Challenge Week #2

Back in August -- back when 5 miles was my long run for the week but it was really freaking hot -- I instituted a policy that during challenging weeks, I would acknowledge them as such and take the challenges in stride.  Sure, things might not go as planned.  But it was important to have faith that things would turn out okay.  With that concept in mind, I am hereby declaring this week Challenge Week #2 since three out of this week's four runs have not been fun.  Unlike Challenge Week #1, which was primarily about scheduling runs around meetings, this time around, the challenges are being posed in different ways:

1. The weather.  Tuesday and Thursday were too hot and humid and ick.  Luckily, here we are on Saturday and the weather has cooled to a reasonable degree.  It still got up to 85F today.  But the humidity was much lower (~50%) and the dew point manageable (around 60F) when I went for my run around 6pm.  Side note: As I ran, I was thinking to myself that probably if I ever move from Florida and have to go running in such conditions, I will probably post something as my Facebook status that says, 'How did I ever do this on a regular basis?!??!!!!?!?'
2. My stomach.  Today my stomach was not happy running.  Not one bit.  For about the first mile or so, my stomach hurt on the right side.  Then there was around half a mile that was fine, after which the pain moved to my left side.  Another break, then there was a kind of dull pain that was lower and across my stomach.  By this point, I was around three-quarters of the way through.  Today's run was also 5 miles with three aerobic intervals, so that was just awesome all around.  It did help me keep them at a reasonable pace, though.

I came super close to quitting today, or only running half and adding the remaining miles tomorrow, or adding the sprints tomorrow, or something.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go this morning because I was volunteering for something and had to be there early.  I think that the real problem with my stomach was that I ate too soon before running, but generally this is not a huge problem (and I did leave an hour and a half in between).  Oh well.  It's done now.

One thing that pushed me through was remembering what was probably my absolute worst race to date.  I had food poisoning and still ran (it was a 5k).  Adding insult to injury was the fact that I lived in Worcester, MA -- city of seven hills -- and had to walk over a very big hill (some might say killah) to get to the run.  Which was dumb.  Because you don't want to have to walk over a very big hill to get to a run.  Naturally, I also had to walk back afterward, at which point it started raining.  Once I got home, I went straight to bed, having given up on that day completely.  But what I do remember is somehow finding my way through that run and the fact that I didn't die trying.  One of my exercise rules is that while you might think you are going to die at times, you probably won't.  It's nice to know that however miserable that day (and it was miserable), I can still take something from the experience.