Thursday, April 5, 2012

Hoofin it bi-ped style!

So rememeber last week when I said I was going to add in a speed work day every week? Well that didn't happen this week.... I know, I know you're all saying "wow that lasted a long time!" but there were some unforseen circumstances that caused me to change my plans around this week.

Lets go back a few days shall we? Monday I met up with a few buddies for an easy 8  miles after work. It went really well, good run and good conversation. Tuesday I went for 7 miles after I got out of class and really tried to focus on my form, specifically trying to maintain a midfoot strike. Class doesn't get out til 8 so it was 9:30 by the time I finished my run and I still needed to get dinner! So I went and picked up an uber late dinner and upon arriving home, litterally in the driveway my car stalled out. Ruh-roh. After a couple of half ass attempts to restart it with no luck I pushed her in to the garage and said eff it, I'll deal with it tomorrow.

Lucky for me I live with  my sister and she is a school teacher who just happens to be on spring break this week. Since she had no plans of going anywhere Wednesday she let me use her car to get to and from work. After work I took a look at immobile mobile and figured out what I'm gonna have to do to get her rolling with out me having to Flintstone it.

My mom offered to let me use her car today to get to work but I decided that I wanted to hoof it instead. Being as it's only 7 miles to work this would allow me to get my workout in and actually kill two birds with one stone! As odd as it may seem, this is the first time that I can think of I've used the miles I run as actuall transportation to somewhere and not just as a workout haha.

So this morning bright and early I took the bladder out of my camelbak so I could use it as a small pack to carry a couple things I'd need with me at work. put on my headlamp and headed out the door. I actually got to use the sleeves I ordered from Running Warehouse a month or so ago and they worked well. I figured that way if it warmed up during the day I wouldn't have to wear them on the way home and that way I wouldn't need to take a short sleeve shirt with me. (it was about 40 degrees when I left this morning)

After work I made the same 7 mile journey home, albeit a little faster than originally intended, but there is a significant downhill for a good portion of the way home. I could also feel this mornings run in my legs and standing for 8 hours at work surely did not quicken the recovery process.

I'm pretty beat tonight and with a long run on deck for Saturday morning I decided to take my mom up on her offer to let me use her car for tomorrow's transportation needs. I'm so lucky to have an amazingly helpful and supportive family! I do own a kickin 1974 Schwinn 10 speed that I have intentions of riding to and from work a bit this summer but there are two big reasons I'm not doing that this week. First I want to get a spare tube and means of inflating that tube just in case of blowout, and second, I want to get a little more comfortable on a bike before I'm having to ride in rush hour traffic on my way home. I haven't had the best of luck on 2 wheels in the past five years so I'm a little nervous about the whole riding thing.

I'll hopefully get my car done on Sunday and back to normal transportation for next week. I won't be able to work on it Saturday because it's my parents Birthday and my siblings and I are taking them to the Tigers game to celebrate. Really looking forward to it, I'm so excited baseball season is here once again!

I hope you all have had stellar weeks and your weekends are even better!
p.s. next weekend I am racing a half marathon so even if everything else is back to normal I probably won't be doing much in the way of speed work then either....but the next week it's on like Donkey Kong!

Updated with pictures!!!!!!!!
Not bad lookin for 38 years old!
 Part of being nervous about riding bikes stems from my short lived motorcycle ownership. I had one for a couple of days and it didn't end well. Four stitches in my knee, being able to see my knee cap and pinky toe and a lot of bruised pride.
Results of stupidly buying a motorcycle and not being experienced

More carnage from 4 years ago

2 comments:

  1. Oh snap! Welcome back to the thrilling and scary as hell world of cycling! 1974 was a great years in bicycles.

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  2. I've never run to work, and I used to work less than a mile from where I loved. I'm lazy like that. Also, do you prefer Jose Gonzales's heartbests over the cover? I also had my car battey die the other day...ugh.

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