the Wind

I went for a run last night. That's TWICE in the same week! Amazing!

To be truthful, it wasn't what you could call a run, and I really didn't want to go, but I pretty much HAD to. My wonderful wife told me that she was having "Book Club" at our house, and that was my incentive. For those of you who don't know what "Book Club" is, it's when a bunch of crazy old women from our church get together to discuss the "book of the month"...whatever that is. Try to picture 15 nutcase old women with absolutely NO social life getting together once each month, reading their favorite passages from whatever book has been selected for the month, cackling with their old women voices at whatever witty comments get tossed out for review. After about an hour of absolutely pointless chatter, they stumble into the dining room for the goodies that the hostess has provided for the evening's festivities. Get the picture? Believe me, it's not something you want to experience first hand.

Back to the run...it was brutal. We had 20 mph sustained winds, with gusts reaching 30 mph. The wind was directly out of the east, which makes for a difficult run if you're doing an out-and-back on a trail that runs west to east. No matter which direction you head, you're going to be fighting the wind for half the run. We lived in The Dalles (Columbia Gorge...Windsurfing Capitol of the World) for 3 1/2 years, so I'm somewhat familiar with running in the wind, and know that it's better to head into the wind when you're fresh. Because of that, I switched the direction I normally run in hopes that the second half of my trip would be with the wind at my back, and a little less unpleasant.

It worked. At least as far as the return trip being less unpleasant. When I left the parking lot I ran with the wind at my back for the first 500 yards to the nearest mile marker, so I'd know how far I was running. With the wind at my back I felt good, but when I hit the mile marker and turned around, presto chango! I felt like I was trying to drag my truck. I don't believe the winds were 20 mph. I think they were closer to 60! I only ran 2 1/2 miles, but the 1 1/4 into the wind made it feel like a ran a half marathon. There were a couple of times when I was fighting the wind that I felt like quitting, and had to really fight to keep running, but I managed to pull it off and "ran" the whole way. The biggest mistake I made was that I timed myself. Not good. I won't bother to share my time with you. It was too ugly. Let's just say that I won't be timing myself again any time soon....but I WILL be going for another run.

Starting Again...Hopefully!

I decided last night that it was time to start running. A couple of weeks ago I managed to go 3 days in a row and could still walk, so there's no legitimate reason to not go. I had to pick Janet up when I fed the horses, so I decided that instead of giving her a ride home I'd just run from the barn to Reeder Road (where I normally start), and she could pick me up.

I had no idea how far it would be, but decided that I'd give it a shot and walk if it got too tough. The weather wasn't too bad...about 36 degrees with a minimal tail wind...no snow, no rain...perfect for running. The really nice thing was that since we had a couple inches of snow earlier in the day and it was about 5:30 when I started, no one was on the trail so I didn't have to worry about looking good. I could just pound along the trail doing the "Old Man's Shuffle" (thanks Tom...now everytime I go for a run I'm worried about being one of the "Old Men" that you referenced in your blog), run at my 20 minute mile pace, and not have to share the meager oxygen supply on the OC&E Trail with other runners.

The run was actually almost pleasant. It had a gentle downhill for the first 1/4 mile, was flat for the next mile, had another downhill for about half a mile, and then finished with a gradual uphill. I don't have any cool things that compute mileage like Laurie, so I had to resort to Google Earth to figure out how far I went. I think it's about 2 3/4 miles. It was a relatively pleasant run for the first 2 1/4 miles. In fact, for about 100 yards I actually almost felt like I was a RUNNER and managed to finish the run before Janet showed up to pick me up.

Doug has a game tonight so I don't think I'll get to run...I'll give it another shot tomorrow.